The Independent Edition

Flatbush Market Owner:  Raymond Park Opened:  2017 Cooperative:  none Location:  752 Flatbush Ave, Flatbush, Brooklyn, NY Photographed:  May 2019 As promised, our next stop along Flatbush Ave is another greengrocer shop! This one is somewhat larger, at a little over 3,000 square feet. Refrigerated produce lines one wall of the store, with general grocery on the opposite side. This Flatbush Market is a very good-looking store, and the produce selection was great. I would shop at a place like this at home if I had one, but I don't. Plus, the Flatbush Market dedicates a very large space to general grocery items, so you can pick up the staples you need along with lots and lots of produce. Our next stop will be over on The Market Report, actually on the same block as this store but down a few doors.

OJ Fruit & Vegetable Corp Owner:  Kyung Ho Kim Opened:  2005 Cooperative:  none Location:  565 Flatbush Ave, Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn, NY Photographed:  May 2019 As I threatened previously, we're going to be seeing a lot of small greengrocer type stores around Flatbush. I know they're not supermarkets, but I love them. I grew up shopping at one myself, Times Farm in Union, NJ (we had two A&Ps nearby, and both had awful produce). It's only now occurring to me that I haven't been back to Times Farm since I moved out of Union. Anyway, this store on Flatbush Ave is just over a block south of the intersection of Lincoln Road, where Wholesome and Lincoln Market are. As usual, this store makes full use of its sidewalk space to display piles of inviting-looking fresh vegetables and fruit. I didn't stop inside this one, but we'll see plenty more like this later in the group!

Lincoln Market Owner:  Khalid Innab Opened:  2016 Cooperative:  Associated Supermarket Group Location:  33 Lincoln Rd, Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn, NY Photographed:  May 2019 Today's supermarket store tour is right around the corner from yesterday's look inside . At over 20,000 square feet, however, this store is nearly ten times the size of Wholesome Gourmet Market. It came into the picture about four years after Wholesome opened, in the ground floor of a new-build residential building just off Flatbush Avenue. And 20,000 square feet might not sound massive, but it's enormous for this extremely desirable part of Brooklyn. We enter to a produce department in the front corner, extending along the right side wall. The store is extremely deep but very narrow, meaning there are two or three sets of aisles extending all the way to the back of the store. The produce department, like the rest of the store, is beautifully merchandised....

Wholesome Gourmet Market Owner:  Salah Haimed Opened:  2012 Cooperative:  none Location:  534 Flatbush Ave, Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn, NY Photographed:  May 2019 This 3,000 square foot store is located at the corner of Flatbush Avenue and Lincoln Road. It's a gourmet grocery store with a large deli and basic grocery and perishable items. It seems that the deli is hugely popular for takeout lunches. There's quite a selection! Pretty solid selection of nonfood items too. If I remember correctly, dairy and refrigerated items run along the side wall of the store opposite the entrance, where the registers are. Nice place, but there's a new competitor in town. Come back tomorrow for a look at Lincoln Market just around the corner!

OEG Fruit & Vegetables Owner:  Hye Myung Kim Opened:  2002 Cooperative:  none Location:  1133 Washington Ave, Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn, NY Photographed:  May 2019 Well first, I guess my group graphic kind of gives away my most exciting store in this group, the newly reopened Pathmark of Albany Avenue in East Flatbush. We're starting off with a store that might look insignificant at first, but in reality these small greengrocers define central Brooklyn's food retail scene. A core source of fresh produce in neighborhoods that historically didn't have chain supermarkets, they have served and continue to serve an important need. We'll be seeing many more of these, and I'll go more into some of the history regarding them in Flatbush once we get there.

Alright, we've finished up Bushwick and are now heading to the southwestern portion of Brooklyn to see the area broadly referred to as Flatbush! Flatbush is a fascinating combination of landscapes, architectural styles, cultures, and of course, supermarkets. It is, of course, a massive oversimplification to separate this group of stores into just two neighborhoods, but in the broadest sense, Prospect Lefferts Gardens is the northern section of our tour and Flatbush is the southern section. Our route will take approximately the shape of Texas (I can't think of any other way to describe it), starting in the northern arm with Prospect Lefferts Gardens and stores along Flatbush Avenue, the main thoroughfare through much of southern Brooklyn. We turn west in the northern part of Flatbush to follow Church Avenue to the border of Kensington before returning east along Cortelyou Road in Prospect Park South. At Clarendon Road, we join back up with Flatbush Avenue to continue south in ...

Market Fresh Supermarket Owner:  Hyper Panda Corp. Opened:  2016 or early 2017 Cooperative:  Krasdale Location:  535 Marcy Ave, Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY Photographed:  January 2019 This small grocery store at the corner of Marcy Avenue and Martin Luther King, Jr. Place in what would be the far western extreme limit of Bushwick. (It would more accurately be referred to as northern Bedford-Stuyvesant, or Bed-Stuy.) It operated until about 2012 as "Asociados Supermarket," which seems to have been affiliated with Associated Supermarkets and not simply a bad knockoff. From 2012 to early 2016, it operated as the Marcy Food Market. By December 2016 or perhaps early 2017, the store reopened as a Market Fresh Supermarket, a Krasdale program. The approximately 4,000 square foot store functions mostly as a large bodega, with a heavy focus on prepared foods and deli. There is also meat, produce, and grocery, though. Certainly all the basic groceries...

Sprout Market Owner:  Bik Market Inc. Opened:  2017 Cooperative:  none Location:  984 Broadway, Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY Photographed:  January 2019 This 2300 square foot greengrocer and natural market (not to be confused with Sprouts Farmers Market , which has no New York locations) is located in a newly built building a block south of Mr. Kiwi's and two blocks southeast of Food Bazaar . Tough location, so we'll see whether this relative newcomer can make it in this spot! There was an upscale grocery store in Jersey City called Sprout Market Place, which later converted to Sprove Market Place , and although it used the same logo, I don't know whether these stores were related.

Myrtle Market Place Owner:  Myrtle Market Place Corp. Opened:  2012 Cooperative:  none Location:  1218 Myrtle Ave, Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY Photographed:  January 2019 This is one of those stores that's between a supermarket and a bodega. I simply can't call a 1600 square foot store a supermarket, but at the same time, it does sell produce, deli, meat, and grocery, along with fresh juice. I'll let you judge for yourself.