Golden Farms Supermarket, new Hempstead village grocery store, a family effort

The new Golden Farms Supermarket in the Village of Hempstead is a family affair, as competition for grocery sales grows fiercer on Long Island.

Three members of the Diaz family, all Nassau County residents who grew up working in their parents’ bodegas in Queens and Brooklyn, have ventured into retail food sales on their own with Golden Farms in Hempstead Village.

Opened on March 20 at 210 Henry St., the full-service supermarket, which has deli, meat and seafood departments, sells mainstream American products, as well as those popular with Caribbean and Latin and South American communities, said JD Azcona Diaz, who manages the store with his cousins — brothers David and Roy Diaz, who are the owner and assistant manager, respectively.

"You will find all the national brands ... and we incorporate stuff that comes from different countries, different cultures to try to, you know, cater to everybody within the community," Azcona Diaz said.

Global flavors

Of the village’s estimated 59,569 residents in 2024, 45.3% were Hispanic or Latino, 45% were Black and 38.6% were foreign-born, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Golden Farms has a wide array of food from various countries, including Spanish olive oils; Mexican tamales; plantains, a starchy tropical fruit; yucca, a starchy root vegetable similar to a potato; frozen jocotes, which are Spanish plums; and Central and South American cheeses.

Among the sirloin steak, pork chops and ground beef on ice are beef oxtails, smoked cow feet, beef tripe, pig feet and pork rib belly.

Since it’s opening a month ago, the supermarket has been working to smooth out kinks and make inventory changes ahead of a May 1 grand opening event, Azcona Diaz said.

The grocer has doubled the number of products it sells, based on feedback from customers, he said.

The supermarket’s responsiveness to customers’ preferences is what makes the store different from more-mainstream supermarkets, he said.

Golden Farms’ produce department is the strongest section in the store, Azcona Diaz said.

"People nowadays, [are] being a little bit more conscious about what ... they eat and keep themselves healthy. And produce is the No. 1 healthy food. And anything you actually cook or bake, you need produce ingredients," he said.

Golden Farms is a member of the Key Food Stores Co-Operative Inc., a Matawan, New Jersey-based supplier and retail cooperative whose member stores are independently owned and operated.

The Hempstead store employs about 25 part- and full-time workers but the Diaz family would like to have 70 to 80, Azcona Diaz said

Finding enough employees has been the most challenging part of the operations so far, he said.

Changing tastes

The grocery landscape on Long Island has been evolving over the past several years, with more discount and specialty stores opening, while some retailers, particularly traditional supermarkets, shut down, as inflation-weary shoppers seek deals and others desire unique items.

King Kullen Grocery Co., which has closed eight Long Island grocery stores since 2019, plans to close its Hewlett store May 21, the Hauppauge-based company announced Monday.

Traditional supermarket chain Stop & Shop closed 32 stores it said were underperforming, including four on Long Island, in 2024. The same year, a Holiday Farms supermarket in Woodbury closed.

The Fresh Grocer in Oakdale, a traditional, but small-format store, closed this past January.

Among nontraditional grocers, upscale retailer The Fresh Market closed in Smithtown in 2025 and tech-heavy Amazon Fresh’s remaining 57 U.S. stores, including two on Long Island, closed this year.

Competition remains a concern for all grocers, Azcona Diaz said.

"But, again, the reason why these smaller-footprint stores and independent stores do a little better is because now we’re here to cater to the community. ... [With] big-chain stores, the whole country is the same footprint for every store," he said.

The average supermarket nationwide in 2024 was 42,453 square feet in size, according to the latest data from FMI, an Arlington, Virginia-based trade group that represents food retailers and producers.

Golden Farms is in a 17,000-square-foot building with a full basement and a 700-square-foot mezzanine, Joseph Simone Jr., superintendent of Hempstead's building department, said in an email Monday.

The store has been received well by the public and foot traffic is strong, Azcona Diaz said.

"Right now, it’s word-of-mouth. And, so far, we’re happy," he said.

Rockville Centre resident Matthew Iorio, 50, stopped by the store for the first time to pick up some V-8 juice Tuesday afternoon. The new store is good for the neighborhood, he said.

"It shows vibrance in the neighborhood. They refreshed an area that was run down. [It] gives people in the area more choices," Iorio said.

By Tory N. Parrish

tory.parrish@newsday.comToryParrish1

Tory N. Parrish covers retail and small business for Newsday. She has worked at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y.