Mineola Village Board Approves Food Permit for New 99 Cent Store

After following 20 years of occupancy, a new 99 cent store has moved into 500 Jericho Turnpike, which was previously the location of the .

Before the store opened, however, the new storeowner, Mirza Nijan and co-owner Ed Marinelli came before the on June 13 requesting a special permit to sell food items at the store.

“The amount of food items to the total of retail sales I believe amount to no more than seven or 8 percent of the leased premises,” said William J. McDermott, who is the attorney for 500 Jericho G Merchandise, Inc., the corporate name under which the store is operating.

The food items which the store would sell include bottled water, sodas, candy items, snack foods and cookies.

“All packaged good and packaged-contained food items,” McDermott said.

No food would be prepared on the premises and there would be two stand-alone refrigerators, one each for for Snapple and Vitamin Water products. There would be no other refrigerated items, such as milk or eggs, sold at the store nor would there be alcohol sold on the premises.

A total of three other employees in addition to the owner would be employed at the store. The hours of operation would be from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sundays.

The building currently houses about 6,600 sq. ft of retail space and a 7,000 sq. ft. parking lot with about 30 spaces for vehicles. The owners have no intent on renovating the physical plan of the store or altering the dimensions or the entrance. The layout of the parking lot would also not be altered. The retail space would occupy only the ground floor and would not be using the second floor office space.

“We didn’t do any work, the store’s ready to go,” Marinelli said. “We were just waiting for this hearing date to get the green light to be able to open. We’re already 2 months into it.”

Deliveries to the store would be made during weekdays between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. through the front of the building with delivery vehicles parking the lot, not on Jericho Turnpike. There would be no deliveries on Sundays.

“We have thousands of items, so it’s never just one supplier that supplies the whole store.” Marinelli said, explaining that delivery vehicles could range from a small van to a small truck, but not as large as a tractor-trailer. “We don’t get one item from one person; we get hundreds of items.”

Since Blockbuster left, the nearby had been utilizing the parking lot to take deliveries through its back entrance. Deputy Mayor Paul Pereira asked if the the 99 cent store had an understanding with Panera Bread about continuing that arrangement.

“We are working that out,” Marinelli said. “We realize that that’s exclusive use to us, that whole parking lot and we did notice that Panera Bread... started using it, which is OK, I guess because it was closed. We plan on speaking to them, our landlord is already in the loop as far as getting that resolved.”

According to McDermott, Banj has additional store locations within Nassau County, which include Bellerose, where a store has been for 7 years, Bellmore for 4 years, and two stores in Cambria Heights on Linden Boulevard.

A private carter would be utilized for rubbish removal with most of the waste – primarily cardboard packing materials according to the owners – stored in a space inside the store at the rear of the building.

The permit was unanimously approved by the village board.