The Independent Edition

Beyar's Market Owner:  Tom Beyar Opened:  2003 Cooperative:  none Location:  2241 Victory Blvd, Westerleigh, Staten Island, NY Photographed:  March 2020 This 3400 square foot store is located just to the west on Victory Blvd from the Met Foods and former Safeway that we've seen in the past few days. It's no bigger than most convenience stores in other parts of the country but manages to pack in produce, beer, groceries, dairy, frozen, a butcher, a deli, and a bakery. You enter and make a sharp right to continue along the front wall of the store, which has produce and beer. Grocery aisles take up the right half of the store, running parallel to the front wall. Dairy runs along the right side of the store, with frozen on the right half of the back wall, followed by deli and bakery. Butcher is on the left wall of the store with checkouts on the front wall. Beyar's sells Essential Everyday storebrand products from Supervalu. The aisl...

Olive Tree Marketplace Owner:  David Shehadeh Opened:  2014 Cooperative:  Retail Grocers Group Location:  1490 Clove Road, Sunnyside, Staten Island, NY Photographed:  March 2020 In 2014, David Shehadeh (of the same family that runs the two Shop Fairs at 4121 and 2720 Church Avenue) opened this Olive Tree Marketplace in a former Mignosi's Supermarket on Staten Island. The Olive Tree banner, originally affiliated with Key Food but now affiliated with Retail Grocers Group's Shop Fair group, has had little success with a location in New Jersey from 2016 to 2018 (more extensive coverage of that location is coming soon) and a location in Brooklyn, which we covered here , from 2018 to, uh, later in 2018. This location has gone through some tough times too, with shelves periodically emptying and then being restocked. At the time of my visit, some parts were a little sparse, but the store had advertised being "under new management," a trick that t...

Market Fresh Supermarket Owner:  Kenny Othman Opened:  2018 Cooperative:  Krasdale Location:  570 Tompkins Ave, Rosebank, Staten Island, NY Photographed:  March 2020 This former Walgreens was converted to the independent Market Fresh Supermarket, owned by the same family that owns the Key Food on Flatbush Ave . Market Fresh also had a location in Wood-Ridge, NJ, which has since gone out of business (but will be coming to the blog here soon). There's another Market Fresh out there somewhere, but I've yet to figure out where that location is. As I mentioned, this store was a Walgreens. And the restroom in the basement still has a Walgreens garbage can! The 8,000 square foot store begins with produce lining both sides of the first aisle. Deli is at the back, with meats on the back wall. Dairy, oddly, is in the middle of the store in aisle 3, with frozen foods in the last aisle. The store, although it's not large, is very nice. It fea...

Top Tomato Superstore Owner:  Carmine Sciandra Opened:  2007 Cooperative:  none Location:  1071 Bay Street, Rosebank, Staten Island, NY Photographed:  March 2020 Here on The Independent Edition, I like to give some background on the stores we visit and their owners. This time I'm going to let the Staten Island Advance speak for me . Owner Carmine Sciandra even has his own Wikipedia page . But, uh, let's focus on the supermarket here. The 12,000 square foot supermarket is basically divided into two halves. When you enter and turn right, you enter the grocery department with dairy on the right-side wall and frozen food and meat at the back of the store. Deli/bakery, produce, and seafood make up the left half. General grocery is not this store's focus, clearly, since perishables take up more than half of the sales floor space. Like North Shore Farms , this store sells some Price Rite-branded items from Wakefern. Frozen foods are i...

Our next stop after leaving Brooklyn is Staten Island! Now we have been to Staten Island before, seeing a  Key Food Marketplace , a  Superfresh  that has since closed, and a  Met Foodmarket . But, we all know... (oh come on I have to put my song gimmick on here too???) Ahem. (Okay, so the universe found my gimmick, which was a link to the YouTube video of the song "We Can Do Better" by Matt Simons, which you can find here . Or you can see how the whole cringeworthy joke was executed over on The Market Report .) Anyway, we're going to tour EIGHT new supermarkets, see a NEW Superfresh, and RETURN to that Met Foodmarket for a full interior tour! Uh... maybe no one else is as excited about that as I am. But anyway, stay tuned for two weeks of Staten Island.