Special Report: Food Bazaar Supermarket - Coney Island, Brooklyn, NY

Food Bazaar Supermarket
Owner: Spencer An

Opened: September 6, 2024

Previous Tenants: Pathmark (1970-2015) > Stop & Shop (2015-2024)

Location: 2965 Cropsey Ave, Coney Island/Gravesend, Brooklyn, NY

Photographed: September 6, 2024

Welcome to the first Stop & Shop conversion of 2024! This wasn't the first Stop & Shop of the 32 closures to actually close -- that was Newton, Massachusetts' location -- but the Stop & Shop right on the border of Coney Island and Gravesend closed for good on September 5 at 3:00 pm. Food Bazaar took possession of the space at 3:01 that day, and by 7:00 am the following day, had the store open for business. That in and of itself is an extraordinary feat (although they've done overnight conversions before, with an acquired Stop & Shop in Flatbush, Brooklyn and Fairway locations in Douglaston, Red Hook, and Westbury, NY). When I visited the store at 10:00 am last Friday -- just three hours after the store opened -- it was a scene of chaos for sure, but there was obviously a method to the madness.

In each of the three cases I mention in the past, the store closed only overnight for cleaning, inventory, changing price tags and POS systems, and changing signage on the front. As we see here in Coney Island, they didn't quite get around to putting up the new Food Bazaar sign by the time of opening, but it did go up later in the day. Within about three days, the storefront had been painted, and more signage had gone up on the outside of the building. I sure hope there's a longer-term plan for improving the terrible modification of this old Pathmark sign. Speaking of, if you haven't been caught up on this store's history, here's a tour of the supermarket as a Stop & Shop.

I'll point out again that these pictures are over a week old at this point -- I just haven't had time to write anything in the last week -- so the store looks drastically different even by now. This is the first of four or possibly five Stop & Shop conversions that will be coming. The Hempstead Stop & Shop will reopen as a Food Bazaar on September 20th, then the two New Jersey stores in Piscataway and Carlstadt. A fifth store in Mount Vernon is also in progress, although a Food Bazaar representative confirmed to me that the store is in flux because of permitting issues with the city. Therefore, there's no set date for that store's opening and, at this point, it's not certain whether the store will open.

A sign of progress outside the store was the soon-to-be-assembled Food Bazaar logo hanging out on the front walkway of the building. Within a couple hours, the sign was up on the storefront.

Let's take a look inside! Obviously, this isn't a representation of the store as it will continue to operate, but just a snapshot of day one. One thing I wasn't expecting? During the transition period, Food Bazaar actually removed all of the Stop & Shop decor except for this welcome sign in the foyer.

Obviously, the store's layout hasn't been changed at all for the first day, but I wouldn't be surprised if there are modifications over time. In true Pathmark form, the produce department goes right up the middle of the store, with a few grocery aisles, bakery, and beer to the right; seafood straight back, meat on the back wall, deli in the back left corner, and frozen/dairy on the left side. There was previously a pharmacy in the front right corner that Stop & Shop closed in 2021 or 2022.

The store clearly underwent significant cleaning, and a few other simple changes were made, such as these new produce tables, which most Food Bazaars use. This is a significantly smaller produce department than most Food Bazaar stores, so I assume over time it will be expanded, probably by removing a few grocery aisles.

You can see that the basics were out on the shelves, but the shelves were nowhere near full. As far as I know, within a few days, the store was fully stocked.

Here's a terrible picture (sorry) of the front-right corner, with bakery and what used to be the pharmacy and Stop & Shop's online ordering staging area. I don't believe this store has an in-store bakery, or if they do, it's quite small. There's no bakery service counter.

And even as the baked goods were going out -- quickly, too, I might add -- most were packaged and brought in from elsewhere.

Here's an overview of the bakery department. Notice that the cases for muffins and loose bread/rolls had already been filled, but also notice that all the fixtures are left over from Stop & Shop. As we move through the store, we'll see fixtures that were even left over from Pathmark, as Stop & Shop did nothing to the store. The store's flooring is 100% Pathmark -- and I'm almost positive it'll be changed in short order.

The former online order staging area -- which itself was in what used to be the pharmacy -- was instead being used as a transition headquarters.

And the grocery aisles opposite this area were being stocked. I believe Stop & Shop sold whatever inventory remained to Food Bazaar, but employees from Food Bazaar and all of its vendors were hard at work getting the shelves full and labeled.

