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Special Report: Food Bazaar Supermarket - Brooklyn, NY (Linden Blvd)

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By Zachary
Food Bazaar Supermarket
Opening: TBA
Owner: Spencer An
Previous Tenants: Linden Multiplex Cinemas
Cooperative: none
Location: 2784 Linden Blvd, East New York, Brooklyn, NY
Photographed: March 21, 2025
Most of my Food Bazaar-related attention lately has gone to the acquired Stop & Shop stores, but in addition to those four, they have several other projects in progress. The largest is here in East New York, Brooklyn, where they've acquired a former movie theater and its massive property. The building, which is between 65,000 and 70,000 square feet, is being prepared to become the largest Food Bazaar in Brooklyn.
Food Bazaar acquired the property, which includes this building and its parking lot along with two neighboring parking lots, in the summer of 2023. But the movie theater continued to lease the space from Food Bazaar until it closed in January of 2024, when the supermarket chain began construction. Since it was a movie theater, there aren't exactly large windows around the building, which makes it difficult to know what's going on inside, but the exterior is getting some work. Food Bazaar has built out three loading docks on either side of the storefront, which you can see under the black metal overhang. The supermarket's entrance will presumably be where the movie theater's was, right in the middle of the building. The movie theater also had another entrance on the back wall, which faces Linden Boulevard, but it looks like the supermarket will be oriented to face the parking lot in the back. Notice in the above photos the Food Bazaar cart corrals and the welcome to Food Bazaar signage -- with the Food Bazaar logo covered for now.
The property is fenced off, so all my pictures are just from the sidewalk outside the property. Notice the holders for movie posters on the front wall, which could very easily be turned into holders for sale signs or something. Food Bazaar has also installed a large overhang over that entrance, as well as some very large metal brackets on the walls around the store. I'm not sure what those will be for. Here's what the exterior previously looked like.
There's a few Multiplex signs around the property still, which I of course assume will be switched over to Food Bazaar before long. There's no official opening date for this store yet, and like I said since I can't see inside I have no idea how far along the progress is. It's quite the endeavor to turn a movie theater into a supermarket.
And here's a look at the rear entrance, facing Linden Boulevard. I guess it's technically the front entrance, since it faces the main street. I'll be back once the store opens for sure! In addition to this and a handful of other new Food Bazaar locations in progress across the city, they've also recently opened the Boogie Down Food Hall inside their Bronx Terminal Market location, which was supposed to open shortly after the supermarket did but the coronavirus canceled those plans. I have no other updates on the acquired Stop & Shop locations, although I wish I did -- work has come to a standstill on Carlstadt, Piscataway, and Coney Island since I last wrote. I haven't been to Hempstead since Food Bazaar acquired it from Stop & Shop. Hempstead and Coney Island seem to be doing fine, but Carlstadt and Piscataway are obviously struggling. Both have cut back their produce departments, and while Carlstadt seems to still be okay, Piscataway can't possibly be in business much longer. It's still sporting its Edwards decor from the 90s, and Food Bazaar has done almost nothing to the store. When I recently shopped there on a Saturday afternoon, it was completely dead and I saw several employees removing cart loads of expired products from the shelves -- probably because there's just no traffic. It's clear the Food Bazaar formula just isn't resonating with those suburban New Jersey towns, while their other locations are as high-volume as ever. We'll see what happens to those locations in the future, but in the meantime, check out this weekend's other posts, including a new supermarket not far from here!
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