By Kathianne Boniello
A manager at the Edwards store who did not give her name said the supermarket – about a mile from the Nassau County line – was slated to close Dec. 9. The only other major supermarket in Little Neck/Douglaston area was a Grand Union on the corner of Marathon Parkway and Northern Boulevard, which closed in October.
Edwards supermarkets throughout the metropolitan area are being taken over by the Quincy, Mass.-based Stop & Shop Supermarket Co., but the manager at the Great Neck location said the store would not become a Stop & Shop and declined to comment further.
Fred Colin, of Colin Management and Construction in Manhasset, said his company was in the process of looking for another supermarket to lease the Grand Union property on the corner of Northern Boulevard and Marathon Parkway. Colin said he would like the space to be filled by the end of the year.
The Grand Union Co. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from its creditors in New Jersey in early October. Earlier this month the company sold the majority of its assets to C&S Wholesale Grocers Inc. for more than $300 million. The sale of the company's Little Neck site was not connected to the company's recent activities.
An administrator in the Great Neck Chamber of Commerce said the store, which is near the Great Neck railroad station at the intersection of Middle Neck Road and Great Neck Road, had not contacted the town about a change in ownership.
“It's all rumors so far,” said David Lurie, a past president and current administrative secretary with the Great Neck Chamber of Commerce.
Calls to the corporate headquarters of both Stop & Shop and Giant Foods, which owns Edwards, were not returned as of press time.
The loss of both Grand Union and Edwards leaves shoppers in the Little Neck/Douglaston Manor/Douglaston Hill communities without a major supermarket north of the Grand Central Parkway or Long Island Expressway for Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Year's.
The nearest major grocery store is a Waldbaum's in the Douglaston Plaza shopping center, at the intersection of Douglaston Parkway and the LIE.
Grand Union sits on a large piece of property near the heart of the Little Neck shopping district.
