National Wholesale Liquidators celebrates grand reopening

Brooklyn’s giant neighborhood National Wholesale Liquidators store held its grand reopening celebration on Tuesday, Feb. 27 at its location at 2201 59th Street, just off Bay Parkway.

The community gathered early to help owners Noah Rosen, Imran Baig, Fahad Shareef and Zulfiqar Bhatti cut the ribbon on the new store.

How the friends joined together to manage the new store is an empowering story of religious and cultural unity because while Rosen is of the Orthodox Jewish faith, his partners are all devout Muslims.

They all get along well and are thrilled to be working together in their new venture. “They’re very nice, sensitive guys,” Rosen said. “They pray a lot and I’m honored that they pray in front of me. It works.”

Rosen explained that the original Brooklyn-based company first opened its doors in 2000. “I was a small partner through my father and his father,” Rosen recalled. “We had a nice business here until 2018 when business suffered and the company unfortunately went out of business.”

Three of the original store managers ultimately decided they wanted to keep the business going. “We got funds together and were able to buy the lease to this store and one other, and we bought the name and decided to make a go of it,” said Rosen.

Attending the ribbon-cutting ceremony were state Sen. Simcha Felder, Democratic District Leader Ari Kagan, Clio Markman representing U.S. Rep. Max Rose and Rabbi Levi Shemtov of the Chabad of Riverdale, who delivered the blessing.

The renowned discount-bargain store offers customers a wide variety of goods including food, furniture, automotive products, household needs, pet supplies, sporting goods, video games, luggage and linens.

And all the new managers have a strong resume of business-related accomplishments. For example, Baig has been a district manager and operations officer for 25 years, Shareef was a manager in the Flushing, Queens branch of the store and Bhatti owned an electronics concession inside one of the stores.

“We’re guys who’ve known each other for many years who all came together to do this,” Rosen said. “Combined, we probably have 80 years of experience between us and we’ve all done managing, buying and various bits of all the other important stuff.”

Rosen views the store as being community-oriented. “We are trying to be a piece of the puzzle to help fit people’s financial needs, community needs and social needs,” he said. “Sometimes people come into the store and just want to talk, and that’s okay. It’s really a community.”

“I’m very happy because National Wholesale Liquidators is a very famous brand,” said Kagan. “It has a central location, and I’m sure thousands and thousands of families from all over Brooklyn and probably New York City come here to buy everything.

“But most importantly, we need a store like this,” he added. “In a time of Amazon, it’s nice to have an old-time shop where you see and touch the items you are buying. And the best part is the bargain prices.”