Farmer's Market grocery store replaces Larkfield IGA supermarket in East Northport
Customers shop the produce section at Farmer's Market in East Northport. The store replaced the Larkfield IGA supermarket. Credit: Newsday/Steve Pfost
After 20 years, Larkfield IGA supermarket in East Northport is no more.
The store has been replaced by a Farmer’s Market grocery store operated by three brothers who have 11 other food stores in New York City.
At the East Northport store, the brothers have expanded the product offerings, added more fresh foods and increased staffing, which the public has responded to well, said Sam Abukoush, one of the store’s co-owners.
“They love the new selection we have brought into the store,” he said.
The Farmer's Market store is at 301 Clay Pitts Rd., where it intersects with Larkfield Road.
It is the 12th store run by the Abukoush brothers, who have 11 grocery stores in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx under the CTown Supermarkets name.
They decided to open their first Long Island store because they are residents of the region, Abukoush said.
The Larkfield IGA was operated by Charles Reichert and his children Tom Reichert and Tammi Beierle, who decided to close it after 20 years of operation, said Tom Reichert, who co-owns several Long Island grocery stores with his family.
“We were just downsizing as we were getting older,” he said, adding that the East Northport space had been occupied by a King Kullen supermarket before he and his family opened their store there in 2006.
Farmer’s Market opened in the space July 1.
The Abukoush brothers took over the lease for Larkfield IGA and extended it, Abukoush said.
The new, 15,000-square foot store employs 15 workers, nine of whom were Larkfield IGA employees, he said.
The Abukoush brothers brought in a sushi bar and added KeHE brand organic products, such as pasta, dairy products and ice cream; new international cheeses and fresh pasta; and imported salami, prosciutto and other meats, said Marco Ortega, a retail store counselor for Krasdale Foods.
Headquartered in White Plains, Krasdale Foods provides grocery distribution, merchandising and marketing services to independent grocers, including Farmer’s Market, CTown and Bravo stores.
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.
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