King Kullen closing 2 supermarkets in Nassau County
Amazon is eyeing the King Kullen supermarket in Glen Cove for a possible Amazon Fresh store, a real estate official said. Credit: Newsday/Steve Pfost
King Kullen will close two of its Nassau County supermarkets next month, but the grocer won’t say why.
The King Kullen at 206 New Hyde Park Rd. in Franklin Square will close July 14, after 48 years in Franklin Plaza, said Lloyd Singer, spokesman for the grocer.
The other store, at 77 Forest Ave. in Glen Cove, will close July 28, after 20 years, he said.
Amazon is considering opening an Amazon Fresh grocery store in the 38,000-square-foot Glen Cove space, said Norman Bobrow, of Bobrow Bros LLC, the Queens-based owner of the Glen Cove shopping center.
The Seattle-based ecommerce giant declined to comment on whether it has grocery store plans for Glen Cove. Amazon Fresh stores allow shoppers to pay digitally without going through checkout lanes.
The King Kullen stores will be closed upon the expiration of their leases, Singer said, adding that there will be no layoffs. “In both cases, employees will be reassigned or offered positions at other King Kullen locations," he said. King Kullen declined to say how many workers the two stores employ.
Most of the employees are unionized, and they are represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 1500 in Westbury and Local 342 in Mineola.
UFCW Local 342 is “involved in communicating and working with the employer to ensure that every member is placed to another store,” said spokeswoman Riley Martin, who said Local 342 represents three employees in the meat department at the Franklin Square store and six employees in the seafood and meat department in the Glen Cove store.
UFCW Local 1500 did not respond to Newsday's requests for comment.
After the closures, Hauppauge-based King Kullen Grocery Co. Inc. will have 27 King Kullen supermarkets and five Wild by Nature natural food stores, all on Long Island. It is the largest family-owned grocery chain left on Long Island.
The closest King Kullen to the Glen Cove store is 8.7 miles away in Manhasset. The closest King Kullen to the 20,000-square-foot Franklin Square supermarket is 2.7 miles away in Garden City Park.
Amazon has three Amazon Fresh stores under construction in former supermarket spaces on Long Island — in Plainview, East Setauket and Oceanside.
The Oceanside store will be the first Amazon Fresh in New York state, Amazon said in May, but it has declined to disclose when the store will open.
In its application submitted in February to the state Department of Agriculture and Markets for a retail food store license, the retailer said the Oceanside store's estimated opening date is Sept. 1, the state agency said.
Tory N. Parrish covers retail and small business for Newsday. She has worked at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y.
