New York's Family Grocer - by Paul Schmitz (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

From pushcart to pantry staple in the city that never sleeps

New York's Family Grocer tells how a neighborhood name became part of the city's daily rhythm. Patsy and Nicholas D'Agostino arrived from Italy, learned their trade on crowded sidewalks, and opened a small shop in 1932. The idea was simple. Treat people well. Keep the shelves full. Make everyday shopping feel easy by offering meat, produce, and dairy in one location. That approach turned one store into a local favorite and, in time, a chain that stretched across Manhattan.

The book brings back moments shoppers remember, including the jingle "Mr. D'Agostino move closer to me". The move from street stands, pushcarts, and market stalls to bright aisles. Fresh produce piled high. A butcher who knew your order. A name on the corner that signaled quality on the walk home from the subway. Ads and window displays gave the stores a friendly voice, and family ownership carried that spirit for three generations.

Archival photos, ads, clippings, and interviews show how immigrant networks raised capital, how storefronts doubled as social spaces, and how a surname became a trusted brand. Readers watch the shift from street markets to self-service, then into an era of gourmet counters, convenience, and delivery. Labor, supply, and competition tested the company, and the city kept changing around it.

Led by the D'Agostino family, the company tried new ideas and kept what worked for shoppers. The results include wins, losses and chapters that feel unmistakably New York. At its heart, this book is about work and pride and the promise that a small business can grow without losing its touch. It shows how food shopping shapes daily life and how a family brand becomes part of the map of a city.

Review Quotes

Entrepreneurship, Italian style. An eye-opening history of an immigrant family, upward mobility, and New York food culture. Long before global brands discovered heritage marketing, the D'Agostinos blended their Old Country work ethic with American ambition to create a grocery chain beloved by all New Yorkers. A history lesson for foodies--and an inspiration for all new immigrants chasing the American Dream.---Regina Lee Blaszczyk, co-editor of Capitalism and the Senses

Studied account of the building of the D'Agostino Supermarket chain punched up by bloodline access to family archives and oral history. This access reveals much that took place in and around the empire that was being built; immigration and the back and forth with Italy; determination to survive and thrive; entrepreneurship and its challenges, successes and failures. This story is dramatic, chronicling family members and their styles; personalities chock full of moxie, flaws and strengths of key players. The history recounts myriad challenges, how they were handled, and strategies that did- and didn't -work. It's a rich portrayal, fact-packed and human, of the evolution of D'Agostino into a household name in New York.---Annie Hauck, co-editor of Gastropolis: Food and New York City

Paul Schmitz's landmark study transforms a single family business into an epic of American life, taking us behind its store counters and into the boardrooms, storage rooms, and living rooms where New Yorkers reinvented commerce and culture. Meticulously researched, this dramatic saga shows how Italian immigrants and their descendants changed American foodways, turning modest pushcarts into a supermarket empire while navigating suburbanization, urban renewal, and the shifting appetites of diverse consumers. A compelling account of kinship, big city politics, and dynamic business practices, New York's Family Grocer is essential for understanding ethnic identities, how we shop and eat, and the making of the modern United States.---Stephen Pitti, Professor of History, Yale University

From the shelves of the grocery store aisles to the pages of this book, this biography of a New York city grocery store, drops us into immigration history, Italian American history, food history, business history, and the life story of a great city. Everything has a history worth telling and this book on D'Agostino's surely demonstrates that.---Hasia Diner, Professor Emerita, New York University

Poignant, incisive, and full of judicious insights into the inner workings of the American grocery business and the immigrant entrepreneurs who transformed it, this deeply researched, beautifully written book stakes out the intersection of ethnic identity, business history, and the culture of food in twentieth century America. Investigating New York City's most famous upscale grocer, Schmitz explores the transformation of D'Agostino's and similar businesses from immigrant fruit sellers to successful supermarket chain. New York's Family Grocer demonstrates how D'Agostino's Italian roots and its founders' gruff, earthy style--the very ethnic authenticity that originally labeled it lower class and a public nuisance--eventually became the secret of the market's appeal to upscale consumers. This book will make major contributions to business history, the study of ethnicity, and the politics of food in the modern United States.---Bruce Schulman, William E. Huntington Professor of History, Boston University

About the Author

Paul Schmitz is Associate Teaching Professor in the History and Society Division at Babson College and has taught courses on the Modern American City, the History and Culture of American Business, and Immigration and Race. His research focuses on issues of food, business, and identity within the Italian and immigrant communities of New York City.