Stop & Shop Closing 4 ‘Underperforming’ Long Island Supermarkets

The Long Island branches that are closing are Greenvale, at 130 Wheatley Plaza; Coram, at 294 Middle Country Rd.; Hempstead, at 132 Fulton Ave.; and East Meadow, at 2525 Hempstead Tpke.

The 32 closed stores, located in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island, will close no later than Nov. 2, the Quincy, Massachusetts-based retailer said.

“Stop & Shop is proud of the deep roots and community connections we have developed as a neighborhood grocer for more than 100 years, and we remain committed to nourishing our associates, customers and communities,” Stop & Shop President Gordon Reid said in a statement. “As we announced in May, Stop & Shop evaluated our entire store portfolio and made the difficult decision to close underperforming stores to create a healthy foundation for the future growth of our brand.”

No employees will be laid off due to the store closures, Stop & Shop said.

“They will have the opportunity to transfer to other nearby stores,” said Daniel Wolk, a Stop & Shop spokesman.

Local unions, which began meeting with affected employees Friday, said they are working to ensure Stop & Shop keeps its promise that workers will not lose their jobs.

“These are the same people who helped workers get through the pandemic and we want to make sure they are still considered essential. That’s the first and most important thing. What we’ve learned from COVID is how important these jobs are,” said Aly Y. Waddy, secretary-treasurer of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union in Woodbury.

Stop & Shop declined to say how many employees worked at the closed stores. But union locals, which represent all store employees except managers, provided some information.

The union’s locals represent a total of about 420 workers at the four Long Island stores that are closing. Here’s the breakdown:

• UFCW Local 1500 represents 258 employees working as cashiers and stock clerks, as well as in the produce, dairy, frozen foods, bakery, accounting, price integrity and maintenance departments at Stop & Shop stores in Coram, Greenvale and Hempstead, Waddy said.
• About 100 people working in those positions, as well as in the deli department, at the East Meadow store are represented by the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union/UFCW Local 338 in Mineola, said Nikki Kateman, political and communications director.
• Additionally, UFCW Local 342 represents about 60 meat, seafood and deli workers at the Coram, Greenvale and Hempstead stores, and only meat and seafood workers at the East Meadow store, said Keeley Lampo, activities and communications director for the Staten Island local.

The 32 store closings will leave Stop & Shop with 359 supermarkets in five states: 81 stores in Connecticut, 115 in Massachusetts, 47 in New Jersey, 91 in New York and 25 in Rhode Island.

More choice

Owned by Dutch company Ahold Delhaize, Stop & Shop is the largest grocery store on Long Island.

Its 50 stores on the island account for 31.6 percent of the market share, according to Food Trade News, a publication based in Columbia, Maryland.

Dominant in New England, Stop & Shop arrived in the metro area in the mid-1990s with the acquisition of several regional chains, said Jeff Metzger, publisher of Food Trade News.

But Stop & Shop is a traditional supermarket that faces increasing competition from discount and specialty grocers, he said.

On Long Island, that includes upscale grocer Whole Foods Market, which has six stores, three of which have opened since 2019. Whole Foods plans to open a store in Huntington Station on Wednesday and one in Holbrook in 2025.

German discount grocer Aldi has 13 stores on Long Island, including four opened in the past two years, and plans to open three stores in Central Islip, East Northport and Medford this year, and two stores in Bethpage and Lake Ronkonkoma in 2025.

Another German discounter, Lidl, which now has 24 stores on Long Island, entered the local market in 2019, when the retailer’s U.S. arm completed its purchase from Bethpage-based Best Market of 27 stores in New Jersey and New York, including the 24 on the island.

“So there’s a lot more (grocery) selection and there’s a lot more overstocking in general. And there’s a lot less customer loyalty and more cross-shopping,” said Metzger, who also said Stop & Shop has been too slow to modernize its stores.

Dissatisfied with Stop & Shop’s results, Ahold has been working on an improvement plan that includes remodeling stores and right-sizing the store portfolio. As of May, more than half of the stores had been remodeled, “and those stores are performing well,” Frans Muller, Ahold’s chairman and chief executive, told analysts on a May 8 earnings call.

“We want to increase our market share on a like-for-like basis with Stop & Shop. We have several strategies in this regard. Private label is one of them, with price competitiveness and loyalty promotions in the mix,” he said.