The Market Report

This 6100 square foot supermarket opened ca. 2010 in what was probably a supermarket previously, but was vacant at the time. Like many major arteries through New York City's outer boroughs (and northern Manhattan), Liberty Ave has an elevated subway running above it. This store is located at 96-09 Liberty Ave, Ozone Park, NY. Photographed December 2018

Our next group of neighborhoods is just to the west of what we saw in southern Jamaica. We're heading into what might be considered central Ozone Park, then into Howard Beach, a relatively isolated mostly residential neighborhood of southwestern Queens, and finally right over the border into Brooklyn for East New York! Come back tomorrow for a Snapshot in Ozone Park.

Ideal Food Basket Opened: 2018 Owner:  David Santana Previous Tenants:  CTown Cooperative: America's Food Basket Location: 142-36 Foch Blvd, South Jamaica, NY Photographed:  September 9, 2025 Before we begin, just a heads up: this was originally posted in March 2020, but was rewritten with new photos in June 2026. Now for the post! Here in South Ozone Park, an old-school (dilapidated) CTown was converted through an extensive renovation inside and outside to a fresh new Ideal Food Basket in 2018. The 9300 square foot building was flipped in the process, so the entrance is now in the back of the store facing the parking lot instead of out at the street in front. I'm not sure what CTown's layout would've been, but these days you enter to what appears to be an expansion holding the meat and produce departments. This all looks very new. Then you go into the main supermarket building, with the grocery aisles, dairy/frozen at the back, and registers at the front. The deli ...

This Fine Fare Supermarket is one of the chain's earlier stores in operation, and it's pretty hard to tell what this store was before Fine Fare, though it was likely not built as a supermarket. It's 4500 square feet and from this pre-renovation street view we can see a little of the facade it would've originally had. It's one of the relatively few supermarkets in South Jamaica, though it is about seven blocks north of the Food World Supermarket we're going to see tomorrow on The Independent Edition! This Fine Fare is at 115-34 Sutphin Blvd, South Jamaica, NY. Photographed December 2018

Key Food Supermarkets Opened: 2018 Owner: Jose Diaz Previous Tenants:  A&P > Key Food (opened 1982) > Associated (closed ca. 2012) > Key Food (ca. 2012-ca. 2016) > The Food Kingdom (ca. 2016-2018) Cooperative: Key Food Stores Location: 171-11 Linden Blvd, Saint Albans, NY Photographed: August 30, 2024 Before we begin, just a heads up: this was originally posted in March 2020, but was rewritten with new photos in June 2026. Now for the post! Can you believe there's actually a centennial A&P hiding behind that facade? A&P built this store in the early 1960s, and it's on the smaller side for a centennial, measuring just about 12,000 square feet. By 1982, it had become a Key Food. And it's a Key Food today, so that's that, right? Nope. At some point, it switched from Key Food to Associated, then switched back to Key Food between 2007 and 2012. Even that's not the end of the story. Around 2016, it became a Krasdale-affiliated independent call...

Our next stop is here in southern Jamaica! Much of eastern Queens is referred to colloquially as Jamaica, so to be more clear, we'll be hitting stores in Cambria Heights, Saint Albans, South Jamaica, and South Ozone Park. These primarily residential neighborhoods tend to be lower-income and predominantly African American and Latino. We'll see six stores in this region before continuing west! Check back tomorrow on The Independent Edition for our first store!

Just 3/4 mile north of yesterday's Food Farm is this store. Opened in the 1950s as a Food Fair, the store later became the Village Plaza Compare & Save Supermarket, affiliated with Krasdale Foods' AIM (Association of Independent Merchants) group. I visited immediately after the store had been purchased by the owners of the CTowns in Hempstead and Uniondale, and was under renovation during its conversion to CTown. So, you'll excuse the in-progress appearance of the store. As you can see, the store really needed a refresh. Here's what it looks like now. Produce runs along the first aisle, which is the front wall of the store. Checkouts line the left side of the store, with entrances and exits at the front and back. Meats run along the right side, with dairy and frozen at the back. Deli is in the back left corner. Inside, the store is looking good but definitely in need of some help. Notice the missing letter in the department sign. Here's a l...