By Alex Christodoulides
I.O.G., which stands for Island of Gold, took over the Associated store's lease Dec. 4, the store's new owner, Tisno Hasan, said. The bilingual sign – Chinese and English- – is in place, along with signs advertising deep discounts on the leftover stock from the previous tenants of the space.As a neighborhood supermarket, the Associated store did not turn the kind of profit that its owners had hoped for, said West Cunningham Park Civic Association President Bob Harris. Hasan confirmed this reason for the closure.Associated could not be reached for comment.The store's location in the Fresh Meadows plaza at the corner of 69th Avenue and 195th Lane is off the area's main roads, so Associated's clientele was largely restricted to neighborhood residents and those who were aware of its existence.”In this area there are a lot of Oriental customers that Associated couldn't serve. We carry a lot of fresh fruit and seafood and Oriental vegetables,” Hasan said.He also owns the Gold City market on Kissena Boulevard in Flushing and said he chose the Fresh Meadows location for his customers' convenience. “A lot of my customers who go to the Kissena location live in Fresh Meadows,” he said.The space was a Waldbaum's Supermarket for decades until that closed in the early 1990s and has seen a good deal of tenant turnover in recent years. UPS leased the space for a year or two until a Dollar Store moved in and then eventually closed in about 2004, leaving the neighborhood with a vacant spot in the plaza and no local supermarket, said Fresh Meadows Homeowners Civic Association President James Gallagher. Adding to the problem, the next closest supermarket, a Key Food store in the plaza at 188th Street and 73rd Avenue, closed in 2004 and an Eckerd drugstore (now a Rite Aid) took its spot.When mega-supermarket chain Pathmark began inquiring about the space and proposed to triple the store's footprint, Fresh Meadows residents united in opposition, saying they wanted a neighborhood market, not something that would draw in shoppers from a 20-mile radius. Together with Community Board 8, they fought Pathmark and won, and in April 2006 they welcomed the new Associated store into the renovated space.The draws at Associated were its wide selection of kosher and international foods as well as its fresh and frozen fish counter. The store would deliver paid orders to nearby residents. Hasan said the fresh and frozen fish selection will remain.The new store also plans to keep the delivery policy and have a butcher counter, said Tami Osherov, a resident in nearby Meadowlark Gardens who was happy to see Associated open and is apprehensive at the moment about the new ownership.”They're renovating the store at the same time they're selling everything off,” she said. As such, it is difficult to shop there with construction materials blocking some areas of the store and lightly stocked shelves, she said.The store opening is planned for the end of month, Hasan said. “But we're going to assess the situation day by day. We're trying get everything done ASAP to serve community,” he said. No matter what the stock is, the store will have customers when the renovations are completed in the spring, Gallagher said.”It was hard for our seniors to get around to other markets. And other local stores don't take coupons,” he said.Reach reporter Alex Christodoulides by e-mail at achristodoulides@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 155.
