New Asian grocery store Shop Fresh filling need in New Hyde Park, co-owner says

Emma Lu and Jerry Wang saw an opportunity with a space vacated by an Indian grocery store in New Hyde Park.

It gave the married couple a chance to bring an Asian grocer, with fresh produce and live seafood, to a prime location where there was a need, so they opened a Shop Fresh supermarket in March, said Lu, of Great Neck.

Some customers have said that before the store opened they had been “traveling to Flushing, [Queens], very far,” she said at the bustling supermarket Saturday morning.

The supermarket’s owners spent more than $4 million on renovations, equipment and inventory before opening the store, located at 2046 Lakeville Rd., Lu said.

The store employs 45 people, said the manager, Shirley Yang.

Renovations started last summer at the space, which previously was occupied by Indian grocery store Apna Bazar, from August 2018 until December 2021, said Marvin Hartman, a Pliskin Realty & Development Inc. broker who represents the shopping center’s Commack-based landlord, Home Base Realty Corp., in leasing.

The Shop Fresh has a 20-year lease for 24,000 square feet split between two floors, but the basement is used for storage, he said.

Under parent company Seasonfresh Supermarket of NY Inc., the grocery store was initially called Seasonfresh. But to avoid confusion with another store with a similar name, Lu and Wang changed the signage to Shop Fresh, she said.

The store sells Asian products, mostly Chinese, as well as Japanese and Korean foods. Shop Fresh also carries products that would be found in mainstream grocery stores, such as Jif and Skippy peanut butter, Prego spaghetti sauce and Pringles potato chips.

The bestselling section in Shop Fresh is the full-service live seafood department, which includes shrimp, lobster, crabs and fish, Lu said.

Also popular are the Chinese, Japanese and Korean dumplings; fish balls for hot pots; fresh produce; and Japanese beauty products, she said.

All the signs bearing products’ names and prices are in Mandarin Chinese and English throughout the store.

Natives of China, both Lu and Wang work in real estate.

Wang is the founder and chairman of a Great Neck-based real estate investment company, W&H Group LLC, where Lu is a manager, she said.

They decided to venture into retail because they wanted to try their hand at something new, and they also saw a need for an Asian grocery store in New Hyde Park, she said.

Because of its convenient location, the new store is drawing customers from Bayside, Queens; Jericho; Manhasset; Great Neck; and other areas, Lu said.

They often say “our … fruit and vegetables [are] fresh, and the price is very fair,” she said.

By Tory N. Parrish

tory.parrish@newsday.comToryParrish1

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.