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Balducci's
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryRetail
Founded1916 Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
1946 Manhattan, New York, U.S.
FounderLouis Balducci, Maria Balducci[1]
HeadquartersGermantown, Maryland
Area served
ProductsSpecialty Gourmet
OwnerAlbertsons
Websitewww.balduccis.com

Balducci's Food Lover's Market is a specialty gourmet food retailer in the Mid-Atlantic United States with eight grocery stores, owned by Albertsons since 2020.[2]

History

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The Balducci family patriarch, Louis, an immigrant from Corato, Italy, began his family's career in the New York City food trade by selling fruits and vegetables from a pushcart in Greenpoint, Brooklyn 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 and Greenwich Avenue in Greenwich Village. In 1972, they moved across Sixth Avenue into a storefront at Sixth and West 9th St.[3][1]

From that site on Sixth Avenue, Balducci's is considered to have been the first grocer in New York City to sell premium quality foods with a butcher, fishmonger, delicatessen and greengrocer all in the same store.[4] It became a model for specialty markets all over the city.[4][5]

When the store moved to Sixth Avenue it was owned by two of Louis and Maria's children, Andy (and his wife Nina[6]) and Grace (and her husband, Joe Doria). (A third child, Charles,[7] 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.[8] Louis B. left in the late 1980s and became partner at Agata & Valentina, another specialty grocer on Upper East Side.[4]

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.[3] Sales for the combined company were more than $130 million per year.[9]

The flagship store in on Sixth Avenue in Greenwich Village closed in January 2003 but a branch store, on West 66th Street, remained open.[10]

In November 2003, the company was purchased by an investment group led by Bear Stearns Merchant Banking.[11]

(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.[12] The name Baldor is said to be a combination of the names Balducci and Doria.[3])

Balducci's after 2005

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Previous Balducci's logo

The new flagship store in the New York Savings Bank Building (at Eighth Avenue and 14th Street) in Manhattan opened in December 2005.[13] Following its opening, Local 1500 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union began protesting outside the store against the non-unionized status of employees.[14] 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.[5][15]

There are currently eight full-service retail stores in Connecticut, Maryland, Virginia, 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.[16] There are four Balducci's Express locations: three in JFK Airport in New York and one at the Leesburg Corner Premium Outlets in Virginia.[2] There also was a Balducci's Gourmet on the Go Café located in the Bloomberg Children's Center at the Johns Hopkins Hospital,[17] but it closed in 2024.

In April 2009 Balducci's was sold to Kings Food Markets, a portfolio company of Angelo, Gordon and Co.[18] In 2016, Kings and Balducci's were sold to GSSG Capital.[19] In 2020, Balducci's filed for bankruptcy, and was sold to Albertsons.[20]

References

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  1. ^ a b Scelfo, Julie (October 25, 2016). The women who made New York. Heald, Hallie. Berkeley, California. p. 279. ISBN 978-1580056533. OCLC 960644058.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. ^ a b "Balducci's - Store Locations". Balduccis.com. Retrieved December 4, 2013.
  3. ^ a b c Roberts, Sam (March 30, 2018). "Andrew Balducci, Who Turned a Market Into a Food Mecca, Dies at 92". The New York Times. Retrieved April 30, 2018.
  4. ^ a b c Burros, Marian (June 28, 2000). "Balducci's: A House Divided Stands in Name Only". The New York Times. Retrieved April 30, 2018.
  5. ^ a b Lee, Jennifer 8 (April 6, 2009). "In Rough Market, a Slow Market (Balducci's) Suffers". The New York Times. Retrieved April 30, 2018.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ Severson, Kim (April 20, 2020). "Nina Balducci, Who Shaped a Famed Grocery Store, Dies at 91". The New York Times. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
  7. ^ "Paid Notice: Deaths BALDUCCI, DR". The New York Times. December 8, 2015. Retrieved April 30, 2018.
  8. ^ Curtis, Charlotte (November 26, 1985). "A New Show in Town". The New York Times. p. C16. Retrieved April 30, 2018.
  9. ^ Fabricant, Florence (June 23, 1999). "Sutton Place, Balducci's in Partnership". The New York Times. Retrieved April 30, 2018.
  10. ^ Barron, James (January 8, 2003). "Balducci's Flagship Closes in the Village; A New Site Is Planned". The New York Times. Retrieved April 30, 2018.
  11. ^ "Breaking News: Angelo, Gordon Sells Kings, Balducci's To Investment Company; Spires Remains CEO". foodtradenews.com. August 10, 2016. Retrieved July 28, 2020.
  12. ^ DiMartino, Christina (February 5, 2013). "Kevin Murphy, founder of Baldor Specialty Foods, dies at 58". The Produce News. Retrieved April 30, 2018.
  13. ^ "A New Balducci's, Back Downtown", The New York Times, December 14, 2005
  14. ^ "Lining Up at Balducci's, and Not for the Salmon", The New York Times, March 6, 2006
  15. ^ Buckley, Cara (April 26, 2009). "Balducci's Makes a Quiet Exit From Manhattan". The New York Times. Retrieved April 30, 2018.
  16. ^ Fickenscher, Lisa (March 6, 2012). "Balducci's returns to NYC". Crains New York.
  17. ^ "Dining Options". Retrieved January 24, 2013.
  18. ^ "Balducci's Sold". Westportnow.com. April 15, 2009. Retrieved December 4, 2013.
  19. ^ "Breaking News: Angelo, Gordon Sells Kings, Balducci's To Investment Company; Spires Remains CEO". foodtradenews.com. August 10, 2016. Retrieved June 8, 2019.
  20. ^ "Albertsons buys group of stores from bankrupt east coast chain, declares dividend". BoiseDev. October 14, 2020.
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