Douglaston Fairway Closes, Turns Into Food Bazaar Supermarket

DOUGLASTON, QUEENS — Grocery shoppers who show up at the site of the Fairway Market in Douglaston Plaza will still find a supermarket there, but under a new name: Food Bazaar.

The former Fairway has officially become part of the Food Bazaar supermarket chain, which includes about two dozen locations in the tri-state area.

Bogopa Enterprises, which owns Food Bazaar, made a deal with Fairway on July 15 to purchase the bankrupt grocer's locations in Douglaston and Red Hook, Brooklyn, according to court records.

The last-minute deal came just as the two Fairway locations were about to close, after failing to sell at a bankruptcy auction earlier this year.

Bogopa paid about $900,000 for the Douglaston store and its inventory.

Under the sale agreement, the company was required to offer jobs to at least 90 percent of the store's unionized workers, court records show.

A new banner on the facade of the Douglaston supermarket declares, "Big changes coming soon!"

Reactions to those upcoming "big changes" are mixed.

On Facebook, some shoppers said they go out of their way to visit other Food Bazaar locations in Queens and are excited to have one closer, but others expressed disappointment about losing Fairway.

Alexa Weitzman, a Forest Hills resident who stopped by on Friday, told Patch she was devastated about the switch.

"Variety is kinda @FairwayMarket’s thing, so I’m skeptical," she wrote in a tweet after visiting. "Fairway customers are loyal & devoted & we come to Fairway knowing the products we expect to be there WILL be there."