Malverne General Store is out of business

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After being in the village for less than three years, the Malverne General Store closed its doors for good on Monday, March 28.

Cashiers at the store have been telling customers who asked that the store was scheduled to close on soon, and all signs pointed to a definitive closing. Last week, a third of the store’s floor had been fenced off and contained stacked boxes full of store goods. When a store clerk was asked if the goods were going to go on sale, she replied, “No, they’re just going to move all the stuff to three other stores in Bellmore, Bellerose and Cambria Heights.” Multiple calls to Naeem Mirza, the store’s proprietor, went unanswered.

A customer, who also didn’t want to be identified, was sad to hear the news. “We use this store all the time,” he said while shopping in the store with his granddaughter. “We liked it when the grocery store was here, then this store came and we said, ok this store is good, but now … what’s going to go in here?”

Calls to the landlord Tammy Teller of Bellrex Associates, whose family has owned the property since the 1970s, failed to produce an answer. Teller did not wish to comment on the store closing, the dates of her rental agreement with the tenant, or what, if anything, will be going into the space next. The Teller family also owns the properties that are the homes of the Malverne Movie Theatre, the Malverne Diner, the Malverne Bowling Alley and the parking lot behind the those stores, which butts up against the Long Island Railroad.

Gina Rivera, who was shopping in the store with her grandmother, Patricia Esposito, was disappointed to learn that the store was closing. “Oh no, this was my first time here and I was so excited. I can’t believe it’s really closing,” said Rivera who said she just bought many items from the store. “Everything had really good prices.” Rivera and Esposito are Lynbrook residents and said they had just discovered the Malverne General Store that day. “We usually shop locally in Lynbrook,” said Rivera, who lives near Lakeview Avenue. “They have a bunch of good small shops there.”

The store will soon join a several other storefronts that have closed in recent months, including those that housed Waiting on a Friend, the High Voltage Tanning and the New Nail Design nail salon.

The Malverne General Store property, located at 344 Hempstead Ave., has a history of failed businesses, including two Associated supermarkets, which closed in 2010 and 2012.

During June 2015, the Herald reported that the Malverne General Store, which sells a variety of home décor and seasonal items in its 9,000-square-foot space — had 15-year lease.