WAKEFERN OPENS SECOND LONG ISLAND SHOPRITE

JENNIFER L. BALJKO

ELIZABETH, N.J. -- Wakefern Food Corp. here has opened a second ShopRite store on New York's Long Island, where supermarket competition has been sharpening over the past year.

The 60,000-square-foot store, operated by the company's Edison, N.J.-based subsidiary ShopRite Supermarkets Inc., opened last month in Uniondale, N.Y., said spokeswoman Laura McCafferty. An independent member of the Wakefern cooperative already operates one store, in Glen Cove, Long Island.

McCafferty declined to comment on whether Wakefern plans to add more stores on Long Island or how the new unit will fare against the area's other big-name operators, which include Pathmark, King Kullen, Waldbaum's/A&P and Grand Union.

Industry observers have been watching the Long Island market more closely since Stop & Shop Cos., Quincy, Mass., acquired Melmarkets, a 17-store Foodtown chain based in Garden City, N.Y., late last year. The Melmarkets units are expected to eventually be converted to Stop & Shop or Edwards stores. Stop & Shop has been acquired by Dutch-based Ahold, which operates Edwards Super Food Stores on Long Island, mostly in Suffolk County.

Western Beef, Ridgewood, N.Y., also has several Long Island stores and this fall plans to open another in Roosevelt, N.Y., a former Foodtown unit it recently acquired from Stop & Shop. A&P, Montvale, N.J., is looking to construct a 65,000-square-foot store in Hicksville, N.Y., next to a Sears department store.

Long Island once had several ShopRites, but Foodarama Supermarkets, Freehold, N.J., sold its five stores to Grand Union three years ago. That move left only the Glen Cove store in the market, McCafferty said. Wakefern supplies a total of 189 stores, 16 of which are corporate owned and operated ShopRite stores.