Met Fresh Supermarket is coming to Whitestone and local residents are thrilled.
It’s been nearly three years since the community lost Strawberry Farms Supermarket in a fiery blaze in 2016. Today, Danny Hamdan, owner/operator of Met Fresh Supermarket, is looking forward to welcoming the community soon to their grand opening.
“People come up to us everyday. We have people at my door every single day,” said Hamdan. “I haven’t came here without someone actually stopping in their car at the traffic light, rolling down their window asking when we’re going to open, what are we going to have, or someone walking by saying they’re excited.”
With three Met Fresh Supermarket locations in Brooklyn, this will be the first Met Fresh location in Queens, reconstructing the former site at 24-11 150th St. The new site was previously occupied Strawberry Farms Supermarket, which was a staple in the community.
The beloved food market had been in the neighborhood for over 30 years, after a three-alarm fire started on the ground floor destroying M&M Dry Cleaners and Laundromat, where more than 100 firefighters had worked overnight to extinguish the flames.
“People have told us there is no neighborhood supermarket in this area, everything else is over past the highway, well over a mile away,” said Hamdan. “We will have essentially all of the products and a lot more.”
Known for its walk-in beer cave, Met Fresh Supermarket will have a huge produce section, a butcher with a meat department, a seafood department with fresh fish, and an American grocery supermarket with a circular, along with imports and speciality foods, according to Hamdan.
“We’ll have a dairy/frozen section, a large deli and selection of bread. It’s going to be a full-service supermarket, and we strive on providing customer service,” said Hamdan. “We have free delivery … we’re a neighborhood store, where we’ll walk everyone to their car and make sure everything is okay.”
Although there isn’t a set date yet, Met Fresh Supermarket is expected to be open at the end of March or beginning of April, said Hamdan. They’re currently in the process of bringing in products and working on refrigeration.
“It’s not about doing business that day, it’s about getting to know the neighborhood and we’re very excited,” said Hamdan. “It’s going to be a neighborhood market and we’re going to be a one-stop shop.”
