The Market Report

Kalam's Bazaar Opened: August 31, 2026 Owner: MD Kalam Previous Tenants:  non-grocery tenants Cooperative: Associated Supermarket Group Location: 69 Church Ave, Brooklyn, NY Photographed: September 4, 2026 Last summer, a South Asian supermarket called Kalam's Bazaar opened in Ozone Park, Queens in a former dollar store. Now, the same company is behind a revitalization of this previously vacant storefront along Kensington, Brooklyn's Church Avenue corridor with a large South Asian population in the area (and several South Asian and halal supermarkets around). At a bit under 6000 square feet, this location is smaller than the Ozone Park one. The interior is very similar to the Ozone Park location, but the layout is a bit different. Produce is on the right side with a butcher counter and packaged meats at the back. Frozen meat and fish are in the back-left corner with the rest of frozen and dairy in the last aisle on the left side. This location feels more cramped than t...

Ideal Food Basket Owner: Juan Diaz Opened:  2012 Previous Tenants:  ?? > CTown Supermarkets Cooperative:  America's Food Basket Location:  710 Coney Island Ave, Brooklyn, NY Photographed:  March 7, 2023 Another update, another renovation! It's time to revisit the Coney Island Avenue Ideal Food Basket in Kensington, Brooklyn. We first toured the store a few years back and it was looking good, but it was definitely still a CTown. The store has been a supermarket for many decades, although I can't remember what it was prior to CTown, which converted to the first Ideal Food Basket in 2012. The store just completed a pretty major renovation, and it's looking fantastic. Notice that on the side facing Coney Island Ave, the Supermarkets for Savings signage from CTown has been removed, but there's still a smaller sign of that facing the parking lot on the side. The signage could be updated (supermarkets for savings has seen better days, and the apple over the i isn'...

It's hardly half a mile as the crow flies from the last Ideal we saw to this one. But there are a lot of differences between the two stores. While this store's 10,500 square foot size isn't all that far from the 1301 Church store's 8500 square feet, this store feels larger and more suburban. It's on the border of the more residential neighborhoods of Prospect Park South to the east and Kensington to the west, which are also both higher income than Flatbush. This Ideal is also right on Coney Island Ave, a major thoroughfare, and has a parking lot. It's owned by Juan Diaz, who owns many supermarkets including the CTown in Bethlehem, PA and the CTown and Little Apple in Allentown. The 1301 Church location was converted from CTown to Ideal in 2014. This, on the other hand, was the first Ideal Food Basket to open. The conversion from CTown occurred in 2012, but observant readers of The Market Report will recognize that the CTown slogan ("Supermar...