Off-price retailer Burlington to open 8th LI store this week

Burlington will open a smaller-than-normal store on Long Island this week, as the off-price retailer continues working to reduce its average store size.

Located in Expressway Plaza in Farmingville, at 2280 N. Ocean Ave., Burlington's eighth store on Long Island will hold its grand opening Friday.

"Our goal is to continue to offer communities great values on brand-name merchandise for the entire family and home," Michael O’Sullivan, CEO of Burlington Stores Inc., said in a statement.

Founded in 1972, the Burlington, New Jersey-based company has been working to reduce the size of its stores to increase efficiency for the past several years.

The new store in Farmingville occupies 32,000 square feet, in a section of the 103,000-square-foot space that Kmart had before closing it in November 2019.

In fiscal 2020, the average size of new Burlington stores was 40,000 square feet, compared to 43,000 square feet in 2018.

"During the spring [2021] season, we opened 16 stores that were 30,000 square feet or less and the earlier results are extremely encouraging. ... We expect this smaller format to become our main new store prototype over the next couple of years," O'Sullivan said in August during a second-quarter earnings call with analysts.

Other tenants in Expressway Plaza include a Stop & Shop supermarket, LA Fitness, Starbucks and TGI Friday's.

Burlington operated 792 stores in 45 states and Puerto Rico as of July 31.

By Tory N. Parrish

tory.parrish@newsday.com@ToryParrish1

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.