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...

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

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!