'Emotional Rollercoaster': LI Supermarket Sold, Staff Let Go Abruptly

MATTITUCK, NY — After 37 years, Monday was the last day that Tracy Raynor would report to work at Mattituck Marketplace, located in the Mattituck shopping plaza. She and all the store's employees were reportedly let go with severance Monday after the store was sold to an as-yet undisclosed buyer.

Store manager Sheila Murphy confirmed with Patch that the store had been sold and that Monday was the last day for the Mattituck Marketplace.

Neither Key Food Stores Co-Op Inc. nor Dan's Supreme Supermarkets returned requests for comment.

The store is reportedly set to reopen under new ownership, with a new name, after a brief taking of inventory this week, Raynor said. Raynor said she learned only days ago that the staff would be let go from her union rep.

Raynor's Local 342 union also did not immediately return a request for comment.

Despite the store's many iterations, most recently from Waldbaum's to Mattituck Market place in 2015, Raynor has been with the store for more than three decades, weathering changes in ownership and even the pandemic.

When, in 2015, Waldbaum's was sold to Key Food — a federal bankruptcy court judge in White Plains approved the sale for $4.375 million, SoutholdLOCAL reported at the time — the store reopened under the helm of Dan's Supreme Supermarkets.

Although, in 2015, there was some concern that jobs would be lost, ultimately, the union stepped in and the staff kept their positions, according to Raynor.

But that's not the case with the new sale, Raynor said she was told.

"Monday marks the end of my 37-year career at the store," Raynor told Patch. "The same is true for the rest of the workers. This is a new owner, and he is not taking any of the old employees," she said.

Raynor said she was told that the new owner already had a crew he would transport to the Mattituck location.

Raynor also said she was told the store would still run, with its new owner, under the Key Food helm, but that could not be confirmed.

According to Raynor, there were five full-time employees and 22 others who lost their jobs. That number could also not immediately be confirmed.

"We are all out of jobs," she said.

On social media, she wrote, "It's a wrap," as she hung up her name tag for the last time.

The news elicited an outcry from the community, many of whom have known Raynor for decades.

"I have been getting phone calls and text messages from all my former colleagues and from family and friends," she said. "It's been an emotional roller coaster for the past couple of days."

Raynor added: "At one point on Saturday, the customers were lining up to say good-bye and I thought to myself, 'Oh, my God, this feels like a week at a funeral parlor. Everybody coming to say good-bye.'"

On Monday, Raynor met for an interview with Patch, wearing sparkling jewelry, her hair freshly done — dressed to honor her last day at the store where her life has unfolded since she was just 16 years old.

"I want to look good on my way out," she joked.

Turning somber, Raynor, who most recently worked in the produce department, said the news was devastating for her and her colleagues.

"I have to start over again at 54 years old?" she said. "This is all I knew."

Raynor said she's had job offers and will take a few weeks off to weigh her options. "I have been blessed with phone calls for work," she said. "At this stage of my life, I'm going to take my time, find something a little different."

But she's worried about her coworkers, some of whom rely on the bus to get to work. On Monday, she was handing out applications for other businesses, trying to steer colleagues toward other opportunities.

"We're all in this together," Raynor said. "This is an end of an era. We're a family here."

Tony Krupa, who worked with Raynor for years at the supermarket before retiring, drove by to see his old friends Monday. "I'm very sad," he said. "Tracy and I" — as well as some of the other employees — "go back a long way."

Raynor said she would be sobbing as she left the store for the last time.

But mixed with the tears is a healthy dose of anger.

"I don't think it's right that they terminated us all," she said. "The customers, I can tell you, are not happy."

She discussed what she believed was the "secrecy" with which the sale was handled. "They kept it under wraps because they knew they were letting us all go. I'm angry about the way they went about it — and how everything was a secret. They were saying that they were going to come in, that they were going to talk to us. Well, today's the last day. Is today going to be that day?"

Still, the love of the North Fork community has buoyed Raynor on the darkest of days, as the door closed on a long and storied chapter of her life.

One person wrote on Facebook: "Tracy, I just want you to know I am wishing for you all the goodness and kindness you have given this community. Whatever your next step is, I hope it brings you the smiles you brought your customers. You have been a perfect example of one who pays it forward. It is now your turn to reap what you have sown. Best wishes to you."

And, too, there are the rich memories, of babies who came to the supermarket with their mothers who have now returned with their own children.

"I'm so blessed and humbled by this community," Raynor said. "It's been quite a ride."