Downtown Hempstead has a new full-service supermarket. Compare Fresh, a 17,000-square-foot independent grocery store, opens on Friday, October 30, on the ground floor of 159 Main Street, the new mixed-use building that rises above Main and Bedell streets in the heart of the village. A ribbon cutting with the Hempstead Chamber of Commerce and local civic groups is set for 10 a.m. Friday, and the store follows it with a public grand opening celebration on Saturday, October 31, from noon to 3 p.m.

The store is owned and run by José Luis and Lisset Ureña, and it is bringing more than 50 jobs to the village.

A family grocer's second Long Island store

The Ureñas are not new to Long Island grocery shoppers. The couple opened a Compare Foods supermarket in Brentwood in 2022. The Hempstead store puts them on a downtown block with hundreds of people living directly upstairs.

Compare Fresh is one of the banners supported by Associated Supermarket Group, a Port Washington company that supplies and backs independently owned grocers, each of which is run by its own owners. ASG is led by co-presidents and co-chief executives Joe Garcia and Zulema Wiscovitch.

What is inside

The Hempstead store is laid out as a full supermarket rather than a corner market. It has fresh produce, a full-service deli, meat and seafood counters, a juice bar, an in-house bakery and a prepared foods section with sushi made on site. The shelves carry a wide range of international products chosen for the village's shoppers, drawn from more than 1,000 international items that ASG makes available to the stores it supports.

The company's video invitation to the opening calls on shoppers to come be a good neighbor, and the Saturday celebration is the store's first big public event at the new location.

The building above it

159 Main is a mixed-use development with 228 apartments above roughly 22,600 square feet of commercial space along Main and Bedell streets. The project, known earlier as Carman Place Apartments, was developed by a joint venture of the Community Development Corporation of Long Island and Rochester-based Conifer as income-restricted workforce housing. The supermarket takes the building's ground floor, which means residents of those 228 apartments now have a full grocery store at their front door.

How to go

Compare Fresh is at 159 Main Street, Hempstead, NY 11550. The store opens to shoppers on Friday, October 30, after the 10 a.m. ribbon cutting. The grand opening celebration is Saturday, October 31, from noon to 3 p.m. at the store. Follow Compare Foods on Facebook or Instagram for opening specials and hours.

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