Looking back to May or June of this year when our local newspapers informed this community of the catastrophic news that Farmer's Bazaar was sold to Stop & Shop, I began to wonder where I would buy my family's food. I believed it was only a short matter of time before Stop & Shop would destroy a perfectly good supermarket, so I wrote a letter much like this one voicing my outrage at Glen Cove, a city on Long Island no longer having any place to buy food.

Stop & Shop promised they would make no changes, the quality of the food, the prices and most importantly, the managers who had free rein to run the store and their departments would remain. Oh how they lied. Prices have risen, quality has declined and they have filled the store with a bunch of empty suits who are rude, do not know how to be customer-friendly and have wiped out a strong customer base. I miss my Friday visits to Farmer's where I would joke with Val, Jerry at the deli, Joe in the meat department, Diane at the checkout and everyone else I came to know and trust.

I saw people in utter disgust leave carts and walk out vowing never to return. I, too, will never return. Whether I go to Fairway in Plainview or Waldbaums it really doesn't matter, the fact is Glen Cove no longer has any supermarket.

As a community we should fight like crazy to help the new store open. Only we know what's best for us. Stop & Shop is not in this community's best interest and we should send these empty suits back to Boston. By the way, new display cases do not make a supermarket successful. I wonder if you know what does?

Francine Cohen