New Era For Old World

Younger generation's vision secures the future for Glorioso's Italian Market.

After retiring nearly four years ago from a career as a beverage industry executive, Michael Glorioso vividly recalls the unexpected response his father, Ted, gave him after casually inquiring about potentially returning to work for the family's ancestral grocery store in Milwaukee: "Here, grab an apron."

With something more in mind, initial shock soon gave way to passionate next-generation management for Michael and his cousin Felix, working side by side with the store's founding fathers as co-managers.

"I wanted to build a business that will take us into the future," an ironically apron-clad Michael Glorioso declared at the splendid new Brady Street market that's situated directly across the street from the old store that has served the historic Italian neighborhood since 1946. With costs rising and sales in the tiny store trending flat, the family needed something "to set us up for the long haul."

With Michael and Felix at the helm, the specialty Italian market is reaching beyond that neighborhood while still being true to the quality, service, reputation and old-world charm that has made the store a Milwaukee institution for the past 65 years. And by taking this not-so-uncommon path of returning to a family business armed with experience from the business world, Michael aims to ensure success by turning a beloved relic into a lucrative icon with a secure future.

Last December, Glorioso's bowed its new 16,000-square-foot urban market — small by most modern supermarket standards, but light years ahead of the 3,100-square-foot confines from which the family built its business for going on four generations. The difference is striking, and Michael's vision is allowing the business to offer goods and services previously impossible.

While traveling abroad on business, Glorioso explains, "I took pictures and gathered menus and information," all of which influenced the design of the new market. But while the change would be radical, he notes, it couldn't be so much so that the business would lose its historic identity.

By encompassing three key components — old-world ambiance, architectural traits from the neighborhood and visual elements from Milwaukee's historic Third Ward — Glorioso's is now poised for the future by building upon the strengths of the past.

So far, total customer traffic count and total store sales have doubled. The new market handles four times the number of general grocery SKUs as the old store. Bakery sales, with the new coffee and gelato bar components, are running 10 times the levels of the old store. Wine sales are up 100 percent, cheese sales up 125 percent. And foodservice, with the new pizza program and in-store seating, is up 150 percent from previous store sales.

Glorioso's Italian Market

1011 E. BRADY ST., MILWAUKEE, WI 53202

Grand opening: Dec. 2, 2010

Total square footage: 16,000

Selling area: 9,600

Estimated total weekly sales: $88,000

Employees: 39

Checkouts: Three, plus one in bakery

Hours: M-F 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Sat 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sun 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Store designer: Mehmert Store Services, Sussex, Wis.

Coming off a year with $1.9 million in sales, Glorioso says the market expects to make $5 million now that the new market is up and running. Key to that anticipated growth in sales, he explains, will be leveraging the appeal of specialty cuisines — as well as natural, organic and locally sourced foods — to a younger audience.

"We're trying to hit all these groups for a broad demographic," Glorioso says, noting that the market is close to several major universities that are full of students who've grown up watching the Food Network. "We've got 18- and 19-year olds asking for Parma prosciutto. They're educated — they know about balsamic vinegars and salamis."

Glorioso set his sights firmly on evoking two things when guests enter his family's store for the first time: "I want them to say, 'Does it smell good in here!'" — which it does indeed — "and I want them to say, ‘Wow!’"

An Educational Experience

Of course, getting to that new point after 65 years was a challenge.

"When I told my family I was going to put in four checkout lanes, they looked at me like I had two heads," Glorioso quips while explaining how the business is finally harnessing technology to track sales. "We were pencil and paper — one step above an abacus."

And that system worked just fine for his father and uncles, along with the folks who've relied on the family's market for decades. "We have third- and fourth-generation families shopping here. … Especially the older clientele, they knew where everything was; they could make their three or four stops," he says. "Everyone thought we'd lose our charm, so that was a huge part of the thought process that went into developing the expansion."

But the new store brought some charm of its own; it was built as the Astor Theater in 1907 and was more recently home to a pharmacy after renovation that hid the structure's ancient attributes, which the Glorioso's build-out unmasked. The current sales floor was created by ripping out a second floor added years ago and removing a drop ceiling that concealed another 8 feet that soared up to terra cotta tiles. The market's industrial look now reveals ductwork, as well as beams with construction markings restored to how they looked when put in place a century ago.

Here's the Story, About a Store on Brady

Just mention the name Clorioso's in southeastern Wisconsin, and the words "Milwaukee icon" come to mind. The specialty Italian market on historic Brady Street has wowed customers since its inception in 1946, when brothers Joe, Eddie and Ted Glorioso purchased a 1,500-square-foot store on Milwaukee's lower East Side and opened Glorioso Bros. Fine Foods.

