By:Karenlyn Barone
Just beyond the deli counter, surrounded by shelves of milk and eggs, Edith Muller, 84, stood wiping her eyes. She was out early Friday morning doing her usual shopping at the East Rockaway Stop & Shop and had just heard the news. The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company has announced plans to close the East Rockaway location.
"I'm having a fit," she cried. "I've been shopping here for more than 50 years and I think it's rotten that they're doing this."
The announcement that the corporate office has decided to cease doing business here is a shock to a village full of loyal shoppers. Intensifying the shock is the news that there is little hope for another grocery store to take its place. Reportedly, the lease that Stop & Shop has with previous owner, Foodtown, states that the store cannot be replaced with another grocer.
East Rockaway residents are not taking the news lying down. At an East Rockaway Village Board meeting on Monday, residents pleaded with the mayor, Joseph Carrigan, to aide them in their fight to keep Stop & Shop from closing down on Sept. 6. While the mayor pledged his support and lent his signature to one of many petitions circulating the room, he was candid in saying that he felt their pleas would fall on deaf ears.
"Unfortunately, these mega-corporations don't consider the local people," said Carrigan. "But this will be devastating to our community."
Community members also met in a rally on Tuesday night that attracted the attention of local news stations and drew the support of the village board trusteees and Town of Hempstead Councilman Anthony Santino (R-East Rockaway), who has vowed to take action on behalf of the community. Petitions have been initiated by Siobhan Kearns and Margaret Plows in an attempt to convince the company to change its mind about closing the store.
"I will absolutely not patronize this company at another location," said Kearns. "If they close our store, I will boycott them. They will not get my money."
While store management, following corporate orders, declined to comment, Stop & Shop corporate management did issue a statement saying the store is not suited to modern supermarket use. "We looked at ways to improve and update the store, but the small antiquated space didn't allow us to offer our customers the services they expect from Stop & Shop," said company spokeswoman Faith Weiner. "We apologize to our customers for any inconvenience this may cause."
The company operates 339 stores throughout Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, New York and New Jersey, and employs more than 57,000 associates.
"Stop & Shop is actively negotiating with a tenant for the site," Weiner's statement continued. "It will not be a supermarket."
In what residents are calling an insensitive response to their pleas to keep the store open, Stop & Shop is merely encouraging residents to visit their nearby locations in Oceanside and Inwood. "I want to shop here," said Muller. "The store in Oceanside is way too big for me, and the aisles are about a mile long. I can't walk that."
East Rockaway is home to many elderly residents like Muller, who will now be forced to shop elsewhere. After Stop & Shop closes, the nearest grocery store will be Pathmark, further down Atlantic Avene in Oceanside.
"I depend on this store," said Dottie Clark, 76, who walks to the East Rockaway Stop & Shop every day. "I don't drive. I walk, and I need this store for my survival."
In the 1950s, there were houses on the corner lot of Atlantic and Rhame avenues that were eventually torn down, and, to the thrill of residents, a grocery store opened. Through the years, the store has changed hands several times, and 594 Atlantic Ave. has been home to Foodtown, Edwards and most recently Stop & Shop.
Residents are concerned not only by how the store's closing will affect their daily lives, but also the lives of the store workers they have come to know over the years. Many of the chain's employees are also residents of the community and are on a first-name basis with their customers.
Patty Pampino, a lifelong East Rockaway resident and a Stop & Shop employee, was deeply saddened by the news of the store's closing. "I'm sorry to see them go," she said. "The store is small, there is no room to expand and they want out. I feel bad for the community, especially the seniors, that we're losing a supermarket."
Residents also say they will not only be inconvenienced, but will miss the personal touch this small neighborhood store has offered them for so many years. "It's very sad. My parents shopped here and my children all worked here," said lifelong resident Pat Nelson, the mother of five grown children. "There are so many elderly residents that need this store."
Nelson tells the story of an elderly, blind neighbor named Kay, who calls the store before she leaves her house, and when she arrives, an employee walks her through her grocery shopping and then escorts her back home.
"Where is she going to shop now?" Nelson wondered.
