The Market Report

Western Beef Supermarket Opened: July 2025 Owner:  Castellana family Previous Tenants:  Junior's Food Outlet (closed 2024) Cooperative:  Associated Supermarket Group Location:  135-45 Rockaway Blvd, South Jamaica, Queens, NY Photographed:  September 9, 2025 One look at that trademark orange building and you already know what store we're looking at here: Western Beef, one of New York's quirkiest chains. The chain, which is owned by Italian Americans but specializes in Caribbean foods, originated as a meat wholesaler and later grew to a collection of no-frills low-cost supermarkets across the city and its immediate suburbs. After a leadership struggle between the father and son who owned the chain -- and yes, they're both named Peter Castellana -- Western Beef has recommitted itself to their old identity. Western Beef also owned a few discount stores under the name Junior's Food Outlet, and while none exist today, several have been remodeled and reopened as full...

Towards the end of 2017, Cactus Holdings, the owner of the Western Beef and Junior's Food Outlet chains, announced the introduction of the Western Beef Market, a new store concept designed to rework existing Junior's stores to a more modern format. While Junior's Food Outlet are hard discount stores, the Western Beef Market stores are perishables-focused, with complete produce, meat, and seafood departments, although they are smaller in footprint than standard Western Beef supermarkets. This facility, located in northwestern Brooklyn, had closed by the time of my visit in anticipation of a conversion from Junior's to Western Beef Market. Unfortunately, the banners on both the front and the side of the store saying WESTERN BEEF MARKET COMING SOON! had blown either off or up to the roof so it is not visible. (As you can tell, the day I visited this area was somewhat stormy. Luckily, I did not get rained on!) The fact that there is a large closed-up supermarket in ...