Shoppers World opens first LI discount store, in Green Acres Mall

Discount retailer Shoppers World has made its entrance onto Long Island.

The family-owned chain opened its first Long Island store — a 73,000-square-foot, two-level location — in Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream on Sept. 30, said Sam A. Dushey, president of the Manhattan-based retailer.

The new store is in an anchor space that had been vacated by off-price retailer Century 21 in September 2020 after its parent company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Shoppers World sells discounted clothes, accessories and home furnishings at 42 stores in 13 states, including New Jersey, Connecticut and Indiana. Six of the stores are in New York – four in Brooklyn, one in Queens and one in Valley Stream.

Dushey’s grandfather, Sam Dushey Sr., founded the business in the 1930s in Baltimore.

Green Acres Mall was a logical choice for a new store, Sam A. Dushey said.

"First of all, we found that a lot of customers that were coming to us in Jamaica [Queens] were coming from Long Island. It’s such a major hub," he said.

By December, Shoppers World will have opened five new stores this year, including a location that opened in another former Century 21 space, in Fashion District Philadelphia, in June, Sam A. Dushey said.

The retailer plans to open 10 to 15 stores a year, but this year’s plans were curtailed by the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.

Aside from Shoppers World, the only anchors left inside Green Acres Mall are Macy’s and a Macy’s Men’s & Furniture.

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.