This store needs serious work, though. When the shelves were empty in places, you could see the poor condition the fixtures were in. Broken shelves, missing floor tiles, barely-working refrigeration... I doubt the store will stay like this for long.

In 2015-16, Food Bazaar acquired four stores from A&P in their bankruptcy. Those stores closed for months for remodels. The quick turnaround on these Stop & Shop stores is very different. The Food Bazaar representatives I spoke with told me that they had essentially proven that they could do such a quick turnaround with stores like Flatbush, and felt that it was better to keep the continuity of a supermarket in the location rather than closing. They also confirmed that all of the locations will get extensive remodels in the coming months.

I believe this area was previously beer, which requires a permit that Food Bazaar wouldn't have been able to get on day 1.

Food Bazaar also temporarily removed all of the various promotional and sale displays around the grocery aisles, and those areas were being used as staging areas for stock soon to go out on the shelves. Food Bazaar is partially self-distributed, but also supplied by UNFI and Bozzuto's.

The produce department was condensed in the front of the department to make way for a lot of incoming produce to be brought to the back area. The seafood department is just out of frame to the left on the back wall.

The left side of the back wall is meat and deli...

...and the right side is seafood and beer. Food Bazaar, of course, expanded the seafood department even for day one, with what look like new seafood display tables. A new set of display tables was also added in front of the counter.

And jumping over to the front-end...

It's going to be really interesting to see what happens to this store over time. Obviously, this place looks nothing like a Food Bazaar (that's Myrtle Ave in Bushwick, Brooklyn). But it also remains to be seen how customers respond to the changes. Reactions so far have been mixed, with some people unhappy about the quick transition and lack of renovation and others glad that the store stayed essentially open throughout the transition. Some have said the store is dirty, others praised its cleanliness (I found it to be quite clean, especially for a 1970s Pathmark). Recently I have been seeing more people calling prices across the Food Bazaar chain expensive. I can't say I have done a lot of testing, but pricing is definitely wildly inconsistent across departments. You can just as easily find leafy greens for half the price of your average big-chain supermarket as you can mouthwash for double the price of a big-chain store. But I also think prices are really high everywhere and good deals are really hard to come by these days. (Side note: no, more consolidation won't help that.)

Still, we'll see how pricing goes long-term. If the stores in Carlstadt and Piscataway get a reputation for high prices, they're dead. Both compete with nearby -- and very, very popular -- ShopRites.

Each aisle or department had a different stock level. On a different subject, one interesting thing to me -- even with the overnight transition, Food Bazaar reopened the meat room. Stop & Shop stopped cutting meat in-store and moved to all case-ready products a couple years ago, but most stores were still equipped with a full meat room. This is a very bad picture showing that there were several butchers hard at work inside the new meat room.

And the meat case was, without a doubt, fully stocked. Notice the category markers left over from Stop & Shop, which I assume are soon to be gone.

When this store was a Stop & Shop, it felt dirty and disorganized. Food Bazaar has helped that a bit by simply cleaning it, but there's still a long way to go to bring it up to a modern supermarket standard.

The back-left corner is home to the deli, which Food Bazaar did have up and running at the time of my visit. Several employees behind the counter were working on pre-sliced meats and cheeses, or packing up prepared foods, but Boar's Head representatives were also stocking all the cases and the main display case. Notice that the signage is gone and only the frames remain. I wonder if Food Bazaar will somehow incorporate these sign frames into their new decor. Part of that may have to do with what exactly the new layout -- if it's changed -- will look like.

I loved this shot. Food Bazaar carts filled with merchandise ready to go out!

Let's be clear about the scale of this transition: there are about ten people seen here in this aisle stocking. Almost every aisle had at least a few people stocking or cleaning or putting out price tags or moving boxes or something. There were at least several dozen -- maybe closer to 100 -- people in the store strictly working on the transition, which is why they were able to pull off the change so quickly.

This alcove in the front corner is yet another staging area, but again, I believe this is now full of grocery items.

And another look at the front-end. Take in all that Pathmark flooring, because soon enough it'll be all gone!

That's all for this transition, and I'll be back to this store to check on its progress the next time I'm in the area! I'll also try to get to the other Food Bazaar conversions as they happen, although the New Jersey locations are definitely easier for me to get to than Long Island! But stay tuned.