Retail Roundup: Dollar Tree plans three additional stores on Long Island

In the market to deck out your kitchen for $20?

Dollar Tree, where everything from toiletries to food to cleaning supplies to home decor is priced at $1 or less, plans to open 350 stores this year, including three on Long Island, said Kayleigh M. Painter, spokeswoman for Chesapeake, Virginia-based Dollar Tree Inc.  

The following local Dollar Tree stores are planned:

• A 10,500-square-foot location will open in a small, newly renovated shopping center at 20 Smith St. in Farmingdale, near the Adventureland amusement park on Broadhollow Road in late summer.  
• A store with 9,500 square feet will open at 1626 New York Ave. in Huntington Station in late spring. The store will be in a small retail building encompassing 11,600 square feet that's under construction, according to AD Real Estate Investors Inc., the Great Neck company that owns the property.
• An approximately 14,500-square-foot store is slated for an undisclosed location in Riverhead in late spring

As of Nov. 3, there were 6,923 Dollar Tree stores in the United States and Canada, including 48 on Long Island.

Chalk up the bargain boom in part to consumers’ growing demand for discounts. Dollar stores, including Family Dollar, which also is owned by Dollar Tree Inc., and Dollar General, are also gaining bigger shares of the grocery market.

“They are quietly becoming very influential food retailers,” said Jon Hauptman, senior director of Inmar, a retail industry analytics company based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Though most don’t sell fresh fruits or meats, dollar stores are now feeding more Americans than Whole Foods, according to a December report from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C.

Still, there is debate over whether dollar stores hurt full-service grocers by steeply undercutting their prices.

New tenants for Centereach center

French toast, coffee and cellphones will be added to the lineup at New Village Plaza in Centereach.

In October when I wrote about the shopping center under development in the 1700 block of Middle Country Road, four planned tenants had been confirmed, including Wingstop and Arby’s restaurants, and Middle Country Wines & Liquors.

Since then, an AT&T store and Brownstones Coffee have signed leases too, said Jason Sobel, an agent who works in the Jericho office of Ripco Real Estate Corp.

Manhattan-headquartered Ripco is overseeing leasing on behalf of the shopping center’s owner, MVC Properties LLC in Bayside.

Brownstones Coffee’s fourth location will open in 3,000 square feet in New Village Plaza by early summer, Sobel said.

Manny Kourounis and his son Christopher opened the first Brownstones in Amityville in 2002 and now have two other locations, in West Islip and East Northport, the latter of which opened in May.

The chain serves “all-day” breakfast, lunch and specialty coffees from 7:30 a.m. to closing time, which ranges from 2:30 to 4 p.m., depending on the day and location. Menu items include Belgian waffles and crepes, Benedict scrambles and French toast.

Brownstones did not respond to a call or email seeking comment.

The AT&T store will open in the spring in New Village Plaza, Sobel said.

The 1,400-square-foot store will sell cellphones and service, wireless tablets, accessories, DirecTV and other products, Dallas-based AT&T Inc. said.

The location will be owned and operated by an authorized retailer, as opposed to AT&T, which declined to name the retailer.

About 70 percent of New Village Plaza’s space is leased or in lease negotiations, but no tenants have moved in yet.

Wingstop, a fast-casual chicken wing eatery, and Arby’s, known for its hot sandwiches heavy on the meat, will open by spring. Middle Country Wines & Liquors still is awaiting a liquor license from the New York State Liquor Authority.

The shopping center will be 75,013 square feet spread across three buildings when construction is complete late this year, Sobel said. New Village Plaza is replacing "an old shopping center with illegal cars stored on the back of the property," Brookhaven Town spokesman Kevin Molloy said in October.

By Tory N. Parrish

tory.parrish@newsday.comToryParrish1

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.