Upscale grocer The Fresh Market closing Smithtown store

Upscale specialty grocer The Fresh Market will close its store in Smithtown this summer, the chain announced in an email to customers.

“This was not an easy decision to make, and we are incredibly grateful for your support and patronage over the years. We will miss being a part of your everyday and being a part of your wonderful community,” the Greensboro, North Carolina-based retailer wrote in an email to customers Friday morning.

The company's corporate headquarters could not be immediately reached for comment Friday.

The Smithtown store employs 67 full- and part-time workers, who were told Thursday that their last day of work would be July 31, if not earlier, an employee told Newsday on Friday. 

Opened in 2015, the Smithtown store occupies a 24,099-square-foot space at 138 E. Main St. in the Branch Plaza shopping center.

The store is The Fresh Market's only location on Long Island, since the retailer closed its 3½-year-old Woodbury store in May 2017. 

Founded in 1982, The Fresh Market Inc. has 172 stores in 22 states. The chain has opened 12 new stores in the last six months, including locations that opened in April in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina; Jensen Beach, Florida; and Wethersfield, Connecticut.

The chain describes itself as a “fresh-focused specialty food retailer” on its website.

“The Fresh Market is a destination for those looking to discover the best including convenient, restaurant-quality meals, hand-picked produce, premium baked goods, fresh-cut flowers, custom-cut meats and carefully curated offerings for holidays and special occasions,” the website states.

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.