In 1952, Ted opened Trio's Pizzeria on Milwaukee's South Side. He used Italian ingredients from Glorioso's to create a signature sauce and was purportedly the first pizza maker in the state to implement home delivery service and create frozen pizzas. He later moved the pizzeria to Brady Street, next door to the market (the pizza is being offered once again in the new market).

The brothers expanded the Glorioso name throughout Milwaukee, and their family name became a respected brand around the city. (The Gloriosos also are one of the founding families of Festa Italiana, one of Milwaukee's many popular annual summer festivals, held on the city's lakefront.) Joe and Eddie drove to an Italian market in Chicago once a week to buy fresh produce and other Italian goods for the store and restaurant. In 1967, the brothers purchased the building next to the store, created a doorway between the two buildings and expanded Glorioso's to 3,000 square feet. There the store remained until the move across the street in December 2010 to the new market at the corner of Brady and Astor.

Joe, now 89, is still co-owner of the store with Ted, 81. Their brother Eddie, 87, still works as an employee in the store. Felix (Joe's son) and Michael (Ted's son), both 58, serve as co-managers of the business.

The new market was among the winners in PG's annual Store Design Contest, taking the prize for Best Low-cost Remodel, Urban Format. Read more about the design process at www.progressivegrocer.com/inprint/ article/id1964/pg-store-design-contest-grand-designs/.

Double-hung windows on the interior, along with canopies, awnings and parapets, create a streetscape reminiscent of Brady Street from years gone by. Windows facing the street were maintained in the design to allow for natural light and clear visibility from the sidewalk that runs along the store. Significant iron structures for hanging sausage and cheeses, along with scrollwork signage, continued the theme of an old-world Italian market.

Visitors entering the market would indeed be hard-pressed to stifle the "wow" that Glorioso seeks, regardless of whether they're familiar with the old location. The entryway, several steps above the main sales floor, is a great perch from which to survey the vast open area that stretches forward and high overhead.

To the left of the checkout lanes just ahead is the indoor seating area, which Glorioso says is "a tremendous asset."

At the old store, he continues, "in the winter, people didn't get sandwiches" for lack of a place to sit. Most days, during the peak lunch hour, all of the indoor seats fill up (as well as the outdoor tables, weather permitting) and the checkout stands are jammed.

Most of the folks filling those tables have come from the deli counter at the far opposite side of the store, where hot and cold Italian sandwiches and other delicacies are prepared.

The 63-foot-long deli counter (up from a mere 20 feet at the old store) fronts a 2,700-square-foot kitchen. "It feels like a football field" compared with old store's kitchen, Glorioso remarks, which barely allowed family members to pass by each other or squeeze by the two-burner stove.

The deli counter offers a bounty of pasta, tomato, olive and seafood salads swimming in family-recipe, house-made marinades; fresh mozzarella balls; three types of feta; and a wide variety of Italian meats: hot, mild, easy garlic, heavy garlic. The store doesn't carry a single line, Glorioso explains: "We find the best in its respective category."

There are plenty of hard-to-find items, too, he notes, holding up a granciole — pig's cheek — as well as meat ends at bargain prices. "We get a lot of chefs who want the best but don't want to pay $24.95 a pound," Glorioso says, so castoffs like prosciutto ends go for half price to be used in soups and other recipes.

The deli offers several whole-milk and part-skim mozzarellas, plus 11 provolones of various vintages. For the self-serve cheese case, Gloriosos cuts its own provolone quarters from giant wheels, on which it stocks up when prices are good. The store also offers free grating for 15 types of cheese. Beyond the traditional Italian selections, Gloriosos is working with a cheese buyer to stock select Wisconsin boutique cheeses.

Glorioso describes the store's meat department as "limited," as it's known chiefly for its homemade sausage; the sore sells 1,500 pounds a week, in mild, hot, and cheese &c pepper varieties. But people have been known to trek long distances for deals like $7.99 a pound for New York strip steaks, he notes: "We buy the highest quality and sell it for ridiculous prices."

Truly limited is produce, in a small section at the front of the store, accounting for perhaps 2 percent of sales. Glorioso explains the limited selection of high-quality produce is offered mainly for neighborhood locals. "We go to [the produce] market every morning at 6 o'clock," he says.

The bakery has been "one of the bigger surprises," he says, due to the addition of a coffee and gelato bar. Fresh-made cannoli, bread from a local mainstay Italian bakery, cakes from Chicago and a wide selection of Italian cookies, plus 12 gelatos, coffees, Italian sodas and smoothies, have sold "beyond our expectations." Sales of packaged coffee have taken off as well, Glorioso says: "Across the street, we'd be lucky to sell a case a month. Now we sell three cases a day."

