Uncle Giuseppe’s Marketplace is again expanding by taking advantage of a supermarket's exit.

The Italian specialty grocer will open a 50,000-square-foot store in a Levittown space that a King Kullen supermarket vacated last year, Uncle Giuseppe’s said in a statement Monday.

Set to open in late 2026 at 3284 Hempstead Tpke., the new supermarket will be two miles from Uncle Giuseppe’s first store, in East Meadow. That store is staying put, the company said.

“East Meadow isn’t going anywhere. It’s where we started, and it’s a big part of who we are," Uncle Giuseppe’s CEO, Carl DelPrete, said in the statement. "That store will keep doing what it does best, serving guests every day with great food and great service.”

The East Meadow store performs well, but at only 7,800 square feet, the store is limited in the products and services it can offer, DelPrete said in a text message Monday. 

The grocery chain’s first store opened as East Meadow Farms in 1998. It was rebranded as Uncle Giuseppe’s Marketplace in 2001.

Headquartered in Melville, Uncle Giuseppe’s now has 11 stores in New York and New Jersey, and it plans to open three on Long Island by the end of 2026.

'Food is the show'

Nationwide, traditional supermarkets have been losing market share to discount and specialty grocers. The shift is due to some inflation-weary consumers seeking cheaper food, while other shoppers are willing to spend more for niche products.

Uncle Giuseppe’s has been pushing faster expansion for several years, and some of the spaces it has been taking were formerly occupied by traditional supermarkets.

The King Kullen in Levittown closed in October because it was underperforming, King Kullen Grocery Co. told Newsday last fall.

The Hauppauge-based grocery company operates 25 King Kullen stores, which are traditional supermarkets, and four Wild by Nature natural food stores, all on Long Island.

DelPrete expects Uncle Giuseppe's in Levittown to perform well because the grocer's features, such as pasta and mozzarella rooms and scratch-bread departments, differ from what is in traditional supermarkets, he said.

"Guests don't just stop in for a gallon of milk [at Uncle Giuseppe's]. And they come to see fresh mozzarella being made in front of them, grab a hot meal from our chefs or explore Italian specialties they can't find anywhere else ... We're building a place where food is the show," he said in a text message. 

Besides the Levittown store, Uncle Giuseppe's plans  to open two more Long Island supermarkets.

The grocer will open a 39,000-square-foot store in Sayville Plaza in Bohemia, in a former Babies R Us space, in late 2025.

Also, in early 2026, Uncle Giuseppe's will move into an approximately 52,000-square-foot space in Greenvale that a Stop & Shop supermarket vacated in October.

Uncle Giuseppe’s existing stores include a location in Yorktown Heights, Westchester County, which opened in 2019; North Babylon, 2020; Morris Plains, New Jersey, 2021; and Tinton Falls, New Jersey, 2023. 

Uncle Giuseppe’s is in a good growth position, with its point of difference being its high-quality prepared foods, said Kevin Gallagher, vice president and co-publisher of Food Trade News, a publication in Columbia, Maryland. That, along with the stores' theater-like atmosphere, helps customers justify the grocer’s higher prices, he said.

“They’re an exceptional specialty grocer but also have done a terrific job of just offering the traditional supermarket staples,” said Gallagher, a Massapequa native.