Chamber President Addresses Possible Fish Market In Merrick

The word is in – Merokeans want fish.

In a recent poll of Merrick residents in regards to local business vacancies, one constant among those queried was the desire to see a fresh fish market open in the area.

To gauge the possibilities of this happening, Patch recently spoke to president of the Merrick Chamber of Commerce, Randy Shotland, about what it would take to get the Merrick community their daily dose of halibut.

As they say in the Real Estate market, the most important thing is your location. As far as locations to open such a venture go, Shotland said the former Blockbuster Video located at 1756 Merrick Avenue would be a great fit for a fish market.

"Right now, half the store is being taken over by a bakery and the other half is vacant," he said. "It's perfect. It has parking, it has a Dunkin' Donuts, which has very heavy traffic, a pizzeria, a bank, a gas station – it’s in a very high-traffic area and to me, that’s a no-brainer.”

Another location Shotland suggested is the former Yiannis Bake Shop at 24 Merrick Avenue, located a block-and-a-half North of Sunrise Highway.

As far as pre-existing fish market businesses that could possibly establish a foothold in Merrick, Shotland thought of one that might be perfect.

“The only one I can think of that would be a natural would be Two Cousins in Freeport,” he said. “Not only do they have a retail store in Freeport, but they also have a fishing fleet.”

As with any business, a fish market would have specific regulations that would have to be met, but according to Shotland, it would be nothing out of the ordinary.

“There’s always going to be hurdles to overcome,” he said. “They’d have the permits from the county, they’d have to make sure they had enough parking spots, and so on. It’s not difficult, but it is time-consuming.”

When asked if there some way to entice a fresh fish market to open in Merrick, Shotland said that it would be up to any such business to seek out a Merrick location on their own; various local economic issues prevent the Chamber from actively seeking out such a business.

“We’ll never solicit a business to come into Merrick because all of the property owners don’t even belong to the Chamber and they don’t help the local businesses,” he said. “What they’ve done is they’ve made rent so high that a lot of stores don’t stay in business. The overhead is too high.”

But Shotland said that residents keeping their shopping local can help.

“I tell people, there’s a kid’s store on Merrick Avenue, but yet you go to Macy’s because it’s on sale,” he said. “Then you complain when local stores go out of business. You can’t have it both ways – it doesn’t work.”

But in the end, would a fresh fish market help Merrick's local economy?

“It would help, because there isn’t a place here like it,” he said.