Fresh Mart
Opened: May 2025
Add it to the list: time for a look at another former drugstore-turned-supermarket! In the case of the 10,000 square foot Fresh Mart in College Point, Queens, this building also started out as a supermarket. Grand Union built the store in the late 1950s or early 1960s, and actually kept it open all the way until at least 1994. By 1996, the space had become a CVS, which closed in 2024.
Fresh Mart, an independent Asian supermarket, embarked on a major remodeling project of the space and opened in May. Because as much as the exterior looks like CVS did, the interior is a sleek, modern Asian supermarket that looks brand-new...
Needless to say, this is nothing like CVS's interior. Produce and dairy are in the first aisle on the right side, with seafood and meat on the back wall. Frozen foods are on the left side of the store.
All the fixtures look brand-new, and they're different from what we typically see in most supermarkets, in NYC at least. Everything is very modern and bright, and it's a really attractive, almost space-age interior.
The service meat and seafood counters are the centerpiece, taking up most of the back wall of the store.
And the grocery aisles mostly are stocked with Asian foods.
This area, which like much of this part of Queens has a growing Asian population, has another Asian grocer called Ai Mart across the street -- but it's smaller and, when I visited on Friday, had a lot of empty shelves and seemed to be struggling. In terms of other supermarkets, a large ShopRite is just two blocks south.
As you can see, the grocery aisles are pristine. Packaged meat and other refrigerated foods are in the back-left corner with frozen foods lining the last aisle...
Although the store is small, it feels spacious. The long, straight sight lines across the store help.
There's an additional short aisle in the front-left corner and some more refrigerated foods on the front wall.
And a look across the front-end. As always, nice to see a former drugstore being repurposed as a supermarket!
Here's the rundown of this weekend's other posts:
Opened: May 2025
Owner: James Chan
Previous Tenants: Grand Union (open by 1966, closed between 1994 and 1996) > CVS (open by 1996, closed 2024)
Cooperative: none
Location: 132-22 14th Ave, College Point, NY
Photographed: July 25, 2025
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