When nine ShopRite supermarkets in Connecticut open enlarged and more upscale takeout food, deli, meat and seafood sections, shoppers will see a new name with a long history.
The stores are adding the Cingari Family Markets brand to emphasize the chain’s heritage in hopes of building the same consumer loyalty that the name holds in Stamford.
The family-owned chain on Monday debuted the first of its fully remodeled stores, its Commerce Street location in Stamford’s west side. In a fast-changing food retailing world, the company is banking on the family name — a staple in Stamford since the late 1920s — becoming a household name in Derby, Brookfield and even as far as Bristol.
“Our new brand identity is more than just a new look, it’s a tribute to our heritage and a step forward into the future,” President Thomas Cingari Sr. said at a ceremony Monday morning in the store’s parking lot.
The company isn’t quoting exact costs, but has begun investing heavily in a refresh for all 10 of the ShopRites it owns along with its two Grade A Market location in Stamford. Updated decor and flooring, modern displays and signs, more environmentally friendly refrigerators and freezers along with upgrades to the online-shopping option are being planned.
The modernization is planned for all of the company’s stores, which are mostly in Fairfield County and the lower Naugatuck Valley. The properties extend as far north as Bristol, which the family bought this past winter. When asked how soon that store’s upgrade would begin, Cingari said “As soon as possible.”
The recipe appears similar to one that East Windsor-based Geissler’s Supermarkets is using: A thorough modernization of stores to shed any resemblance to mid-20th century operations like Waldbaum’s, Pathmark, Bohack or A&P. But at the same time, both Geissler’s and Cingari are doubling down on the venerable family names as a way to connect with consumers who aren’t enthusiastic about the industry’s super-large corporate chains.
For Geissler’s, that means the legacy of founder Adolph F. Geissler, who started with with a tiny storefront grocery store in 1923 in East Windsor. The Cingari family traces its roots to 1929, when Salvatore Cingari began selling fresh produce from an old school bus that he drove door-to-door in Stamford. There have been three generations of Cingaris involved in the business since then.
As culinary director for the Cingari Family Markets, David Cingari said he knows a lot of the pressure to establish the name in new markets falls on him since he’s in charge of the recipes and production of dozens and dozens of freshly made menu items at the stores. The meat, seafood, produce, cheese, dairy and fresh food sections are generally where markets can distinguish themselves on something more than price.
“We started out doing this three years ago with something called the Grade Above brand. That was our initial family brand, but then we realized that people had a hard time connecting Cingari Family Markets, Cingari, Grade A, Grade Above. So we went back at it and landed on the Cingari Family brand,” David Cingari said. “Every store that you walk into, in the foyer is a picture of the Cingari family founders and ‘Welcome.’
“So we went back to the exact same colors from the original logo. It all ties in to make it feel more like a local, family store. To get the customer into the brand is all about trust,” David Cingari said. “They have to taste it; if it’s good, maybe they’ll try it again. So it’s got to be that good every single time. We have more than 30 people every day producing these products, and all of the hot food bar (items) are made at the store level. We want restaurant quality and you have to keep that up day after day after day.”
The industry has become far more competitive in the past couple of decades, with WalMart and Amazon getting into the grocery business and DoorDash, Grub Hub and others making most restaurants into competitors for supermarket grab-and-go and fresh-made meals.
The Cingari plan is to widen its selection to the extent that quality can hold up; with a few dishes, though even a couple of minutes’ variation in how consumers reheat the item changes the outcome drastically, David Cingari said.
“The process of brining something to market is three to six months, starting with the initial recipe I will make to get it where I want it. Then we bring it to my team of chefs to scale it up to 10, 20, 100,” he said. “It can take up 20-plus versions of a recipe to get it from one to 20. You just don’t multiply (the single-serve ingredients) by 10.”
Thomas Cingari Sr. isn’t disclosing details about expansion plans, but acknowledged that the addition of the Bristol store — about an hour an 20 minutes from the Stamford flagship — demonstrates there are possibilities outside of Fairfield and New Haven counties. Along with the store financials and the prospects for a solid customer base, he looks for prospective markets where a Cingari ShopRite can attract or keep customer service-oriented employees, he said.
“We are who we are because of our family culture,” he said, gesturing toward several employees. “We are an extended family. It can only work with that culture.”
