The Independent Edition

Ozone Park Supermarket Owner: unknown Opened: unknown Cooperative: none Location: 79-18 101st Ave, Ozone Park, Queens, NY Photographed: December 2018 This small corner grocer with a halal butcher is one of five in a four-block length of 101st Ave. Ozone Park has a very large population of Middle Eastern and South Asian residents, necessitating halal meat selections. There were simply too many to photograph in such a short distance, so if you'd like to explore the others, you can see Dubai Supermarket, Mannan Halal Supermarket, Shahjalal Supermarket & Halal Meat, and Deshi Bazar. On the opposite corner from Mannan is a large Golden Farms Supermarket, which we'll tour up next right here on The Independent Edition!

Milk Farm Supermarket Owner: Ao Xin Zhou Supermarket Inc. Opened: 2004; 2013 under current ownership Cooperative: Krasdale Location: 88-13 Liberty Ave, Ozone Park, Queens, NY Photographed: December 2019 Funny that I've been through this part of Queens twice, December 2018 and December 2019. Both days were bitterly cold, and on both days, by the time I got to this area, it's pitch black night outside. So even though I was at this store at hardly 5:00pm, it already looked like midnight. For this particular store, the produce lines the first, double-wide aisle. Dairy and frozen line the back wall, with meats in the last aisle. Deli is on the side wall in the front corner. At only 4800 square feet, this grocery store manages to pack in a huge selection. The store, however, is not exactly spacious. It is very clean though. In addition to basic groceries, the store has a fairly large selection of nonfoods items. Frozen and dairy line the back wall. There is a very, very small selection …

Our next group of neighborhoods is just to the west of what we saw in southern Jamaica. We're heading into what might be considered central Ozone Park, then into Howard Beach, a relatively isolated mostly residential neighborhood of southwestern Queens, and finally right over the border into Brooklyn for East New York!

Farmboy Country Market Owner: Jae Woo "Willie" Park Opened: 2001 Cooperative: Key Food Location: 127-20 Rockaway Blvd, South Ozone Park, Queens, NY Photographed: December 2018 Okay, so not a great first impression. But it gets better. This 13,000 square foot store opened in 2001 in what was probably some older chain supermarket and has operated as Farmboy Country Market since. Up until just before my visit, the store was a member of the White Rose (Met/Pioneer) cooperative and later General Trading (Fine Fare), then switched to Key Food in December 2018. This location was joined by a second Farmboy Country Market, later switched to the first Key Food-run Superfresh store, in Paterson, NJ. (It's possible that location has been sold, as it's no longer Farmboy branded.) I inadvertently visited the store while it was still under construction for a renovation completed in early 2019. The storefront is looking much better nowadays. The logo isn't. And while the storefront …

Food World Supermarket Owner: Harold Lee Opened: 2000 Cooperative: Key Food Location: 119-14 Sutphin Blvd, Queens, NY Photographed: December 2018 This 25,000 square foot store was built as a Big R Food Warehouse, as were the Food Bazaar locations on Manhattan Ave and Wyckoff Ave in Brooklyn (along with others we haven't covered). While Food Bazaar bought several Big R locations, Harold Lee's company Food Jungle Inc. bought this location in 2000. The chain has expanded with additional locations in Jamaica (north), Valley Stream, and Brooklyn, NY; and Bloomfield, Belleville, Roselle, Linden, and soon Hopelawn and Long Branch, NJ. A short-lived location in Garden City Park, NY has closed.
Although Food World is no longer the discount store environment of Big R, it does have a value warehouse feeling to it. Produce and seafood make up the first aisle, with meats on the back wall and cold cuts in the first aisle. As usual, frozen foods are in the second to last aisle with dairy in the …