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Special Report: H Mart - Long Island City, Queens, NY

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By Zachary
H Mart
Opened: late 2022
Previous Tenants: Foodtown > Edwards > Stop & Shop
Location: 34-51 48th St, Long Island City, Queens, NY
Photographed: January 11, 2023
Have you toured the Long Island City Stop & Shop yet? That Stop & Shop closed in September 2022 and, by the end of the following month, the store had become a location of Lyndhurst, NJ-based H Mart, a Korean supermarket chain. H Mart did relatively little to the 57,000 square foot space before opening, with most of the work being light cosmetic (painting the walls and hanging a few new signs), and merchandising, since of course H Mart's product mix is going to be rather different from Stop & Shop's. I believe this is now the largest H Mart in New York City, though of course not the largest overall (you barely need to get 10 miles outside of New York City to find a 75,000 square foot H Mart).
As we can see, H Mart has drastically increased, well, the amount of stuff. There's a lot more produce, a lot more sale displays, and so on. Notice that the front of the first aisle has been removed, too, to expand the produce department.
What used to be the Nature's Promise natural section is visible to the far right above.
The right side of the produce department now has refrigerators for various refrigerated produce-adjacent items, with the left side being lined with refrigerators for loose and packaged produce.
Notice that, not only are the fixtures along the wall left over from Stop & Shop, but that the columns I mentioned from the Edwards decor are still there, too. I have to imagine this is a short-term decor solution for H Mart, given how much simpler this is than most of their new stores. 
Around the store, we'll see a combination of fixtures left over and new fixtures, but most are left over. The former deli is now a much larger seafood counter (in fact, I'm not positive whether Stop & Shop had a seafood counter at all), and the former cheese island across from the deli is now a self-service shellfish island...
Again, I imagine over time these fixtures will be replaced.
The former prepared foods department now has a combination of premade items like kimchi and additional seafood. Note the remaining signage on the back wall!
What used to be packaged prepared foods and frozen seafood is now refrigerated foods like noodles and kimchi. Note the blue cases straight ahead, which would have been seafood.
The grocery aisles look similar to how they previously did, but again the product mix is very different. Because this is a larger city H Mart, there's still a larger selection of mainstream American groceries and nonfoods than many.
Marinated meat bar in front of the packaged meat department. I believe the meat department is in the same place it used to be.
Opposite from that, we see the aisle markers have been replaced but most of the shelving has not.
Some more specialized shelving has been, though.
Note the new promotional signage at the endcaps, not to mention the fact that there is no aisle 4 since the number is considered bad luck in Korean culture.
An example of the nonfoods/housewares, which go beyond the usual small kitchen appliances.
And the beer department at the far right side of the store.
And moving on to dairy and cold cuts in the triangular corner of the store. Note the remaining Stop & Shop fixtures. I wouldn't be surprised if they are painted over time, but they likely don't need to be replaced.
A shot again of the triangular dairy/frozen area.
The bakery department was not quite up and running yet. There were only a few items out, and it's possible H Mart will ultimately lease the space out to another bakery vendor like Paris Baguette or Tous Les Jours, both of which have locations in or connected to other H Marts.
Sale items in the front-right corner.
An overview of the grocery aisles. Note that a few endcaps have been replaced, but mostly the bones are left over from Stop & Shop.
And a look at the front-end, with some new shelving around the registers. That's all for this H Mart, and we'll have to see how it does over time. I have to assume the store will be more extensively renovated soon not just because of the other locations, but its proximity to the LIC Food Bazaar, which is beautiful and also has a lot of Korean and Asian foods. Here's the rest of the coverage we have today!
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Comments

  1. BillyGrFebruary 14, 2023 at 4:10 PM

    Good question - it does seem that many of the Stop & Shop stores took out seafood (at least a service counter) over time.

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