The Independent Edition

New Age Fresh Market Owner:  unknown Opened:  2014 Cooperative:  none Location:  160-06 Northern Blvd, Flushing, NY Photographed:  July 2018 This former theater building was converted sometime around 2008 to an independent Chinese supermarket, L&L Supermarket, which was closed by about 2012. By 2014, it was up and running as the current tenant, New Age Fresh Market. The sprawling 20,000 square foot, two-floor building includes a food court on the second floor (not open at the time of my visit) and an independent bakery on the first floor. The checkouts run along the front wall, with seafood, meat, and dairy on the left side wall, packaged meat in the back, and frozen on the right wall. Produce is in the front center with grocery aisles behind it. A sharp paint scheme and signage in many languages brighten up the outside of this hulking building, which feels rather out of place along Northern Blvd. Seafood, including live fish, ...

Gold City Supermarket Owner:  Tisno Hasam Opened:  2003 Cooperative:  none Location:  46-31 Kissena Blvd, Flushing, NY Photographed:  July 2018 Here we see something rather unusual. Gold City is a primarily Chinese supermarket reflecting the predominant population in this section of Flushing. However, owner Tisno Hasam is Indonesian. This is the only Chinese-focused supermarket I can think of (though I am sure there are some) that is not owned by a Chinese-American owner. This building is a modified A&P centennial store built sometime in the early 1960s. Gold City has opened up the interior to make it feel much larger than its somewhat measly 15,000 square feet. It's also of note that the aisles run parallel to the front of the store now.

Food Plus Supermarket Owner:  Carlos Castillo, Jr. Opened:  1996 Cooperative:  Krasdale Location:  44-24 Kissena Blvd, Flushing, NY Photographed:  July 2018 Today we're looking inside one of the very few non-Asian supermarkets in Flushing. Originally a Waldbaum's and later a CTown, this Krasdale-affiliated store remains popular because there are few other choices for standard American-style groceries and Latin and Caribbean products in Flushing. From this video (I have no idea what's going on in it, by the way), we can see that the interior has been lightly renovated, with several areas of new fixtures, new flooring, and a new paint scheme on the walls which I must say looks great with this decor. So let's go in for our own look inside as of summer 2018. Substantial produce department in the first two aisles. The produce runs along the front wall of the store, with deli at the end of the first aisle and meats along the side wall oppos...

Chang Jiang Supermarket Owner:  Qin Zhou Chen Opened:  2007 Cooperative:  none Location:  41-41 Kissena Blvd, Flushing, NY Photographed:  July 2018 There are far too many supermarkets (especially Asian supermarkets) in Flushing for me to have covered them or even most of them in a single trip through. Plus, the day I was in Flushing, I was on a mission -- I was visiting at least one supermarket in each of the five boroughs. I ended up photographing more than 60 stores in that one day. So here's another one I drove by but didn't go into. Interestingly enough, this business is registered under the same person as Jmart (Qin Zhou Chen). Interestingly enough, the interior actually looks much nicer than the exterior might suggest. Check out interior photos here and here .

Jmart Owner:  Qin Zhou Chen Opened:  2009 Cooperative:  none Location:  136-20 Roosevelt Ave, Flushing, NY Photographed:  July 2018 A hulking former Caldor right in downtown Flushing was redeveloped over the course of several years beginning around 2009 into the New World Mall, which today includes many Chinese-focused businesses for the enormous Chinese population in Flushing. One of these businesses is a large Jmart supermarket. Jmart also has opened a gorgeous second location in a former Waldbaum's in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn (see before and after ). That one has been on my to-visit list for a long time but the occasion has never come up.

The northern part of Queens is approximately split in half north-south by a variety of features including the Flushing Bay on the northern end and the Grand Central Parkway, with the Citi Field, the Queens Zoo, the Flushing Meadows Corona Park, and a few other things down the middle. If you think about splitting the borough roughly into four quadrants, it would go like this: northwest, which is what we have been doing, except for Ridgewood which we'll hit at the same time as Bushwick over in Brooklyn; southwest, which includes Woodhaven, Ozone Park, and Richmond Hill; southeast, which includes Jamaica, St. Albans, and the JFK airport; and northeast, Flushing, Bayside, Fresh Meadows, and the northern part of Jamaica. The last one is the quadrant we're attacking next, before we make a brief trip out to Long Island and then back to Queens for the southern quadrants. The eastern half of Queens is far more suburban than the western half, much more like Long Island than the rest ...