Little Neck Residents Protest Planned Stop & Shop Closure

LITTLE NECK, QUEENS — Residents of Little Neck are banding together to convince Stop & Shop not to follow through on plans to close its location in the neighborhood.

Janel Doddo, one of the residents leading the campaign, said the closure would leave Little Neck without a supermarket and make getting groceries difficult for seniors and neighbors who do not drive.

"It would definitely be a supermarket desert," Doddo told Patch. "It's not even like we have a mom and pop vegetable stand."

Doddo knows firsthand what that is like: She was around when Little Neck lost the Grand Union supermarket in 2000. To get groceries, she had to drive across the county line into New Hyde Park.

Grand Union's departure left the neighborhood without a major supermarket until 2003, when Stop & Shop opened, according to news reports at the time.

"It was definitely something that was missing," Doddo said.

Last month, Stop & Shop confirmed rumors that it planned to close the Little Neck location, after the chain determined the store at 249-26 Northern Boulevard was "underperforming," Patch previously reported.

A Change.org petition opposing the plan has since drawn more than a thousand signatures.

If the Stop & Shop closes, employees would lose their jobs and residents would have to rely on 7/11 or CVS, or pay extra to get groceries delivered, Doddo said.

The closest supermarkets would be the H-Mart in Great Neck, the new Food Bazaar in Douglaston or the Stop & Shop in Bayside.

She and other neighbors hope Stop & Shop will change its mind, or that another supermarket chain will open in its place.

A Stop & Shop spokesperson told Patch the chain intends to operate the store through 2021 and has not set an exact closing date.