Mineola Business Chided for Selling Food Without Permit

After receiving several complaints regarding the 99 Cents Paradise at 328 East Jericho Turnpike as well as several summonses for selling food without a permit, store owner Saleem Usman made an appearance to answer questions about his business practices before the last Wednesday night.

Usman had applied for a special use permit to sell food at the store, but said that “(w)e did not have any information about it that we need permission.”

When Usman originally applied for a permit to open the store, he was asked if he was going to sell food, which he denied at the time.

The village has received complaints from customers about selling food without a permit and the store was summonsed on March 22. The store allegedly continued to sell food after the fine and received another summons on June 7.

“I bet you that if we go over there today, you’re still selling food today,” said.

Usman then stated that it was his understanding that he could sell food through the application process until receiving a denial from the board. Usman confirmed that he was still selling food at the store that day.

“So you don’t care about the laws of Mineola,” Strauss said.

Usman said he would stop selling food, but the mayor said he did not believe the proprietor.

“The law is what it is,” Strauss said. “It should have been clear a while ago.”

Usman, who owns three similar stores in Queens, said that in his lease contract the landlord allows him to sell non-frozen foods. The same landlord also owns the building occupied by the .

“Frankly, I don’t think you were ignorant,” Deputy Mayor Paul Pereira said. “I think you knew exactly what you were doing because when you were told that you would need a special use permit to appear before this board in order to sell food, and then present it to our building department that you would in fact not sell food so as to just expedite the process.”

The store sells perishable items including eggs, milk, cheese, oranges, as well as non-perishables such as canned foods and chips. The food is confined to one aisle encompassing about 300 sq. ft. of the  4,700 sq. ft. store.

Pereira noted that in the application it was noted that the store needed permission from the board to sell food items. “This is your handwriting,” he said holding up the paperwork.

Usman then proceeded to argue that his business will “not survive” without selling food.

“You had very little regard for our local laws,” Pereira replied. “So its difficult for me to take to heart the comments that you just made when had you done the right thing from the beginning, you’d be well on your way to running a successful business. Obviously if you’re not going to survive 30 days without selling food, then perhaps you shouldn’t have opened a 99 cents store.”

Again, Usman petitioned for some leeway, asking if he could remove one of his refrigerator units until the application process was finished.

“Right now the law is the law and you kind of flaunted it in our face a little bit,” Mayor Strauss said. 

The case was labeled with a SEQRA (State Environmental Quality Review Act) resolution along with a negative declaration.  The Nassau County Planning Commission will make a judgment on the case within the next thirty days which will then come back to the Mineola Village Board.

Usman was seen leaving the premises of the store after the meeting Wednesday night after informing the board he would stop selling food at the store immediately.