Uncle Giuseppe's Greenvale store opening in August, Levittown supermarket opening later this year

Uncle Giuseppe's Marketplace’s East Coast expansion plan is on track, as it readies openings for two more Long Island stores this year.

The high-end, Italian specialty grocer has set an opening date for its Greenvale store, Aug. 14, and plans to open its Levittown store in the fourth quarter of this year, co-founder and CEO Carl DelPrete told Newsday on Wednesday.

The Melville-based grocer currently has 12 stores in New Jersey and New York, eight of which are on Long Island. By the end of this year, the grocer will have doubled its number of stores to 14 over a seven-year period. 

"Our growth strategy is going to be pretty consistent. We’re looking at opening at least two stores a year, but it all really depends on us finding the correct market and the right space,” DelPrete said.

The Greenvale store will occupy a 52,000-square-foot space, at 130 Wheatley Plaza, which was vacated by a Stop & Shop supermarket in October 2024.

Uncle Giuseppe’s Levittown store, at 3284 Hempstead Tpke., will occupy a 50,000-square-foot space that a King Kullen supermarket vacated in October 2024.

The new stores will have cafes, delis, pizzerias, salad bars and pasta and mozzarella stations, as well as a full-service butcher, seafood and bakery departments, DelPrete said. Each store will employ about 250 full- and part-time workers, he said.

The two new stores are opening later than Uncle Giuseppe's projected previously: the Greenvale store was set to open in the first quarter of 2026 and the Levittown store in the third quarter of this year.

The Greenvale store opening was delayed because Stop & Shop's lease rights extended until mid-2025, even though the store closed in October 2024, Uncle Giuseppe’s spokesman Nicholas Renna said in an email.

"As a result, we were not able to begin our full build-out until we had access to the property," he said, adding that Uncle Giuseppe’s process of opening a store takes 12 months from the lease signing.

The Levittown store opening was pushed back because it "requires significant adjustments, repairs and infrastructure work to ensure the building functions properly and feels like an Uncle Giuseppe’s," he said.

Finding the right spot

Founded in 1998 as an East Meadow Farms produce store, the grocer was rebranded as Uncle Giuseppe’s Marketplace in 2001.

Uncle Giuseppe’s has been pushing more growth in the past few years, opening stores in Yorktown Heights, Westchester County in 2019; North Babylon in 2020; Morris Plains, New Jersey, in 2021; Tinton Falls, New Jersey, in 2023; and Bohemia last November.

The chain is planning to further expand on the East Coast, with additional stores being considered for the grocer’s existing markets in Westchester County and New Jersey, as well as possible new markets in Connecticut and Pennsylvania, DelPrete said.

Among the grocer’s biggest challenges is hiring enough employees, said DelPrete, adding that the company now employs about 2,800 workers.

Another issue is finding suitable locations for new stores, since finding vacant spaces that are large enough is often difficult, he said.

The chain prefers spaces that are at least 50,000 square feet but considers 40,000-square-foot spaces in markets where it already has a presence, he said.

When looking at possible sites, Uncle Giuseppe’s is not as focused on a community’s median income as it is on being in densely populated areas that have a high percentage of families who regularly cook at home, he said.

“Our perfect demographic are people that barbecue on the weekend, eat at home, you know, five nights a week,” he said.

'Luxury that everyone could afford'

As discount and specialty grocers have expanded in or entered the Long Island market in the past several years, the number of traditional supermarkets has declined.

Inflation-weary shoppers are being drawn to discounters, such as Aldi, Lidl and Walmart, while higher-income consumers seek unique and health-focused products at stores such as Whole Foods Market and Wegmans.

DelPrete declined to disclose Uncle Giuseppe’s annual sales, but said the grocer is performing well because it does not try to compete with discounters.

“We compete in the area that people know us for, and that’s fresh food. We like to say that Uncle Giuseppe’s offers a luxury that everyone could afford,” DelPrete said.

His stores also excel in customer service, he said.

“If you look at a typical supermarket our size, they’re going to have 20 to 25% of the employees we have, so they cannot do what we do in the handcrafting and providing really good handmade foods,” he said.