Photograph by Jeremy Kramer
There’s nothing on earth quite like Jungle Jim’s. The 200,000-square-foot international grocery store in Fairfield with more than 180,000 items to shop from is considered a tourist destination for its eccentricities. From ostrich eggs to durian to live crabs to the world’s hottest gummy bears, you name it, Jungle Jim’s probably has it.
While the products are a large draw for the store, what really makes it stand out is all the weird stuff scattered around the store. Where else are you going to get serenaded by a band of animatronic cereal mascots on top of a boat while shopping for produce? Would you like to pick up some cereal beneath the unnerving eyes of a giant soup can on a swing? Only at Jungle Jim’s.
Photograph by Jeremy Kramer
“We used to go seeking [that stuff] out,” says Jungle Jim’s Director of Development Phill Adams. “And then people start calling us or e-mailing us asking, you know, ‘Do you want this, this, or this?’ A lot of it came from Kings Island and then that spun off other contacts.”
The store team lovingly refers to these treasures as “junk.” According to Adams, most display ideas start from a cool piece of junk that someone finds, then they work backwards to see what store items could match with it.
Photograph by Jeremy Kramer
Some parts of the store, including the studio for the official Jungle Jim’s Podcast, were built with repurposed junk. “The main room I’m in used to be a greenhouse,” says podcast host Mark Borison. “My door was from an old Borders Books. All of these windows are not windows. They’re dairy cases, and it’s really funny because there’s trapped condensation in there.”
The Jungle Jim’s team has always seen the store as a combination grocery shopping-entertainment experience. With the addition of the podcast in 2021, the entertainment aspect became more interactive. “I just wanted to do late night TV in a grocery store. That was my pitch,” says Borison. “I grew up watching a lot of David Letterman, so I was like, ‘Why are we not throwing cantaloupes off the monorail?’ You know what I mean?”
“I think the grocery business is a sideline for me to be crazy,” says store founder and owner Jungle Jim (real name, James Bonaminio.) “I don’t know why but I just get a kick out of that, you know, building all this stuff. People come from all over and they like it, they get entertained. And I think it’s neat.”
Photograph by Jeremy Kramer
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