The last day of DeCicco’s
After 34 years, the Village’s grocery store bids our town farewell.
Food for thought A lack of community support forced this Scarsdale business to shut down.
BY DEBORAH SKOLNIK
A half-hour into DeCicco’s’ very last morning, a well-coiffed woman came in toting two large Dunkin’ Donuts bags. “Coffee and donuts,” she said to the assistant manager, placing the gifts on a small table next to a cash register. Another man shook the assistant manager’s hand, solemnly saying, “I’m really going to miss you.” He paused. “Say hello to Maria for me,” he added, doubtlessly an employee whom he had long enjoyed seeing at the store.
This evening, DeCicco’s will officially go out of business, and the staffers are wistful. “It’s a new chapter for me,” said one. “I’m going to work at the store in Jefferson Valley, but it’s a hike. I live in the Bronx.” Nearby, the assistant manager found himself in yet another conversation with a customer. “Covid changed everything,” he lamented. “We tried everything we could. The landlord gave us no help. He didn’t budge on the lease.” The woman nodded sadly. “During the pandemic, you were amazing,” she said. “You had better stock than the big-box stores.”
And then it was the Insider’s turn to express sympathies, saying it’s hard to believe that such a fixture in town is taking its final bow. “We’ve been here more than thirty years,” the assistant manager shared. “We would say hi to little kids in wagons, and then they would grow up and have kids of their own, and their kids would come here to shop.”
Running on empty DeCicco’s’ aisles slowly grew bare over the last few months.
He was unable to verify the rumors that DiCicco & Sons, another chain operated by a different side of the family, would move into the space. “I’ve heard things, but I don’t know,” he said with a shrug. When asked to pose for a picture, he declined and discouraged the Insider from asking other staffers for photos either, saying, “It’s already tough enough for the guys. Some of them didn’t come in today.” (Of course, this paper respected his wishes.) The remaining groceries will be transported to another De Cicco Family Market store.
As the fishmonger began shoveling ice inside the counter, and the sushi woman set out plastic trays of California tuna rolls, it was easy to convince oneself that it was business as usual. But then a cashier walked by, a somber look on her face and one of the Dunkin’ Donuts coffee cups in her hand.
No matter how much sweetener she put in it, it was probably still hard to swallow.