Ideal Food Basket sets grand opening

About six weeks after it opened its doors for business, the new Ideal Food Basket will host its grand opening on Feb. 5, the head of the store’s co-op announced.

Dan Cabassa, the chief executive officer of Lake Success-based America’s Food Basket, the cooperative that includes the Ideal store, last week said Ideal faced a “series of small delays” that all contributed to the delay in the grand opening. Those delays ranged from problems with the shop’s point of sales communications system to getting the product mix right.

“It was a series of hiccups,” Cabassa said. “That’s why we like to do soft openings. You don’t get off the ground as you should. We’re trying to get as close to perfection as possible.”

He said store workers focused on carrying items that they believe, based on research, local customers want.

The grand opening of the Ideal Food Basket, 856-874 Merrick Rd., follows by about six weeks the grand opening of the Gala Fresh Farms supermarket, 2485 Grand Ave. Gala Fresh opened to great acclaim and positive reviews from customers who were asked.

A third store, a new Stop&Shop, had its grand opening in November. The Stop&Shop, 905 Atlantic Ave., took over the space previously occupied by Waldbaum’s. Waldbaum’s and Pathmark, 1764 Grand Ave., both shuttered their doors when their owner, A&P, filed for bankruptcy. The future of the Pathmark site remains uncertain.

“It’s a shame that the Pathmark doesn’t have a taker” Cabassa said. “Not for us. The site in that corridor has  gone through some challenges.”

Cabassa said the Ideal hasn’t hired anyone who formerly worked at Waldbaum’s or Pathmark. Nevertheless, he said, the majority of the 30 new employees are from Baldwin.

“We try to work with the Department of Labor” when hiring, he said. “We go there for every [new] store. [The Baldwin] store, we filled from within the community. One thing we take pride in is hiring from within the community.”

He noted that many positions in the non-union shop were part time jobs. “Not everyone can work full time,” he said, although “key positions” are filled by full-timers.

He said the Food Basket’s point of sales system “tells us when we have activity, what hours of the day” need staffing.