FOOD BAZAAR — Attraction in Town of Hempstead

My perspective is not only a review as a grocer, but in comparison to the Fairway that used to be here. And that perspective is... it's just a grocery store that carries the same mass-market stuff you can find anywhere, though it admittedly has a better "international" aisle than other stores do. Gone, though, is Fairway's splendid bulk items, replaced with a pretty pedestrian selection. I was hoping to find the chunks of Callebaut chocolate that Fairway used to have, but none were evident.

Of course, it's entirely possible that it was around somewhere, but that's a second problem: it was harder to find someone to ask than it is at Home Depot. Walking around for a few minutes the only people I could find were those in the meat section, who didn't know anything about grocery. When I did find someone over towards dairy, he told me to ask someone who was rapidly disappearing down the far end of the aisle.

Similarly, I don't know how their hand-cut nova salmon compares to Fairway's, as there hasn't been anyone available to slice it in the two visits I've made. No one as I walked past it when I entered, and still no one there after I circuit, despite having been told by the person in Deli that the slicer is "coming back."

Everything in the seafood section seems pre-cut and packaged, making it harder to tell if it's fresh, though the few packages I looked over didn't encourage me to buy.

I walked in with a shopping list; I walked out with essentially nothing.

UPDATE: I've been back six times now, and I'm struggling to decide whether to change my 3 star rating. I've had some mixed experiences with the fruit: some interesting selections, but a couple of times I got as far as the register before discovering rotted spots. I used to love Fairway's smoked salmon, but in 5 of six visits there was no one available to slice it (they're aways "coming back soon"). The fifth time, it was inexpertly sliced and the taste was just OK. The self-checkout area can be frustrating. I had my 91 year old mother with me and we went to use one of the 2 seemingly available checkouts out of the four only to find that they were out of service. The FB person overseeing the self-checkout (wearing a mask on his chin) watched me help her slowly walk with her cane to the empty register and said nothing, allowing us to discover on our own they were not working. Another time, I was buying two mini bagels and two flagels; I entered the codes printed out (in tiny print) on top of the registers for those products. The register accepted the mini bagel codes but didn't recognize the ones for the flagels. When she came to assist, for some reason the rep cancelled the mini bagels, too. For some reason, every time I start going over to the self-checkout, the people working the front keep trying intercept me to go over to the regular checkouts; maybe this is why. The International aisles, though, are wonderful: I've never seen anything anywhere on Long Island with such products. If 3.5 stars was possible I'd upgrade to that, but I can't bring myself to rate it 4 stars.

Update 2: So far, there has been someone available to slice the nova during just 2 visits. And still not as good as Fairway's. I've also had almost no luck asking employees almost anything. I looked up a product on the Food Bazaar website and it showed several brands in stock but no aisle info; when I asked an employee where it was he just shrugged. This has happened five times; only once did an employee try to find it. Th exact opposite is true at self-checkout. Even when I'm having no apparent problems someone comes over to find out what's wrong. I can't imagine what vibe I'm giving off to spur this, since it happens at no...

I was in the Food Bazaar in Westbury New York on my lunch break and I wanted some of the hibiscus juice that was in the cooler, it was already made and all they had to do was pour it no associate that I spoke to was willing to pour the hibiscus juice from the fountain because the young lady had already clocked out that was working in that department, I had to wait 10 minutes for management to come down and pour the juice from the little thing into a cup for me to get some of the juice. Today as I was shopping close to closing I couldn’t find the harmony corn in a can I went to the front end because the person on the floor did not speak English and couldn’t understand what how many corn was therefore I couldn’t find it on the shelf with the 100s of Goya products, I go to the front asking for assistance just to find the Goya products I was met with the manager rushing me out of the store instead of assisting me helping me finding the product and I had security follow me around the store instead of helping me he told me “it’s there it’s there, we’re about to close in three minutes” he was extremely rude and refused to help, I did not have any kind words for him after that altercation. He told me that the register would simply shut down exactly at 10:30 all by itself and he would have no way of selling me the products. Out of the four years that I have been coming to the store I have never received such terrible service. There are a few employees of management that I no longer see that work both in day and night since I work nearby and I’m a frequent shopper, when they were here the customer service was amazing, it’s sad that I can no longer say that about this store. It’s sad that now due to this incident no matter how desperate I am I will not be shopping here and I will also tell every single person that I work with about...

Today was my 2nd visit to food bazaar, in Westbury. I think it's overpriced.... and you'll see how they actually make this statement true. I bought 7 items from the produce dept, and 3 were charged incorrectly. I know the prices of all items I pick up to buy, and I watch the register. Pears sign says $2.99/lb, and I'm charged $3.99/lb. Idaho loose potatoes sign says $1.99/lb, I'm charged $2.49/lb. Limes, the sign says 9 for $2.00, I'm charged 6 for $2.00. They had 2 people go to check out the validity of my statement of the prices on the signs. They corrected it on my order because i was correct, and they didn't apologize for the inconvenience at all. While i stood there wasting additional time, as they performed their shenanigans. I say this is the norm for them. Can you imagine how many people are scammed daily? The elderly, the college student with limited funds, the underserved/underpaid, ALL by not observing what they are really being charged? All because they are trusting the system and people to be honest, which should be a normal act. I guarantee you they didn't change the price in the system to match the signs (I should go back and test it out). The poor cashier said she's embarrassed it happens all the time, and they get chewed out when they don't actually know the prices themselves. The price changes are to be programmed on the weekend... what does that say? It's Thursday the prices aren't changed from the previous weekend??? Yes, I say this is an intentional SCAM! 1 star given for their international variety of foods. Hmmm, or is that the goal? to SCAM...