ABSTRACT
An innovator in the grocery business, Nicholas D’Agostino Sr., was instrumental in develop-ing a chain of supermarkets out of a family business. He was born in Bugnara, Italy, on June 8, 1910, the son of Ignazio and Loretta D’Agostino. In 1924, at the age of 14, Nicholas came with his parents from their native vil-lage, not very far from Rome, to New York City and, with his brother Pasquale, helped his father in the sale of groceries. Trained as a butcher, he became an expert on the quality of beef, lamb, and veal available in the city’s main meat market, which he then visited daily. In 1932 he and his brother opened their own grocery store on East 83rd Street and Lexington Avenue in an exclusive area of Manhattan, where they attracted a prosper-ous clientele. That same year Nicholas mar-ried Josephine Tucciarone, and they had three children.
