Billy’s Marketplace in Ridgewood Queens is a new store for a changing community.

When you walk into Billy’s Marketplace in Ridgewood, Queens, you see three things. A variety of organic produce is front and center, flanked on either side by Peet’s Coffee Bar and Birreria craft beer bar with 16 beers on tap. Move toward the back and you’ll come to the prepared foods section. You’ll find an assortment of marinated olives, international cheeses, and freshly baked breads. Then there are the processed foods and beverages that reside in the heart of every supermarket. There are Lay’s chips and Coca-Colas, but there are also isles full of Central and South American products like Caridom cassava bread and Mazola corn oil. Rather than being delegated to a third of an isle, the Latin American selection permeates most of the store from the freshly prepared empanadas to the endless selection of Mexican sodas. This hip new store isn’t your typical Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s.

Billy’s says a lot about Ridgewood. As soon as you step off of the L/M subway stop at Myrtle-Wycoff Avenue, you get a sense of the rich Hispanic history of the neighborhood from the people to the food trucks that are permanently busy. Ridgewood isn’t a traditionally affluent neighborhood. But with City Data reporting an average doubling of household income in some sections of the neighborhood since 2000, this is quickly changing. Walk to Cypress Avenue and you see young white people, overpriced coffee shops, and hipster clothes stores. Ridgewood is sandwiched between the predominately white neighborhoods of Middle Village and Glendale to the north-east, and the gentrified neighborhood of Bushwick to the south-west. This demographic is pushing its way into Ridgewood.

I speak with long time resident and general manager of the store Kelvin Rodriguez. He is in charge of each department, top to bottom, of the store his family owns. I want to know how gentrification is not only affecting Ridgewood, but its businesses as well. How does this new store manage two communities living in one neighborhood?

Kelvin: [unprompted] We’re family owned; the family’s originally from Ridgewood. We moved here in the 70s from the Dominican Republic, and we grew up here, and so if there’s any family that’s gonna know Ridgewood, it’s gonna be us…We knew the area was changing, but we didn’t want to forget about what it was in the past as well. That’s why when you walk into the store you see old photos of Ridgewood, that’s why you see the street names as the isle marker… It’s an old school feel that’s still in with the new. We offer a lot of stuff that the newer generation likes, like the prepared foods, the organic items, the specialty items, that a lot of people didn’t cater to in this neighborhood…That’s how we decided to build the store.

Elizabeth: When did you first become interested in having a store that serves this community?

K: The location opened up 4 to 5 years ago. We had the opportunity to purchase the property…This is not our first location…But then we came up with this new concept, going away from our old banner, and now creating a new banner.

E: Could you describe the older markets?

K: We currently have one on Havemayer and 1st in Brooklyn. But that one’s called C-Town. And it does have the Billy’s Marketplace logo but it’s still with the C-Town brand. And then here we came up with a completely new concept with things that we don’t do in any other store, like we have a beer bar…and we also have a Peet’s Coffee shop.

E: Was there any reason that you really wanted this beer bar, this coffee bar?

K: It was about being different, it was about creating an experience where people still might be hesitant because it’s something…that people aren’t used to.

E: Because Ridgewood is a very important aspect of this store, could you describe some of the changes that you’ve noticed going on in the communnity?

K: We have noticed that there’s more millennials coming into the area now, people that are getting away from the city because there are cheaper rents in this area…But there’s a lot of change when it come to property development…And because of that there’s a lot of influx of a vast variety of people. I’ve noticed a lot of Europeans coming in. It’s a very diverse community, and we’ve seen that with the customers that come in. And that’s why the store was built, basically for the masses. It’s not just the organics and the prepared foods, but we kept a lot of the traditional items as well.

E: [on hiring practices] Is it particularly important to look for people who are a part of the community?

K: Yes, that is the best. Typically when someone is a part of the community it’s good because…they know the area, they know the customer…You might get people that come in and they feel more welcome, they know that person already…It’s not always easy to find somebody from the community, but it is always best.

E: What do you see for the future of this store?

K: This business is going to grow every day as the area changes…There’s a lot of development and we think this store will succeed.

E: Brooklyn in general, and now Queens too, has really changed a lot by gentrification. Would you say that that’s what’s going on in the Ridgewood community?

K: I do see a bit of gentrification when it comes to the Ridgewood community. But I don’t think that everyone is coming into this area as if it’s being gentrified…But I would say there are a lot of millennials coming….Rents in the area are skyrocketing…A lot of people are saying that Ridgewood is going to be the new Williamsburg. But I don’t think so…It’s still gonna be a low-key vibe. And the community’s still pushing to keep it that way.

E: Did that thought ever come up while you were planning out the store?

K: When it came to building the store with new concepts, you gotta have an open minded customer because it’s something new. It’s like you walk in and you get a slap in the face…But I do think that everything with time could change.

E: How do you try to get those older customers in who are shocked and maybe a little off-put?

K: That’s the toughest thing…[We] try to advertise to those customers that we do have their products, that we do have affordable pricing. A lot of customers when they see such a big change they think that prices might be higher, which they’re really not…We know what prices are in the area…We need to cater to these people.

E: What’s the most popular item in the store, do you think, and why is it so popular?

K: The number one item in the store is bananas. It usually is.…People always like bananas.