Stop & Shop closing 4 Long Island ‘underperforming’ supermarkets

Stop & Shop will close 32 “underperforming” supermarkets, including four on Long Island, by early November, the grocer said Friday.

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

The stores will close on or before Nov. 2, the Quincy, Massachusetts-based chain said.

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

Stop & Shop is the largest grocer on Long Island.

Its 50 stores on the Island account for 31.6% of the market share, according to Food Trade News, a Columbia, Maryland-based publication.

But the growth of discount and other nontraditional grocers has been creating more competition for Stop & Shop.

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.

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