Pathmark of Harlem

Pathmark of Harlem is facing imminent closure. While this store had issues– rude employees (sometimes), questionable activities in front of the building– its closure is a major loss for the community. I traveled some distance for this store, a «real» supermarket with a large selection, good sales, lower-​priced store brands, wide aisles…
Sorry to see you go, Pathmark of Harlem.

Went to pay for a ready to eat fruit salad prepared by pathmark and asked for a fork. Cashier told me that I needed to go and grab a box and pay for it. The fruit salad stayed at the cashier, I left! Overpriced and rude staff. Next time I will walk further to a key food. Food bazaar, or the local deli.

The store is beyond filthy!!! Feces in the stairwell, urine in the elevator, the corner of Lex and 125^th is full of drug addicts .But – they had some good sales, and parking for $ 1.00 – I liked that… But – the store is closing! Building a luxury high rise on that corner — WhoTF is gonna live there? Methadone
clinics, homeless shelters, really disgusting!

The Prices are out rages cannot find many products that I need for myself like with The Greek yogurt they don’t have too many flavor’s it’s only ok for basic stuff not too great!!!

Tora D. is full of crap. I come from the «ghetto» and this Pathmark is a retail equivalent of a Port-​A-​Potty after a particularly decadent rock festival. I hate yuppies pretending to be down with people they really can’t stand. If I ever return to East Harlem, I would boycott this toilet of a store. Guess that makes me a rich white yuppie hipster, lol.

All the bad reviews on here are from either wealthy yuppies who are moving into the recently developed luxury high rises or the seasoned customers that have seen the store fall into disrepair.
The store itself is great and DOES have great prices compared to the latest yuppie focused Whole Foods, Trader Joes, and Fairway markets. Check out their weekly circular online and see for yourself! Where else can you find big name brand groceries for $ 2.50 and less?
Shoprite in Brooklyn is it’s main competitor in the Manhattan area but it’s quite a trip to go out there to buy groceries.
I have found the Pathmark staff helpful and the manager’s broadcasted messages funny and light hearted as he ends all of them with a «Have a sparkling day.»
Yes, the store has fallen into disrepair with leaking ceilings covered with tarps and slightly dusty corners but the truth to the matter is this large supermarket that many shop at is closing. A major developer has bought the land and is planning on building a luxury high rise just as it is currently doing with the Lower East Side’s former Pathmark location (which I used to frequent as well). Harlem is being developed and overpriced to push out the current neighborhood and attract the new yuppies who wouldn’t think twice before spending $ 5 on half a dozen brown eggs thinking they are better than white (eggs are all the same it’s just the breed of chicken that makes the different color).
I’ve seen the checkout lines dwindle from all being opened to just a handful and the reason is because many of the women working there are leaving or were «laid off» as the impeding closure looms.
The Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company which owns A&P, Pathmark, Waldbaums, and Food Emporium recently filed Chapter 11 Bankruptcy which has green lighted the further demise of large supermarkets to give up their land to luxury condominium developers. There are now more condos in Manhattan than supermarkets that can service the people that can afford to live in them. Real estate prices are sky rocketing and many supermarket chains would think twice before moving into expensive space (hey, wouldn’t you?)
Based on the extremely slow paced development of the LES Pathmark area, the supermarket will be shuttered and the building demolished leaving the neighborhood without a supermarket for several years. The people complaining on Unilocal now will be complaining about the long lines and empty shelves at what ever nearby market they can find when Pathmark finally closes.

I, like many people, applauded Pathmark opening a grocery store in Harlem but it has become so clear that it was just a move to appease some politicians, obtain tax breaks and make lots of money before pulling up stakes. This branch entered a death spiral several years ago and has now flat lined. When it first opened they hired people to man all 24 check out lines but after a year or two that dwindled down to six and that’s including the 4 self service lines. It’s clear that the managers (store, regional etc.) don’t care about bringing the same quality to Harlem that exists over the bridge in New Jersey. It’s just too sad. Almost two weeks ago, tens of shopping carts were stolen right from under the eyes of the security guard whose office is less than 20ft away! No attempt has been made to replace them and customers are walking around with items in their arms.
It’s time to shut it down and let Trader Joe’s move in. What Harlem needs is a store that actually cares about customer service while making a profit.

