Pioneer Supermarkets - Queens, NY (Corona)

Pioneer Supermarkets

Opened: 2012

Owner: Chinmay Parikh

Previous Tenants: non-grocery tenants

Cooperative: Associated Supermarket Group

Location: 102-09 Northern Blvd, Queens, NY

Photographed: October 3, 2024

Before we begin, just a heads up: this was originally posted in January 2020, but was rewritten with new photos in July 2026. Now for the post! Definitely on the line between small supermarket and large bodega is this Pioneer in Corona, Queens on Northern Boulevard (when this was originally posted back in 2020, it was in a row of posts all along Northern). Corona is a pretty crowded, urban neighborhood, but this is small even for Corona at just 4000 square feet. For comparison, a new Food Bazaar about half a mile west is ten times that size.

Produce is in the first aisle on the left side, with dairy in the back half. Beer is on the back wall, with frozen foods and meat in the last aisle on the right side. Only four aisles total, so really small. And it's set up a lot like a bodega too, with price tags on the items rather than on the shelves in many cases, for instance.

There isn't much in the way of storebrands here (probably just because of the small space), but what is here is Avenue A from ASG. This is one of the smallest branded ASG stores, and one of the smaller name-brand supermarkets in New York City as a whole. But you can compare this to a City Fresh here in Corona, which feels much more like a full supermarket but shockingly is 500 square feet smaller.

Another reason this store feels more like a bodega is this row of freezer cases, all of which are small units simply placed next to each other (it looks like they're mostly secondhand from places like dollar stores) rather than the traditional multi-door freezer case setup you'd see in most supermarkets.

You can see how this store makes use of every last inch that it has, but still, it didn't seem like the type of place people do a big shopping. (Can you even fit a cart down some of these aisles?) Five blocks west is a CTown that's still quite small, but at 8000 square feet is double the size of this one.

This post was rewritten on July 11, 2026 with new photos.