Whole Foods Market, the popular grocery store chain owned by Amazon, officially signed a 15 year lease for a property at 55-60 Myrtle Ave. in Ridgewood. The chain now has over 16 stores in New York City, from Harlem to Bay Ridge, with one location in Long Island City slated for 2028 and the newly discovered Ridgewood location to be the first two built in Queens.
The 28,000-square-foot space encompasses the entire lot in the former Beaux-Arts historical bank building.
No opening date has yet to be announced and news of the incoming supermarket titan only broke when the company filed the paperwork with the city late last week.
“As Whole Foods prepares to open its doors in Ridgewood in my district, I call on the company to demonstrate its commitment to being a responsible and engaged neighbor by taking concrete steps to benefit our community,” said Assembly Member Jenifer Rajkumar in a statement. “As the chain seeks to join the Ridgewood family, it is critical that it recognize its role in supporting the local residents and small businesses that make Ridgewood thrive.”
Rajkumar, a member of the Food Farm Policy Taskforce in the state Assembly, called on the grocery chain to be a “good cooperate citizen” and make an effort to benefit the community by hiring locals from workforce, sell local products and commit surplus food to nearby pantries or food drives. The assemblymember also requested that Whole Foods Marketplace accept all SNAP/EBT, Over-the-counter (OTC) benefit cards, as well as other “nutrition and benefit programs.”
“Whole Foods has an opportunity to prove that it can be a true partner in building a stronger, healthier, and more connected Ridgewood. I look forward to holding the company accountable and ensuring that our community always benefits from its presence.” Rajkumar said.
The grocery chain currently accepts SNAP/EBT for all eligible items at both self and standard checkout, but does not accept OTC, despite a push last year by Council Member Christopher Marte to get major grocer stores to begin accepting the cards as payment. Separate from SNAP benefits, OTC cards are for individuals enrolled in Medicare Advantage, the program that subsidizes healthcare through private insurers, and can be used to pay for non-prescription medicine or healthy, fresh foods at grocery stores, depending on the card-holder’s policy.
A representative of Whole Foods Marketplace confirmed the signing of the lease, but could not make any further comments at this time.
“There are so many independent well-stocked grocery stores and markets in Queens why would anyone give Jeff Bezos any more business?” wrote a user on the Queens Reddit page.
The newest location on Myrtle Avenue is just one block away from a family owned and Ridgewood centric grocery store: Billy’s Marketplace. Owned by Billy Rodriguez and his family, who were raised in Ridgewood, the grocery store took special care to wrap in the neighborhoods history and features local street signs for the aisles and iconic black-and-white photos hung around. The family opened the store eight years ago and has made an effort to keep up to date with trends, including a bar with local beer on-tap and expanding its vegan section.
“The only thing that we had to do here to be different is offer the things that everyone else doesn’t have,” General Manager Kelvin Rodriguez told QNS in 2017 before its grand opening. “Because why have another, same exact store doing the same exact thing? So we had to cater to a wider range of people.”
QNS reached out to the Myrtle Avenue BID for a request for comment on the incoming grocery store and is waiting for a response.
