The Independent Edition

Our next stores in Queens, NY are in Middle Village and Maspeth neighborhoods! Now this group is going to be much shorter than the last (see coverage here and here), partially because there are fewer neighborhoods we're cramming in here, but mostly because each of these neighborhoods only has two supermarkets.

It's also interesting, though, that these two rather suburban, somewhat isolated neighborhoods' stores follow the same pattern. Both neighborhoods have a big-name store (Middle Village has a Met Foodmarket and Maspeth has a Key Food), and both neighborhoods have an independent store owned by the same person as the big-name store (MV's is called Village Barn Fresh Market owned by Bill Fani; the Maspeth Marketplace is owned by Danny Doleh). Anyway, we'll get more into these specific stores here and on The Market Report over the next few days, so check back soon!

Vinanzaca Mini Market Owner: Digna I. Vinanzaca Opened: 2014-2018 Cooperative: Unknown Location: 47-30 Junction Blvd, Corona, NY Photographed: July 2018 A very fast look at a small grocery store on Junction Blvd just north of Corona Avenue in Corona. In business from 2014 to 2018, the location is now vacant to my knowledge. The store seems to have gone out of business almost immediately after my photograph; it may even be closed for good at the time I passed it (I'm not sure). And up next we're going to head just around the corner from this store to tour a Cherry Valley Marketplace!

Grande Mundo Supermarket Owner: Unknown Opened: 2014 Cooperative: Unknown Location: 42-16 Junction Blvd, Corona, NY Photographed: July 2018 Quick look today at a small grocery store (the name means Big World in Spanish) along Junction Blvd as you start to move from North Corona/Jackson Heights into central Corona, which we will be visiting both on here and on The Market Report. Although I don't have an owner for this store, I would actually expect that the owner is not Spanish-speaking. In Spanish, the correct phrasing would be "Mundo Grande," the noun-adjective, or else "Gran Mundo," the adjective-noun form. The adjective grande should never come before a noun. As far as I know, anyway!

Mi Tierra Supermarket Owner: Pedro Diaz Opened: 2011 Cooperative: Krasdale Location: 32-66 97th St, Jackson Heights, NY Photographed: July 2018 & December 2018 Our second Mi Tierra Supermarket! (See the first here.) There are two more in Queens, one on Roosevelt Ave here in Jackson Heights and one east on 37th Ave in Corona, along with another in Hazleton, PA. My photos come from two separate occasions on which I was driving by this store (no, I was not actually driving the car on either occasion). This one is also located on Northern Blvd, but for whatever reason, its street address is on 97th St (the cross street). Unlike the other one, this was a Strauss Auto, not another supermarket, before Mi Tierra. It's possible, though, that the building housed a supermarket before Strauss Auto.

Mi Tierra Supermarket Owner: Pedro Diaz Opened: ca. 2010 Cooperative: Krasdale Location: 81-02 Northern Blvd, Jackson Heights, NY Photographed: December 2018 Make sure you saw our tour of the Food Bazaar over on The Market Report yesterday! We're heading east on Northern Blvd (away from Manhattan, towards Long Island, for anyone who's not familiar with the area). Today's post is a pretty quick look at a former Met Food that was extensively renovated around 2010 to a really beautiful store. I hope to get interior pictures one of these days.

From here on, The Market Report, The Independent Edition, and Grocery Archaeology will be posting stores entirely geographically. I'm switching to this instead of the random kind of chronological kind of not order I had done previously based on the themed weeks I've had. I hope it'll be easier to read!

To begin with, for the new year, we're going to Queens, NY! And I don't think we've ever been there. So all of the stores we're about to see are brand-new. We'll be taking a look at them a few neighborhoods at a time, starting in the northwestern corner of the borough, with Long Island City, Jackson Heights, and Corona.

This group will have posts on The Market Report and The Independent Edition. Come back on January 1st for our first store tour!