2 More Companies Say Sickles Market Owes Them $298K In Unpaid Debts

LITTLE SILVER, NJ — Another week, and another lawsuit was filed against Sickles Market, this time by two additional food vendors who say they are owed hundreds of thousands of dollars from market owner Bob Sickles, Jr.

This latest lawsuit was filed by Farmlind Produce, LLC, and Four Seasons Produce, two wholesale fruit and vegetable suppliers. In total, the two fruit and vegetable wholesalers say Sickle owes them a combined $298,710 in unpaid debts.

Farmlind says it is owed $213,218.94, and Four Seasons says it is owed $85,492.

"Between October 2023 and January 2024, Farmlind and Four Seasons sold and delivered to Sickles Market and Sickles Provisions wholesale quantities of perishable agricultural commodities ("produce") ... worth the aggregate principal amount of $298,710.94," read their lawsuit.

The two companies filed a series of legal complaints in Monmouth County Superior Court on March 18 and 19. They name Sickles Market and owner Sickles, Jr., who lives in Rumson. The two produce wholesalers used the same lawyer, David Fassett of Arseneault & Fasset law firm, located in Chatham.

Here is a sworn legal statement from Four Seasons' credit manager:

"Over the several months, I have been in regular communication with Robert Sickles regarding the inability of Sickles Market and Sickles Provisions to pay that debt and their broken promises to make partial payments against the debt," she said. "Sickles Provisions blames its problems on launching its business at the start of the pandemic, but Sickles Market has been unable to explain why it bounced three (3) checks to Four Seasons in December 2023 in the amounts of$5,449.68, $15,620.20 and $18,324.91, which have never been made good. Sickles Provisions ceased operations on February 15, 2024, without paying Four Seasons Produce. On March 11, 2024, Sickles Market abruptly ceased operations without paying Four Seasons."

The two companies said they are currently suffering "immediate and irreparable harm" by being owed such high amounts of outstanding debts.

Complaints adding up against Sickles Market:

Sickles Market closed its Red Bank offshoot in mid-February and then closed their main market in Little Silver March 11. Since then:

• On March 1, the owner of the Anderson building in Red Bank sued, saying Sickles owes $324,000 in unpaid rent.
• On March 14, a Monmouth Beach woman filed a small claims complaint, saying Sickles sold her a $3,000 gift card weeks before the store abruptly shut down all locations. She alleges Sickles knew it would close when it sold her the gift card. She is seeking to be repaid $2,500.
• Holiday Meats, located in Little Silver, sued March 18, saying Sickles owes them more than $100,000 for unpaid meat deliveries.
• A Manhattan-based fruit vendor says Sickles owes them $26,000 for failing to pay for fruit deliveries.
• A former employee says many of Sickles' hourly workers have not been paid since January.

Sickles Jr. did not respond when asked if he had a comment on this latest lawsuit against him. On March 14, he did speak to Patch, but declined to answer when we asked if he would be filing for bankruptcy. Here is Sickles' March 14 statement:

"The Sickles family has strived over the years to be a good employer, member of the community and responsible business owner. Unfortunately, because of devastating financial losses resulting from the failed expansion in Red Bank, we found ourselves in a dire and unexpected cash crunch. This caused us to have to not only shut down the Red Bank store, but also to temporarily close the Little Silver store. We have exhausted all available resources to pay amounts due to our employees and vendors, but are working diligently on avenues to obtain funding to pay the amounts due to employees and to attempt to resolve all vendor claims."

Sickles Sold Expensive Gift Cards Just Before Closing, Complaint Says (March 21)

2nd Lawsuit Against Sickles Market: Meat Vendor Says It's Owed $100K (March 19)

Vendors, Employees Say Sickles Owes Them Thousands Of Dollars (March 14)