Update: July 17, 2012 at 12:10 p.m. Associated supermarket will not be leaving Malverne afterall. Carlos Pichardo, one of the managers of the Hempstead Avenue store, notified Patch Tuesday afternoon that the management team met this morning and decided to reverse the decision to shut down the business. Click here for the story.
Orginal Story Published July 16, 2012
Just 16 months after , in Malverne is going out of business again.
Carlos Pichardo, one of the managers of the Hempstead Avenue store, told Patch Monday that the store will be closing this week, most likely Wednesday. The decision was made over the weekend.
Associated had shut down in December 2010, but under the same name but with a new management team on March 17, 2011. The store held a the following month, where residents praised the steps taken by the new managers, Pichardo and Noel Collado, to make the store cleaner, the service friendler and the selection of products far better than before.
However, according to Pichardo, business during the past year and a half has not been good.
"You have your loyal customers and people who stop in every now and then to pick up a couple of items, but you can't survive on that," he said. "We tried ... we probably held on to the store [longer] than we should have, but you can't just keep putting money into something."
Did you shop at Associated? Share your thoughts in the space below.
I urge all residents to heed the call to shop locally and support our Malverne Merchants. They are there for us on a consistent basis...it is our time to be there for them.
And who in their right mind would pay $7 for 48 ounces of ice cream when they could get it on sale for $2.50 in nearby Franklin Square? What needs to go here is a specialty store, like a cheese emporium and produce market. The suggestion for a Trader Joes type store is also a good one. A parking situation in which you must cross a street to your car could also be a hindrance. Ten years ago a major parking study was done and it's experts suggested bringing the parking lot right up to the stores, doing away with Francis Street in the process. They maintained that this would not only create additional parking spaces, but create a more direct access to shopping. Maybe it's time for that idea to get another look.