Stop & Shop is a go in Huntington village.
On Friday morning, store officials marked the grand opening of the grocery’s newest Huntington location on Wall Street, where Waldbaums once was.
Employees were all smiles as Fred Myers, the store’s manager, cut a ceremonial ribbon to celebrate the business’s opening. He thanked the staff for helping prepare the store for its first day. He also presented a check for $2,000 to National Youth Empowerment, Inc., a Huntington Station organization.
“We’re excited to serve Huntington,” he said.
Offering a better selection of organic foods and sporting a sleeker, more sophisticated and flowing layout than some of its sister stores on the Island, Stop & Shop seeks to serve its patrons in new ways.
“It’s just what the customer wants,” Tony Armellino, the company’s district director said.
Stop & Shop also has stores in Dix Hills, East Northport, Northport and Woodbury.
Shoppers who came by to pick up some groceries on Friday morning said they liked what they saw. A longtime patron of Wauldbaums, Susan Collins, of Huntington, said the store looks great.
“I like the people who work here,” she said, noting that the company retained much of the Wauldbaums staff. She especially likes that the company preserved the Wauldbaums deli staff, “because they make going to the deli fun and not a chore.”
Angel Schmitt, another Huntington shopper, said she thinks they did a “great job” with the store design.
“It’s so clean and it’s very convenient for me.”
This location was just one of six the company was expected to open today, according to Tom Dailey, of C&S Wholesale Grocers, and one of 25 stores to open in the greater New York region after the end of a five-week period.
Dailey said he feels it’s going to be a nice store, in part because of its size — its not too big or small.
“Grocery stores are communities,” he said. “This still feels like a store that’s part of a community where you’re not walking into a warehouse.”
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