Balducci's Food Lover's Market is a specialty gourmet food retailer in the

Mid-Atlantic Mid-Atlantic or Mid Atlantic can refer to: *The middle of the Atlantic Ocean *Mid-Atlantic English, any mix between British and American English *Mid-Atlantic Region (Little League World Series), one of the United States geographic divisions of the ...

United States with eight

grocery store A grocery store ( AE), grocery shop or grocer's shop ( BE) or simply grocery is a retail store that primarily retails a general range of food products, which may be fresh or packaged. In everyday US usage, however, "grocery store" is a synon ...

s, owned by

Albertsons Albertsons Companies, Inc. is an American grocery company founded and headquartered in Boise, Idaho. With 2,253 stores as of the third quarter of fiscal year 2020 and 270,000 employees as of fiscal year 2019, the company is the second-large ...

since 2020.

History

The Balducci family patriarch, Louis, an immigrant from

Corato Corato (Bari dialect, Barese: ) is a town and ''comune'' in Italy. It is located in the Metropolitan City of Bari, Apulia, in southeastern Italy. Founded by the Italo-Normans, Normans, it became subject to Alfonso V of Aragon, Alfonso V, king of A ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, began his family's career in the New York City food trade by selling fruits and vegetables from a pushcart in

Greenpoint, Brooklyn Greenpoint is the northernmost neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is bordered on the southwest by Williamsburg at Bushwick Inlet Park and McCarren Park; on the southeast by the Brooklyn–Queens Expressway and East ...

between 1914 and 1925. The family returned to Italy in 1925, returned to the United States in 1939 and in 1946 Louis and his wife Maria opened a fruit stand at the corner of

Christopher Street Christopher Street is a street in the West Village neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is the continuation of 9th Street west of Sixth Avenue. It is most notable for the Stonewall Inn, which is located on Christopher St ...

and

Greenwich Avenue Greenwich Avenue, formerly Greenwich Lane, is a southeast-northwest avenue located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It extends from the intersection of 6th Avenue and 8th Street at its southeast end to ...

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...

. In 1972, they moved across

Sixth Avenue Sixth Avenue, also known as Avenue of the Americas, is a major thoroughfare in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The avenue is commercial for much of its length, and traffic runs northbound, or uptown. Sixth Avenue begins four blocks b ...

into a storefront at Sixth and West 9th St. From that site on Sixth Avenue, Balducci's is considered to have been the first grocer in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

to sell premium quality foods with a

butcher A butcher is a person who may Animal slaughter, slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat, or participate within any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat and poultry for sale in retail or wholesale ...

fishmonger A fishmonger (historically fishwife for female practitioners) is someone who sells raw fish and seafood. Fishmongers can be wholesalers or retailers and are trained at selecting and purchasing, handling, gutting, boning, filleting, displaying, ...

delicatessen A delicatessen or deli is a grocery that sells a selection of fine, exotic, or foreign prepared foods. Delicatessens originated in Germany (contemporary spelling: ) during the 18th century and spread to the United States in the mid-19th centur ...

and

greengrocer A greengrocer is a person who owns or operates a shop selling primarily produce, fruit and vegetables. The term may also be used to refer to a shop selling primarily produce. It is used predominantly in the United Kingdom and Australia. In the ...

all in the same store. It became a model for specialty markets all over the city. When the store moved to Sixth Avenue it was owned by two of Louis and Maria's children, Andy (and his wife Nina) and Grace (and her husband, Joe Doria). (A third child, Charles, was a physician; his son, Louis B., was active in managing the store.) News accounts describe disputes between the three siblings and their father Louis. In 1985 Grace and Joe left the company to start Grace's Marketplace on the

Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the boroughs of New York City, borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded approximately by 96th Street (Manhattan), 96th Street to the north, the East River to the e ...

. Louis B. left in the late 1980s and became partner at Agata & Valentina, another specialty grocer on Upper East Side. With their daughters uninterested in taking over the store, Andy and Nina sold in 1999 for $26.5 million to Sutton Place Gourmet, a Maryland-based company. Sales for the combined company were more than $130 million per year. The flagship store in on Sixth Avenue in Greenwich Village closed in January 2003 but a branch store, on West 66th Street, remained open. In November 2003, the company was purchased by an investment group led by

Bear Stearns Merchant Banking Irving Place Capital, formerly known as Bear Stearns Merchant Banking (BSMB), is an American private equity firm focused on leveraged buyout and growth capital investments in middle-market companies in the industrial, packaging, consumer and reta ...

. (Separate from the history of the store, but part of the family's history in food, Andy and Nina's daughter Ria's husband Kevin Murphy left Balducci's and started Baldor Specialty Foods, an East-Coast produce distributor. The name Baldor is said to be a combination of the names Balducci and Doria.)

Balducci's after 2005

The new

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of navy, naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically ...

store in the

New York Savings Bank The New York Savings Bank Building is a former bank building in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Constructed for the defunct New York Savings Bank from 1896 to 1898, it occupies an L-shaped site on 81 Eighth Avenue, at ...

Building (at Eighth Avenue and 14th Street) in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

opened in December 2005. Following its opening, Local 1500 of the

United Food and Commercial Workers Union The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) is a labor union representing approximately 1.3 million workers in the United States and Canada in industries including retail; meatpacking, food processing and manufacturing; hosp ...

began protesting outside the store against the non-unionized status of employees. In April 2009 the company closed its two New York City locations, the new flagship at Eighth Avenue and 14th Street and the West 66th Street store. There are currently eight full-service retail stores in

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

, and New York ( Scarsdale). In 2012, Balducci's returned to New York with Balducci's Gourmet on the Go Café in Hearst Tower, which serves prepared meals and soups as well as a gourmet salad and coffee bar. There are four Balducci's Express locations: three in

JFK Airport John F. Kennedy International Airport is a major international airport serving New York City and its metropolitan area. JFK Airport is located on the southwestern shore of Long Island, in Queens, New York City, bordering Jamaica Bay. It is t ...

in New York and one at the Leesburg Corner Premium Outlets in Virginia. There also was a Balducci's Gourmet on the Go Café located in the Bloomberg Children's Center at the

Johns Hopkins Hospital Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH) is the teaching hospital and biomedical research facility of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1889, Johns Hopkins Hospital and its school of medicine are considered to be the foundin ...

, but it closed in 2024. In April 2009 Balducci's was sold to

Kings Food Markets Kings Food Markets is an American food market chain headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey, with stores in northern New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut. From 1988 to 2006, it was owned by British retailer Marks & Spencer. In 2009, Kings acq ...

, a portfolio company of Angelo, Gordon and Co. In 2016, Kings and Balducci's were sold to GSSG Capital. In 2020, Balducci's filed for bankruptcy, and was sold to

References

External links

balduccis.com
Balducci's Food Lovers Market official website {{authority control Greenwich Village Shops in New York City Companies based in Germantown, Maryland Economy of the Eastern United States Supermarkets of the United States Commercial buildings in Manhattan American companies established in 1946 Retail companies established in 1946 Food and drink companies established in 1946 1946 establishments in New York City Food and drink companies based in Maryland Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2020