Best yet buys Bell Foods, opens mart

Richard Tedesco

Bell Foods ballyhooed its arrival on Hillside Avenue late last year, but late last month the Best Yet Market chain took over the location where Bell had been near the intersection of Herricks Road.

The Best Yet Market in New Hyde Park is the 13th metro area location for the chain, which started in Suffolk, where it currently has most of its stores. It also has stores in nearby Franklin Square and Farmingdale in Nassau County, another in Astoria, Queens and one in Harlem.

The company, in business since 1994, saw what it perceived as a good opportunity in New Hyde Park.

“We’ve been looking at the location and it seemed like the perfect fit for our market here. Basically we were able to close on it and hop right in there with the same model for all our stores,” said Jonathan Sender, advertising director for Best Yet.

Brothers Eran and Aviv Raitses, who own the supermarket chain, closed the deal on the New Hyde Park store late last month, Sender said.

Bell Foods co-owner Michael Kumar said he and his brothers decided to sell the business to Best Yet because they were finding it difficult to divide their time between that business and the phone card business they were running before they opened the store.

“Our other businesses were

The store held its grand opening last week, during its second week of operations, and Sender said the company is still working on putting the new location in order.

“We’re trying to get our feet in that store. We’re trying hard to get everything together as best we can,” he said.

The emphasis in on fresh foods, including fruits, vegetables and seafood as an alternative to more traditional large chains.

“We’re mainly a perishable store. We’re really pushing on fresh. We’re a local neighborhood market,” Sender said.

The store has been drawing a good crowd since it opened nearly three weeks ago, according to Sender, who said the company’s been pumping up the volume in cyberspace, through Facebook, Twitter, on its Web site (www.bestyetmarket.com) and in newspaper advertising.

Consumer response has been strong so far, he said, but he acknowledged that Bell Foods’ failure in the location indicates the competitive nature of the retail consumer food business in the area.

“It’s a very tough market on Long Island. The customers in the area have a lot of options out there,” Sender said.

But Best Yet is betting the location is choice for a supermarket that pushes the freshness edge to differentiate itself, even in a neighborhood full of supermarkets. In fact, Best Yet is hoping to draw some customers from the area who currently shop at the Best Yet in Franklin Square.

“It’s a beautiful looking store and it’s in the right area with a good community around it. It’s densely populated,” Sender said of the New Hyde Park location.

What has become a chain started out as a single fruit and vegetable stand in Brooklyn, run by Ben Raitses with his two sons helping out.

It was after working in that store for a time, the Raitses brothers saw a fertile fields for food shoppers on Long Island and opened their first market in Ronkonkoma.

“There was a need. Back in the early ‘90s, you didn’t have as many independent markets looking to provide fresh foods,” Sender said.

Three brothers and their father, all from Roslyn Heights, opened the 23,000-square foot Bell Foods store in November with many elected officials and community officials in attendance.

The trio, Mike, Nick and Tony Kumar, were already partners in the telecommunications business as calling card wholesalers. But they shared an aspiration to get into the retail food business when the right opportunity occurred, according to eldest brother Mike, who said he and his brothers had all worked in supermarkets several years ago.

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