TOUR: Bingo Wholesale - Spring Valley, NY

Bingo Wholesale

Opened: 2020

Previous Tenants: assorted non-grocery tenants

Location: 44 Spring Valley Marketplace, Spring Valley, NY

Photographed: August 18, 2023

Welcome to Bingo Wholesale! The chain of stores is owned by a grocery operator from Israel and has been described as "the kosher Costco." That's a pretty spot-on description! This Spring Valley store joins two other U.S. locations, in Brooklyn and Lakewood, NJ. Each community has a large Orthodox Jewish population, who make up nearly the entire customer base at this store. The roughly 50,000 square foot supermarket is one of the larger kosher stores in the immediate area, but it's far from the only one. There's probably a dozen within a ten-minute drive or so of this location. We'll be checking out one other -- I wish I had visited more, but that will have to be for future trips.

I don't know how much of the information I retained, but I actually toured this store with a good friend of mine who was raised Orthodox Jewish, but is no longer Orthodox. He was able to interpret a lot of what we saw, and had some interesting observations that I'll try to remember throughout this post!

So we obviously see why Bingo has been dubbed kosher Costco as soon as we walk in. Sale items and home goods are here in the front half of the first aisle, and generally, the grocery aisles are in the front half with other departments in the back half. Produce and dairy are in the back right corner of the store, with frozen foods in the back left corner and meat/deli/bakery on the left side wall. In the front left part of the store, there are also some nonfoods (aside from the basic paper and cleaning goods), like toys, Jewish books, and other Judaism-related items like kippahs, the head coverings worn by Orthodox Jewish men. My friend pointed out that they come in standard black but also can be bought with all manner of designs, including cartoons for kids.

Within the grocery aisles, they're split again, so you could say there are three segments: the front half of the grocery aisles, the back half of the grocery, and the produce/bulk/frozen/meat area in the back.

Nearly every customer in the store displayed some expression of Judaism, with the exception of maybe three people other than me. Most kosher supermarkets I've been in previously have had more of a mix of people.

A massive candy department takes up the rest of the first aisle. Some candies, like gummy candies, contain beef gelatin, so they are not kosher -- this store sells kosher versions.

And here we see how the store opens up in the back part to the produce department.

It's a rather expansive produce department, too, and everything looked fresh.

In the middle of the back section is a large bulk nuts and spices section, then frozen foods and meats on the far left side. Dairy is on the back wall.

My friend pointed out that nearly every brand in the store was a dedicated kosher brand, and many were actually from Israel. So even if a national brand makes a product that happens to be kosher, this store will instead choose to stock a product from Israel. He also noted that this store is a bit of a limited-assortment store even within kosher products, so they're likely to sell a storebrand or maybe only one or two brands of an item rather than a full range.

The bulk nuts department is massive, as we see here. We'll see the self-service bulk bins in a little bit.

Over in the grocery aisles, we see that the products tend to be in no-frills shelving and in large quantities or large packages, again like Costco. The store, although obviously high-volume, is immaculate.

My friend noticed that the music played in the store was all religious music, too, in Hebrew. He said that any form of pop music -- even Israeli pop music -- may have lyrics describing romance or romantic desire, which he said would be considered inappropriate in a strictly Orthodox public place. So, he said, if they want to play music, really the only type that would be possible in a public place like this -- and specifically, one where men, women, and children all coexist -- would be religious music. He was careful to note, too, that the music is not Israeli music. He described it rather memorably as "Chasidic Kidzbop". Modesty norms, he said, dictate no music with any potential for sexuality or violence.

There is a large HABA department too, although that too is somewhat limited in assortment.

Towards the back we move into the frozen department, which is all set up in coffin freezers.

And next to that we move into the bulk department for nuts, dried fruits, and spices. Row after row of these items are displayed in bulk bins courtesy of an outside vendor, Nuts Factory, which we've also seen in ShopRite.

There's also a gorgeous, massive display of bulk spices that you can fill into a container yourself...

Dairy is back on the back wall of the store.

As you can see, it's a no-nonsense type of interior, but it's also intended to be a value-based store.

The meat department is on the outside wall on the left side of the store.

Meats transition into bakery and deli at the front, although don't forget anything with dairy needs to be separated from anything with meat.

Common in kosher supermarkets is a large bread and/or pastry display, especially challah, of course. Unlike what we see in mainstream supermarkets' bakery departments, these items are typically displayed out on open shelves rather than in a case. They're self-service, and you choose and bag your own breads.

At the front of the last aisle, we find paper goods and deli accompaniments, like hummus and pickles.

Also in the front of the store here is a long row of bags of snacks and chips...

And that's about it! It's certainly a very different experience for me (and I assume most readers of this blog), but it was very interesting to see a store of such a different format. I'm also extremely grateful to have had a tour guide along with me, even though I'm the one who took him to the store!

As I said, this is unfortunately one of only two kosher supermarkets here in Rockland County I've actually been to and photographed, but I hope to get back and see more soon. In the meantime, we're headed east along route 59 next to Nanuet, for a former supermarket over on Grocery Archaeology!