Pushing Shopping Carts Again in Point Lookout

Aggie’s Market & Kitchen, Point Lookout’s lone supermarket, officially opened last month at the site of the former Merola’s, a family-owned market that had been in business in the hamlet for 80 years.

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Nick Trabulsi, a Point Lookout resident, leased the property, at 40 Lido Blvd., and opened another market that he named after his mother. The new store features more front doors and a new interior layout, and has updated to new technologies, including portable credit card machines for food orders and a system that tracks the sale of items, or lack thereof. Including repairs and renovation, some related to damages wrought by Hurricane Sandy, Trabulsi estimates he invested about $400,000 in the business, according to Newsday.

Trabulsi said of Point Lookout’s previous lack of a supermarket:

"I know what it was like to drive over the bridge to go to Merrick. It was inconvenient, to say the least. For some people it's impossible. There are a fair number of seniors living here who can't get out of the house."

The community then rallied around the shop and about 150 customers donated about half the $100,000 owed to the supplier, the Times report stated.