Stop & Shop to open two grocery stores in the Hamptons next week

Stop & Shop Supermarket Co. will open two grocery stores next week in the Hamptons, at Waldbaum's locations it acquired from Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., which is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Stop & Shop is expected to open the stores in East Hampton and Southampton on Oct. 16. The supermarket operator plans to announce at a later date the opening of seven other stores on Long Island it bought from A&P.

"The Hampton stores are the only Long Island stores in the first wave" of openings, Stop & Shop spokeswoman Arlene Putterman said in an email Tuesday.

Last month, a bankruptcy court judge approved the sale of 24 stores, including nine on Long Island, to Stop & Shop for $124 million. Aside from the stores in the Hamptons, the other Long Island stores include Waldbaum's locations in Baldwin, Hicksville Road in Massapequa, Long Beach and Huntington; and Pathmarks in Greenvale, Seaford and Franklin Square.

Court filings this week showed that King Kullen was the winning bidder at an auction last week for the Waldbaum's location in North Patchogue, and Best Yet Market successfully bid on the Waldbaum's in Merrick.

Key Food was the winning bidder for Waldbaum's locations in Center Moriches and Mattituck. Key Food had previously bid to buy Waldbaum's stores in Albertson and Glen Head.

H Mart, a New Jersey-based Korean supermarket chain, was the winning bidder for the Waldbaum's in Jericho.

The Waldbaum's in Greenlawn was bid on by Shanghai Enterprises, while Brixmor Operating Partnership LP, among others, bid on the Waldbaum's in East Setauket. Sunrise Realty LLC, the landlord of the Pathmark in Bay Shore, won the bid for that store.

PSK Supermarkets, Inc., a retailer-owned cooperative that operates Foodtown and Freshtown stores, also bid on the Waldbaum's in Rocky Point.

Locations receiving bids before last week's auction include three stores sought by Wakefern Food Corp., the cooperative used by ShopRite supermarkets, and the Melville Waldbaum's, whose lease Federal Realty Investment Trust, the landlord of the Melville Mall, has agreed to buy.

A hearing to approve the bids is scheduled for Oct. 16 at U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains.