On an early chilly morning long before the sun rises and just days before Thanksgiving, large panel trucks filled to the brim with several hundred frozen turkeys pull up to each of the 11 DeCicco & Sons upscale gourmet supermarkets. In a few days all of these pre-ordered turkeys will be feasted on by DeCicco & Sons’ many loyal customers while many other turkeys will feed thousands of those in need.
For business owners John DeCicco Sr. and his wife Marie DeCicco, giving back has highlighted their strong connections to countless communities for more than 50 years starting with their first store in 1973 in the Woodlawn section of the Bronx and then in 1984 when they opened their store in Pelham.
“We started making baskets for families in need during Thanksgiving and also Christmas,” DeCicco Sr. recalls. “We’d include turkeys with all the sides, and my delivery guy would bring some 50 to 70 baskets to families from a list supplied to us by the schools. Since then, we’ve been giving back.”
The popular supermarket is known for custom-made cakes, high quality produce and meats, prepared meals including sushi, salads, hot food bars, grab-and-go meals, sides and award-winning catering services.
As the DeCicco’s opened more stores over the years, they always embraced each store’s community by donating to various local organizations. The act of contributing reminds John DeCicco Sr. of the kindness showed him when he was a poor 10-year-old just arriving in the United States from Calabria, Italy.
“I remember going to this church and they gave me a few toys, and I never forgot that,” John Sr. recalls. “For a family in need, our baskets are a big thing, and I feel grateful that we are able to share.”
Fast forward to DeCicco’s & Sons expansive outreach supporting Westchester and Putnam schools, PTA/PTSAs, education and health-based foundations, local food pantries and hospitals, non-profit organizations such as the American Cancer Society with annual donations exceeding $100,000.
Years ago, the DeCicco’s enticed customers to contribute to their school rebate program by placing their sales receipts in a box at the cash register and DeCicco’s would donate 1% of those sales. Today customers use their courtesy cards to donate to the school of their choice and every two months DeCicco & Sons sends a check to any one of a number of PTA groups. “We’ve gotten almost $3 million over the years since we started that program. We still do it,” DeCicco Sr. notes.
Responding to unplanned needs is another way DeCicco & Sons gives back. During the COVID pandemic the store delivered breakfasts to the local fire department and pizzas to the police department. When the power goes out every DeCicco & Sons store allows those living nearby without electricity to put their food in the store’s freezers. During the Hurricane Sandy power outage, Marie recalls a woman coming to the Pelham store where they had a shower and washing up before getting on the train to go to work.
“We really try to meet the needs of the community in many ways,” Marie says. “Our sons and our whole team are the same way in each store.”
Both the DeCicco’s two sons, John Jr. and Chris, grew up with marketing entrepreneurship in their blood. As youngsters the boys would sit at the kitchen table and sketch out their dream store.
“We would visit Wegmans in New Jersey, and they were inspired from an early age,” Marie remembers. “When they started working at our stores the boys worked from the bottom up, from cleaning toilets to washing floors to being involved in construction, to the meat and fish departments.”
John Jr. is CEO of DeCicco’s & Sons while Chris and their cousin Joseph DeCicco operate ten stores in Ardsley, Armonk, Bedford, Brewster, Eastchester, Harrison, Larchmont, Millwood, Pelham, and Somers. Each oversees different operations. Joseph DeCicco, vice president of purchasing, actively searches for gourmet items from around the world with an emphasis on Italian products.
Chris is known for starting the store’s impressive and large international beer selection prominently shelved in a separate, dedicated location of the store. His interest in craft beers saw him travelling around the world tasting local brews in the early 1990s.
Eventually DeCicco & Sons’ first craft beer affiliation was with Captain Lawrence Brewing Company based in Elmsford in 2006. By 2010, DeCicco & Sons was the first supermarket in New York to install a bar with beer on tap in their Brewster store. Today the supermarket sells 1,000 to 3,000 varieties of beer and Chris is recognized as a well-known beer aficionado world-wide. Because Chris was key in promoting Belgian beer in New York and the United States, in 2017 he was inducted as an honorary knight in Belgium in a 13th century tradition called the Knighthood of the Brewers’ Mash Staff that took place at the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula in Brussels.
Photo by Cathy Pinsky
The DeCicco & Sons Armonk store was built in 2013. Before that there were no supermarkets in town. John Sr. recalls that before they built the Armonk store it wastreet corridor between Maple Avenue and Bedford Road.
Marie and John Sr. moved to Armonk about 10 years ago, a convenient move for Marie who oversees the store’s on-site bakery. The very early morning staff of 17 bakers produce freshly baked items which are sold in the Armonk store and distributed to their other stores. The bakery is known for its custom cakes, homemade cookies, Italian pastries and breads. DeCicco also partners with other family businesses including Zaro’s Bakery, Rockland Bakery, Carousel Cakes, and Arthur Avenue’s Zarro’s Bread.
“The work shifts in the bakery vary,” Marie explains. “During the holidays bakers come in around 4 a.m., the decorators come in about 7 a.m. and the packers come in later in the morning and stay until closing to get all the orders ready for the morning pick up.”
The DeCicco’s started their baking delivery service for their Pelham store. “My vendor at that time was a pastry shop owner in Rockland where we lived at the time,” Marie recalls. “Our delivery guys were my husband and my sons using their own vehicles,” she says, chuckling. “Some of the conditions the products arrived in makes me laugh – don’t ask – cakes upside down! That’s how we started. We’ve come a really long way.”
The very same Rockland pastry shop owner, Louie Roscigno, would eventually come to work for the DeCicco’s and, at age 80, he still works for them as senior baker. Roscigno is among those who have worked with the DeCicco’s for as long as 50 years.
John Sr. notes how the store’s creative bakery staff quickly decorated a cake for a customer.
“One of our neighbors and a regular customer was in the store and we found out that it was her birthday,” John Sr. recollects. “We asked the bakery to quickly make a cake to surprise her and when she was checking out, we gave her the cake while all the cashiers sang happy birthday to her. These are the things that happen at the store that are priceless.”
Photo by Cathy Pinsky
In 2024, DeCicco & Sons were awarded Best of Westchester for their catering service.
Marie regularly meets with the store’s award-winning event and catering director Brittany Arocho who has worked at the DeCicco’s for nine years. Arocho oversees the full-service catering throughout the year including corporate functions, fundraising galas, milestone events and provides various types of cuisine, custom desserts, décor, staff, rentals and floral arrangements. The DeCicco & Sons’ catering department also cooks thousands of turkeys, many with complimentary sides for their Thanksgiving and the holiday customers.
The future for DeCicco & Sons is always a forward moving plan, seen today as two new stores are about to open in January 2026. One will be a 20,000-square-foot space on Glen Ridge Road in Greenwich, CT. The other store will be in Scarsdale by the train station, where the former DeCicco Family Markets was located which closed last year. Once both stores open there will be a total of 13 DeCicco & Sons stores in the New York Metro area.
To date, there are some 1,600 employees working for all the DeCicco & Sons stores with about 100 staffers in each store. Woven into the new hires training is the importance of being amicable and attentive, something the DeCicco’s are especially proud of.
“We spend a lot of time training new employees and educating them,” DeCicco Sr. says. “Many of them are nice kids and for some it’s their first job. I want to teach them life skills like talking to customers, saying ‘thank you’ or ‘how was your day?’ We’ve seen our young employees come in so shy but then they blossom and work their way up in the store. Parents have told us how, since working here, their kids have changed.”
Employees have learned to be customer friendly by example, a role in which John Sr. is only too happy to play as he mingles with and helps customers in the front of the store. Just recently he was helping an elderly husband and his wife bag their groceries. He graciously carried their bags out to their car when the husband asked him “How long have you been doing this?”
“Oh about 50 years,” John Sr. told him, eyes twinkling.
The man looked shocked and said, “And you never got a promotion?”
