Pioneer Supermarket

This supermarket is huge, includes free parking, free delivery, good sales weekly, and open 24 hours. They have the deli section which makes cold sandwiches and right beside it a section where hot food is sold, typically Spanish dishes for breakfast and lunch. Self serve then put on a scale and priced. Overall, very convenient supermarket!

You know you’re in a Latino neighborhood when you stop in here and see the displays of Mexican bread, those ubiquitous, multicolored and numerous variations of bread that essentially taste the same and always seem somewhat on the dry or stale side. This Pioneer’s proximity to the NYBG makes it a handy place to visit if you want to pick up munchies for your garden walk. The aisles are clean and orderly, with a display of canned food towards the back that might just be he handiwork of an OCD worker or a budding Canstruction enthusiast. Pioneer have displays of fresh fruit and veggies outside, perhaps not to clutter up the spacious interior? After all, why not let chi swirl around in all that unused space inside that a Manhattan Trader Joes would be filling up to the max! Grocery items prices are midrange, with a small buffet station up front. When I went, most of the food seemed to be depleted and what was left seem dried up. There’s a large deli section, with a section close to the fresh produce inside just for cakes, those with the fake tasting white frosting and multi colored roses that scream hydrogenated vegetable shortening. While the grocery items seem fine, with well known brands and their own private label, I would eschew the «fresh» baked goods, especially the sliced cakes. I was silly enough to buy a piece of the tres leches, despite no expiration date, thinking that this staple of Latin bakeries would be good here since this was a Latino neighborhood. Hoping for a sweet surprise, I got one all right. The cake, despite it’s short and pure ingredient list, tasted like a cross between sour milk, chemicals and glue. When I throw out cake after one bite and a second one to be sure, you know it is BAD. And I am certain, falsely labeled. I didn’t expect artisanal, but a foul piece of cake was that tasted toxic was scary. Stick to the packaged good from brand names, come in to oogle all the space shoppers in the Bronx get, and you’ll be fine.