Roman arches, performances by a professional Italian singer and paintings of Venice - these are some of the scenes that greet shoppers at Uncle Giuseppe's Marketplace.
"It's like you're walking down a street in Italy," said Sam Burman, vice president at Lind Design International, the architectural firm that designed the 1-year-old Smithtown, N.Y., store.
Indeed, the idea was to make shoppers feel like they're in an Italian marketplace rather than a 35,000-square-foot supermarket on suburban Long Island.
The first thing people see upon entering the store are faux flames shooting out of Roman pillars, clouds painted above the produce department, and Italian sayings etched into the earth-toned walls.
"It's all theater," Thomas Barresi, one of four owners, told SN during an in-store visit.
A state-of-the art sound system with 70 speakers throughout the store means that songs by Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett can be heard as if on a home stereo.
Music comes alive on weekends, when the so-called "Supermarket Troubadour" walks the aisles with a wireless microphone to entertain patrons.
"One time I was strolling down an aisle singing and I bumped into a woman who was doing the same, and we started a duet," said a frequent customer who gave his name only as Frank.
That atmosphere could be the reason some have traveled as far as 50 miles to get to the Smithtown home of the three-unit retailer's flagship store.
Burman of Lind Design, based in College Point, N.Y., said Giuseppe's has turned the monotonous chore of food shopping into an exciting one.
"They created an atmosphere in which people feel they are being entertained," he said. "They made shopping fun."
Ambiance has always been a hallmark of Giuseppe's, which got its start seven years ago when Barresi, along with brothers Philip, Carl and Joseph Del Prete - all four of whom are former produce wholesalers - opened a Long Island store in East Meadow, N.Y., and named it after the Del Pretes' uncle. The inside of the East Meadow unit is designed to look like the Arthur Avenue section of the Bronx, a Little Italy-style neighborhood with Italian-themed stores, delis and restaurants. The brothers opened a third Long Island store in March in Port Washington, N.Y.
Barresi was initially leery of the Smithtown site because it had been vacant since the last tenant, a Waldbaum's supermarket, moved out seven years earlier. Plus, the adjoining shopping center needed repair.
Nonetheless, Barresi was confident that people would respond to the engaging concept. The company chooses locations that have few specialty food stores. The biggest challenge was demonstrating to shoppers that in addition to Italian specialty foods, they could do all their shopping there.
"It took time for people to understand this store," he said.
Prepared foods represent a big part of the business. Along with a 60-foot deli, there's an extensive meat department that carries only Sterling Silver beef and Plume DeVeau veal, along with 25 different marinated meats. Nearby, shoppers can choose from more than 300 different cheeses. A new mozzarella-making machine from Italy is capable of heating the cheese to higher temperatures than possible using the hand-made process, thereby producing greater flavor.
Giuseppe's lives up to its motto of "Qui Si Mangia Bene!" ("Here one eats well!") in other ways. It offers homemade sandwiches named after famous Italian performers, and more than 120 prepared meal selections every day.
Complementing the fresh foods is a comprehensive assortment of dry groceries, providing one-stop-shopping, said Fred Paul, the general manager. The store carries mainstream brands, natural and organic products, and even gluten-free foods for breakfast, lunch and dinner. That's why it considers a Waldbaum's unit across the street and other nearby retailers only slight competition.
"Unlike other specialty stores, we have everything you could possibly want," Paul said. "We have a formula that no one else has: specialty along with everyday grocery."
The expansion of Uncle Giuseppe's comes at a time when the Italian food market in the United States is poised for growth. After years of slow movement due to fad diets and little innovation, Italian food companies are introducing new products to respond to consumer attitudes toward health, convenience and demand for authentic flavors, according to Packaged Facts.
The ethnic foods here aren't limited to Italian, though.
The store has large Asian and Hispanic departments, plus smaller sets for categories like kosher. An expansive olive oil section contains products from Spain, Greece and other regions. A 36-foot beer department features more than 400 selections from countries around the world, including Thailand, Belgium and Greece.
On the day of SN's visit, a woman originally from Croatia was browsing the aisles.
"I come here all the time because I love the atmosphere," said Venka Kordic, a Smithtown resident.
There's something for everyone, whether it's sorbet with wine for $6.99 a pint, rare imported solid tuna or Panko bread crumbs - which are said to be larger, flakier and lighter than regular breadcrumbs. Giuseppe's samples about 10 products each weekend, such as olive oil, balsamic vinegar, cheeses, fancy pastries like cream-filled Charlotte Russe, and condiments.
The store may look expensive, but prices on everyday items are comparable to those of nearby supermarkets. A recent circular offered a 24-ounce container of Asti bread crumbs for 99 cents; a dozen extra-large eggs for 99 cents; and five 9- to 12-ounce packages of Birds Eye frozen vegetables for $5.
Other than a 160-item line of private-label spices under the Uncle Giuseppe's brand, store brands aren't a major focus. Giuseppe's differentiates itself in other ways, like sourcing every single requested item, even if only one shopper wants it. It fulfills about 20 such requests each week, most recently buying pumpkin seed oil based on a single shopper's request. The retailer figures that such efforts will lead that customer to come back and share her experience with others.
"Customer satisfaction is our No. 1, 2 and 3 goals," Paul said. "We'll do anything to provide a pleasurable experience so that supermarket shopping is not a chore."