Ok, the only good thing of this place is the 24hrs open fact. The whole building is a nightmare, always full of drug addicts no matter the time of the day.
Is not a small or big corner around the building without urine or human feces, u can imagine the smell all the time if u r just lucky enough not to see that in live time.
I don’t know why people say they have good prices, they are just average and you can find better deals and quality if you walk some blocks.
Talking about deals and quality, I got a oatmeal on sale at pathmark and surprise, was just full of pantry pest insects, unfortunately I notice that too late, you have no idea how hard was to take them out of the apartment and of course I had to put all my grain products in the garbage since they spread in a eye blink.
Because that is not enough they have a lot of garbage bags in the celings conected to a hose and buckets all the time, like they are draining something, that looks terrible and like a fast solution (now permanent) for who knows what problem.
Finally just in case I wasn’t enough grossed to go there, I lost a kid shoe so I had to go back and look around, and I did something u usually don’t do, I had to look at the floor and in the corners… was terribly dirty and not for the normal day use, was dirty probably from the day they open. If you go, check the floor please, most likely you are gonna run out.
I have no idea how a place like this can be selling edible food, and I don’t know why the City don’t close this big toilet

Nothing exciting to ride home about but it’s convenient to the 4÷5÷6 train. I’ve been to better locations but it’s like «typical store in NYC that isn’t a Whole Foods or luxury grocery chain.» At least they had some of the foods I like on sale but I wouldn’t buy produce or meats here; just my thought.

Can this place please shut down and be replaced by a Trader Joes?
For a major store that’s supposed to feed the neighborhood, their selection of healthy items is very limited. Perishable produce is very poor quality. You’d at least hope the prices are good. Well, they charged me over $ 5 for four potatoes, $ 2 for one tomato, $ 8 for a box of frozen dough, just to name a few examples.
Pretty brutal rip off given that the whole shopping experience is just as awful as the immediate vicinity of the store. Can’t walk in or/​and out without being asked for change and passing by several adults sleeping on the ground after hitting that vein hard.
Do we really need a bottle collection service on the most drug ridden corner in the city?

Shopping here is better than starving, but only barely.
The good: Prices are good. Wide selection. Nice sales. Open ²⁴⁄₇.
The bad: Literally everything else. When I first moved to the neighborhood, I thought, «Great! A grocery store right near my apartment! I bet I’ll go there all the time!» HAHAHA, NOPE. I swear to God, I walk past this place every single day on my way home from work and I still have to FORCE myself to go in and buy groceries like an adult. The number of times I’ve decided to just get a can of soup from the bodega and call that dinner, rather than go into this nightmarish hellscape, is probably in the dozens.
The lines frequently extend past the check-​out area, down through produce, wrapping through aisles and blocking shoppers’ paths. Which wouldn’t be so bad if the employees seemed to care about the seething mass of humanity trying to check out. But they clearly do not give even the smallest of shits. (Don’t get me wrong, most of the people on the register have been nothing but sweet to me. But Christ almighty, pick up the pace. And don’t bother trying to get the butchers’ attention unless you’re in the mood to be yelled at.)
CHECK THE EXPIRATION DATE. Seriously. A lot of expired or nearly-​bad food on the shelves; I’ve often seen moldy cheese and bread out for sale, and sometimes I’ve made it home with chicken that turned out to be slimy and rank. Ugh. Why, Pathmark? What have I done to deserve this?
Pioneer, one block over and two blocks down, is smaller, more expensive, and has some decidedly unimpressive produce, but sometimes I’d still rather spend 10 minutes there than 30 minutes here.

Shopping here is a painful experience. The ONLY reason I ever go here is that the prices on groceries can’t be beat. Other than that, what a painful painful experience.
The most pain resides in the checkout process. I do not understand their reasoning, but somehow they have decided that it is acceptable to have 2 lanes open, one of them being the self check out line. I feel like every time I approach a checker to check out, they say «I’m closed.» The self check-​out line is traumatic — the checkout machines are frequently broken, the one worker is frazzled, the line is long.

