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D’Agostino Supermarkets: A History

It is a story Hollywood scriptwriters could not have done any better. Two kids - just teenagers - named Nicola (Nick) and Pasquale (Patsy) D’Agostino set out from their home in L'Aquila, Italy in the mid-1920s to seek their fortunes in the United States. They arrive in New York and then spend the next 10 years working as pushcart peddlers, mill workers and learning the butcher trade - anything to earn a buck.

In 1932, at the depth of the Great Depression, Nick and Patsy pooled their meager resources and opened a small grocery store on Lexington and 83rd Street in Manhattan. It is, from the beginning, an unusual store, with groceries and baked goods under a single roof. They also provided home delivery for phoned-in orders by Upper East Side residents. Manhattan has never seen anything like it. As the store expands its products to include fresh meat and other items, the name and reputation of the two Italian immigrants spread. Decades passed, more D’Agostino markets opened around the city and by the early 1960s, the company has earned the reputation as "New York's Grocer."

Fast forward to the 21st Century. Nick D’Agostino, Jr. is Chief Executive Officer and his two sons, Nicholas III and David, operate the 23-store D’Agostino chain. The stores are small, but they stock a wide variety of high quality groceries, produce, meat, poultry, and seafood as well as deli items. The chain may be small by food industry standards, but D’Agostino enjoys a big reputation both in the city and nationally. Movies and television shows shot on location in New York frequently use D’Agostino stores or "DAG BAGS" to help impart a sense of New York City realism. Network reporters often report grocery or food news "on location" at D’Agostino stores. D’Agostino is NYC super marketing.

From a scriptwriter's standpoint, the D’Agostino saga is a perfect marriage of name, setting and story line. From a customer's point of view D’Agostino is a highly successful family owned business that has kept their customers and the communities in which they operate at the heart of the enterprise. Today as D’Agostino faces the intense competitive challenges of the 21st Century, the customer's need for quality and service at a fair price and the community's need for support is still the key to the chain's vision for success.