Bodegas vs. Supermarkets. Here’s what New Yorkers pay for the cost of convenience.

NEW YORK — What’s more valuable, time or money? It’s what many New Yorkers must decide every week in communities without easy access to supermarkets.

One solution? Bodegas. 

Bodegas play an important role in many communities by providing access to food, socialization, and culturally appropriate foods that are not commonly found in chain stores. But improvements are needed to help make sure they keep thriving. 

Food Access 

CBS New York’s Maggie Cole calculated the average travel time from a block in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn to a supermarket four miles away. It costs an average of $74.60 round trip via rideshare and takes an average of 58 minutes. The trip on the subway costs $5.80 and takes an average of 1 hour; 22 minutes. So, residents can save time with a rideshare while spending more money, or save money and take the subway, but spend more time. 

Angela Trude, a professor in NYU’s nutrition program, is studying access to affordable, nutritious food.

“There are many challenges that entail food access. One is distance to food sources — the physical accessibility that some people know as a ‘food desert.’ But we are trying to stay away from the term ‘food desert’ because it connotes that the formation or where the food stores are located is naturally occurring and we know that’s not true,” Trude said. “So there are some terms like ‘food apartheid’ that are more recently being used.”

Many residents are left with the choice of spending excessive time or money to get to the grocery store or shopping at their local bodega. But convenience isn’t the only reason people patronize their local corner stores.

“The local or the national retailers, they’re not going to know what a nice, Cuban sandwich is all about. They are not going to know how Dominican sandwiches taste different than Cuban,” said Isidro Medina, president of the Washington Heights Business Improvement District.

Medina works with small business owners in a variety of ways, specifically with transitioning into the digital age. By helping, small businesses like bodegas become visible to a wider audience.

“Most of the bodegas are in very densely populated areas, in communities of color, or communities that have been neglected for a long time, where the largest supermarkets or the national retailers would not have dared to come in,” Medina said. 

Cultural Hubs

“Our customers who became family, they’re from around the neighborhood. They’d rather hang in the bodega, talk a little bit before they go back home. They are on their way from work. It’s New York. They need somewhere to go,” said Edward Blanco, owner of Good Times in Bed-Stuy.

Sit in any bodega for a day, and you’ll be in the center of the neighborhood. It’s where relationships are built, communities help one another out and people are fed good food.

“I’ve been in Bedford-Stuyvesant for 70 years, and I want to support these guys,” said Good Times customer Allen Barnett.

“Bodegas often carry culturally appropriate foods, like ethnic foods that you wouldn’t find elsewhere. And, they really provide a very community feeling to the residents,” Trude added.

Price Comparison 

“With inflation it’s really tough because the prices are going up. Everybody’s wages are the same. So like you would notice, OK, someone would usually get two sandwiches and I’ll be only getting one. We try to keep the prices as low as possible. You know, we don’t make up the prices. It’s what … where the market is. And, of course, the bills got to get paid,” Blanco said.

Cole went to 20 bodegas across New York to figure out the average cost of essentials compared to supermarkets. Based on the prices of bread, milk, eggs, a single banana, and a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich, the average cost at a bodega is approximately 16.05% more than at a supermarket.

Healthy Foods in Bodegas 

“Why do we have all the convenience foods or packaged foods and healthy foods so readily available? And when we look at the produce section, sometimes it’s nonexistent or bad quality or very high price in bodegas,” Trude said.

“The bodegas, especially in the areas that are low income, what we are having is a lot of problems, health problems, with the high blood pressure, diabetes. So how we can bring more fresh fruit, more vegetables at affordable prices?” said Francisco Marte, a spokesperson for the Bodega and Small Business Association, “We the bodegueros. We are part of the community. We serve the community.”

The future of Bodegas

So what is the future for bodegas? How can communities keep their corner stores, which are central to their neighborhood culture, but also pay lower prices and improve produce options? 

“So I’ve been interested in online grocery shopping as an opportunity to bring food to families and also trying to address the physical barrier to access healthy foods as many individuals don’t live close to their to a grocery store. And even if there are some around, as you, you may not want to shop there for multiple reasons because of the price, because of the quality of the produce or the foods that are there,” Trude said. 

Trude said the future of bodegas is all about online food shopping and making the stores more accessible to every member of the community.

“Bodegas hire people from the community. The money that is being consumed stays in the community,” Medina said.

“All are welcome. They can always come here,” Blanco said. “We always tell all our Good Times customers, no matter what, this is a safe space for everyone.”