I’ve been to worst. A great place to grab some last minute items and for a late night run. The produce is a hit and miss. One day fresh and tasty another day rotten with fruit flies circling. That wasn’t an exaggeration. The staff is generally helpful and kind. They could better variety of organic produce but decent overall. I’m happy that my almond is always here.

Ive been to this pathmark a few times just to pick up a few items. It’s always busy in and outside the store. I love Pathmark but this is one of my least favorite locations. It doesn’t seem as well maintained as other locations. The parking lot on the roof level is scary and I wouldn’t venture out there by myself at night. However, if you just need to grab a few quick items it’s all good and very convenient with the subway being just a few steps away from the exit.

Please see the picture I posted of a strung-​out man sleeping in his wheelchair in the produce section– this picture says everything. I will give it 2 stars because it’s open ²⁴⁄₇. This place is seriously ghetto, which is not surprising since it was built at the worst corner in all of Manhattan.

I was in the area and returned some expired salad dressing. I was at customer care explaining how it expired two days before I purchased it and before I even finished talking the heifer behind the counter rudely interrupted me by saying take it out of the bag.
1) Don’t interrupt me. You shouldn’t be selling expired stuff anyway.
2) You take it out of the damn bag. It doesn’t have the cooties.
So while Miss rude and ghetto was setting up my refund I hear Miss loud and ghetto scream at her child because he had a bag of apples. Like that’s the worst thing he could’ve picked up. Why do you feel the need to be so damn loud??? Why can’t he have some apples? Why does this area look like zombie land? Why did I prefer this location three years ago?
So many unanswered questions.

I’ll start with the positives. You can get everything you need here and at a decent price. Produce, fresh fish, groceries they have it all. Great sales and parking for a dollar up on the roof.
The negative is that it’s as good as can be considering it’s smack dab in the middle of the hood. I’ve seen fights in this supermarket and have been asked on numerous occasions if I want to trade cash for food stamps. The lines are always long mainly because people are balling out on their food stamps so they may have a full cart sometimes two, and there’s usually only two or three cashiers open. The employees throughout the store are not professional. You will get «hollered at» or you may hear a few inappropriate conversations. You will not get any help finding what you need. Don’t waste your time trying.
Regardless I always get what I need and at a great price. I go shopping during non peak hours. Never on weekends or after 5. I’m a New Yorker born and raised so all the nonsense doesn’t really bother me much. I just keep it moving.
But watch your purse.

Every time I come in here I have to convince myself to not hit someone.
All the employees are idiots. Slow as snails and would rather gossip than wait on people. Once night I was so frustrated in the self checkout when I asked the clerk to help me and he told me to hold on. After about 5 minutes he came over and told me to just leave, with my groceries, WITHOUT paying. I wasn’t complaining but if the store owner only knew.
I will give it two stars because it has the most variety in this part of Harlem. Its cheaper than Fine Fair and Associated. I usually shop at Trader Joe’s and if I’m in a rut I stop into Wild Olive but there are some things I refuse to shell out big bucks for. For those items I default to Pathmark.
If you have a big order and can’t wait in self checkout be prepared to stand in line for at least 20 minutes. Its the most crowded store in Harlem yet they always only have 2 registers and chances are you’ll be behind someone who put way to much food in the cart and their food stamps won’t cover it. I literally had some lady in front of me try to make me back up so she could ditch a whole cart of kool aid and candy because she couldn’t afford it.

I remember when this place first opened up. A national chain coming to Harlem that would be open ²⁴⁄₇? Great.
A few years later… This place is disgusting. From not having anything stocked to the upstairs parking lot smelling of urine. This place has no one running it that cares. Point Blank.

The sale prices are great but when I went on a Saturday none of the shelves were marked for the sale items. Those items that were marked on sale were completely out of stock like a natural disaster was coming. The cashier lines were very long, creating a tangled mess of carts. If it weren’t for the good prices I wouldn’t recommend this place. Do your homework before hand and check out the flyer.