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Kalam's Bazaar - Queens, NY (Ozone Park)

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By Zachary
Kalam's Bazaar
Opened: August 2025
Owner: M. Z. Kalam
Previous Tenants: 99 Cent Paradise / Aaron's
Cooperative: Associated Supermarket Group
Location: 98-01 Liberty Ave, Ozone Park, Queens, NY
Photographed: September 9, 2025
I've now written at length about the recent surge in new store openings under the Associated Supermarket Group, and this weekend, we're seeing two more that they've recently added in southeastern Queens. From 2010 to about 2022, ASG had a small Compare Foods at the busy corner of Rockaway Bouelvard and Liberty Avenue. In 2022, that store left ASG and joined Key Food, becoming a Food Universe Marketplace. Three years later, ASG has returned to the area with a brand-new store a block east.
And this isn't your typical supermarket: a former dollar store has been combined with the space of a former Aaron's rent-to-own store, totalling 9000 square feet now used as a stylish new halal supermarket called Kalam's Bazaar. This area has a large South Asian and Muslim population, but the supermarkets in this immediate area are pretty straightforward with not a lot of focus on that growing community. But there's no shortage of international foods in the neighborhood. In fact, this store is just blocks from the bustling Little Guyana neighborhood, and the 25 blocks to the east of this store along Liberty Avenue have no fewer than 21 different grocers of all kinds.
The store has been renovated extensively enough that there's no hint as to the interior of the former occupants of the space. The produce department is in the front-left corner with the juice bar and deli in the back-left corner. Dairy, meat and seafood line the back wall with service butcher and seafood counters in the back-right corner. Frozen foods line the outside of the last aisle and continue onto the front wall to the right of the registers.
There's definitely a focus on halal and South Asian foods here (think India and Bangladesh), but there's also a full line of everyday American groceries. Avenue A storebrand items from ASG are on the shelves.
This is one of the relatively few supermarkets I've seen in New York City that really blends a full line of South Asian foods with a standard mainstream American supermarket. Most are one or the other, not both. It's particularly impressive that Kalam's Bazaar does it in just 9000 square feet.
The space is bright, open, and spacious despite the small size.
And it looks like all or many of the fixtures were new when Kalam's opened in July or August. The store doesn't go that far back, so the grocery aisles are short.
About the first half of the aisles are shorter to accommodate the registers at the front of the store.
The service meat and seafood counters (all halal) are in the back-right corner.
And frozen foods on the right side of the store. I see these single-tier freezers with sliding doors on the top often in South Asian supermarkets. Frozen packaged meat and seafood are in the middle, with the rest of the frozen foods around the outside.
Frozen foods continue along the front wall of the store. You can take a good look at the freezer cases here and see the blend of mainstream American items (Eggo waffles and Ben & Jerry's ice cream) alongside the more specialized South Asian items (like the various types of whole frozen fish in the lower cases). All in all, it seems to be a formula that works because the place was hopping on a weekday afternoon.
There are four registers and a customer service counter at the front of the store back over towards produce. You can see how they've made the space feel open and spacious even in a small building.
This store impressed me not only because of how well it's executed, but because of how well ASG seems to be consistently executing new stores these days. More independent supermarkets is always a good thing to me, so let's hope they can keep it up! Meanwhile, check out this weekend's other posts, including another ASG opening...
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