I have lived in Great Neck since 1950 when I was 5 years old. I have been active in the business district since 1959 when I became active in what was the family business, Camp & Campus.
It became my passion and I have actively run the business for the last 56 years.
I have seen all the changes in Great Neck Plaza and the Great Neck Peninsula that have taken place over the past half a century.
True, the Great Neck peninsula is an affluent community. But an affluent community does not in and of itself guarantee the success of a supermarket such as Waldbaum’s, or for that matter any business.
There are many factors that have developed over the last 10 years or more that have made it extremely difficult for Waldbaum’s to be profitable to the extent that some other company would want to buy it.
The population of Great Neck (not just Great Neck Plaza) has changed drastically over the last three and a half decades.
There was a major influx of Iranian Jews in the 1980s and the 1990s.
More recently there was an influx of Ashkenazi orthodox Jews. Then there was the influx of Asian families, whether they be Chinese or Korean.
With the change in population, new stores opened which cater to those populations.
They are major competition for a traditional supermarket such as Waldbaum’s.
Great Neck now has two Kosher supermarkets, Everfresh in the old village, as we have called it for decades, and Shop Delight near the post office in the plaza. And we have H-Mart on Great Neck Road near the border with Little Neck. H-Mart is owned by Asians and caters to the Korean and Chinese families.
There are other factors also.
North Shore Farms near the Long Island Expressway is an excellently run supermarket with a huge selection of prepared and gourmet foods.
And on Northern Boulevard a little to the East in Manhasset, there is King Kullen, and a little further east is Whole Foods and to the west in Little Neck, there is Stop and Shop, all three with plenty of parking.
And there is a huge Fairway in Douglaston.
There is online shopping with home delivery by FreshDirect and Peapod.
There are the big box stores, such as Target. And of course, there are the warehouse stores, such as Costco.
If Waldbaum’s lost 5 percent of its previous business to each of the above factors, what is left?
There is one more factor that is the straw that has broken the camel’s back and has been the kiss of death for Waldbaum’s.
The new gym in the Waldbaum’s shopping center, Planet Fitness, runs an operation that requires for success a very large membership to be profitable.
It has attained that membership, a very large percentage of which do not even live in or near Great Neck.
Parking in the shopping center has become a serious problem.
My wife, for example, will not drive into the parking lot because of the congestion and the less than ideal driving habits of many of the patrons of Planet Fitness.
Would you buy Waldbaum’s?
Mark Wolf
Great Neck