The coffee and gelato bars serve as a gateway to a back room where the Gloriosos suddenly found themselves with space for an extensive wine department and in a position to hire a wine manager. Featuring a selection with 90 percent Italian varieties, the wine area makes good use of informational signage, another change from the old days.

"We can't be in every aisle all the time," Glorioso says, explaining that in the tiny old store, employees could help customers from pretty much anywhere in the store without moving. "We want to make coming to Glorioso's an educational experience." Along these lines, aisles have been wired for the eventual installation of television monitors that will show educational videos about food and wine.

That should be a plus for the younger demographic Glorioso's hopes to attract, folks ready not only to buy the right foods, but also the right tools with which to prepare them. As such, brisk sales in the store's new cookware department have been "a surprise," Glorioso says, with implements like ravioli makers and cheese knives moving well.

Just beyond a small dairy section — again, offered for the convenience of neighborhood locals — is a vast selection of dry pastas from all over the world, with prices ranging from budget to luxury — up to $15 a pound. There are rainbow lasagna, mother-in-law tongues, zebra-stripe pasta, and noodles colored with squid ink, among other selections. "I am amazed by the number of people who buy this stuff," Glorioso remarks.

Olive oil comes in 120 varieties, from cruets to 3-liter cans, alongside at least a dozen balsamic vinegars. Tomato — sauces, purees, pastes, whole and crushed — take up another aisle.

The store does a brisk business with its private label frozen foods, especially in the winter, Glorioso says: "Volume increases four to five times. We struggle to keep it in stock." There are pastas, chicken and veal parmesan, pizza dough balls, spiedini, soup (minestrone, Italian wedding, pastini), calamari, and other Italian seafoods. Canned fish, such as anchovies, also sells well.

The bulk foods aisle features traditional Italian items like roasted and salted fava beans, pumpkin seeds, and colorful sugared almonds that are fixtures at Italian weddings.

"We are not afraid to bring in quality merchandise," even if it's expensive, Glorioso says. Of course, keeping it all in stock is more challenging than in the old days. "When we got to the last half-dozen units, we'd order more," he notes. "Now we have to have backup. … Our products are incredibly fresh, with a tremendous turn."

Continuing to Crow

Glorioso's is still getting used to significant changes from the past. The new market has 39 employees, up from six. "We have departments we never had before," Glorioso says. "We never had managers before — we'd look at each other and say, ‘You do it.’"

As such, he continues: "Our biggest challenges are operational. We never had all these employees on two shifts per day."

Most merchandise enters the store on conveyors up from the ground floor, with stops at the cooler, sales floor and second-floor storage area. Additionally, the store pulls product daily from a 30,000-square-foot warehouse in downtown Milwaukee.

The second floor also houses office space, another first for the family. "We never had an office in 65 years across the street," Glorioso says, explaining how the elder Gloriosos dealt with tradesmen standing out on the sales floor. Eventually, accounting and payroll operations will move into the new store, he adds.

And Glorioso's is having a go at being green, too. There's a new refrigeration system with heat reclaim, energy-efficient refrigerated cases, and streamlined LED and energy-efficient light fixtures. Harp-style street lights designed specifically for the city of Milwaukee became the centerpiece of the lighting design.

The old store will remain an important part of the business. By the end of the year, it will be used for mail-order and online sales of private label products, which folks have been asking about "for 30 years," Glorioso says. "We were just never set up for it."

There are also plans to expand the store's catering business and add a cooking school, run by the store's newly hired executive chef. "We had a 200-square-foot kitchen and a two-burner stove," Glorioso recalls. "The new school will have a Tuscan kitchen look. … We might take reservations for 10 couples and have the chef cook for them."

Looking ahead, Glorioso says: "We'll continue to grow here. … 30 percent [of customers] right now are first-time people. We're drawing from the suburbs as they hear about us." Further down the line, he adds, "We won't rule out the opportunity to expand to additional locations."

But crucial to any expansion will be a devout dedication to the standards that make Glorioso's the institution it is today. "We think it's important to follow my grandfather's guidelines," Glorioso says. "Quality is remembered long after price is forgotten, and you can't sell off an empty cart."

Those guidelines are well observed, with 14 family members spanning three generations working in the store. "I go around and kiss each family member, and at the end of the day, kiss each one goodbye. It's something we've always done," Glorioso says, "and our kids'll do it."

Preserving the past for the future, while imbuing new generations with a sense of good taste and appreciation for authentic culinary wares, would appear to be good business for Glorioso's Italian Market.

"People come in and, for the half-hour they're here," Glorioso says, "they become immersed in being Italian."