GREENWICH – For years, Greenwich resident Randi Fuks has been imploring the owners of a popular family-owned grocery chain in New York to expand to Connecticut. They have listened to her entreaties.
DeCicco & Sons opened Wednesday at 21 Glenville St., in the Glen Plaza Shopping Center, a few blocks from the Connecticut-New York line. The 26,000-square-foot establishment not only marks the first DeCicco’s location in the Nutmeg State, but it also gives the Glenville neighborhood its first supermarket since the closing of a Stop & Shop at Glen Plaza in 2023.
“I’m just so grateful. This is the best thing that’s happened to us in a long time,” Fuks, who lives in Glenville, said at the store. “They buy from local farms. Everything is always fresh, no matter what you buy. If you don’t like it, you can bring it back and tell them. If you ask them to order something, they bring it in. It’s the most accommodating place I’ve ever shopped.”
While DeCicco’s is a newcomer in Connecticut, it is already a well-known brand in Greenwich because of the town’s proximity to the business’ 10 stores in Westchester County, New York. Fuks, for instance, has been a DeCicco’s customer for more than 20 years, going back to her time living in Armonk, New York, where DeCicco’s has a store.
For Fuks and other Glenville residents, there are a number of supermarkets in Greenwich. But most of them, including the sole remaining Stop & Shop in the town, are on U.S. Route 1, at least a couple of miles away from Glenville. The competitors of that Stop & Shop had included an ACME Markets across the road, but that ACME establishment closed last October. There is still another ACME store on Route 1, in Greenwich’s Riverside section.
In addition to filling the supermarket void in Glenville, the new location also appealed to the DeCicco family because it enables them to reach many well-off customers, as they do in Westchester County. The median annual household income in Greenwich is about $206,000, compared with around $96,000 statewide and approximately $81,000 nationwide, according to Census Bureau data.
“Once we realized that Stop & Shop (in Glenville) had closed, we looked at it and realized this would be a perfect location for us,” said John DeCicco Sr., who founded the business with his brother, Joe DeCicco Sr., in the early 1970s.
To passersby, the brick building that houses the new DeCicco’s does not look much different from when Stop & Shop operated there. But a visit to the supermarket reveals a gleaming interior, evidence of a top-to-bottom renovation. Several aisles of packaged foods and a produce area make up the store’s core. Those offerings are complemented by specialty sections, which include a hot-food bar and counters for bakery, cheese, floral, meat, salad, sandwich and seafood products.
Customers did not wait to check out the new store. By late Wednesday morning, the parking lot at Glen Plaza was full, and scores of customers were circulating around the supermarket.
“For a specialty, high-end-product store, they have a greater variety and are more price-competitive than most of their direct competitors in this class of store,” said Glenville resident Werner Roder.
Roder added that he hoped that DeCicco would expand its selection of fat-free products.
The opening was also welcomed by several local and state officials who attended the store’s ribbon-cutting on Wednesday morning.
“I actually came down at 7:30 a.m., when it opened, with tears in my eyes, almost,” said Selectwoman Lauren Rabin, a Glenville resident. “I’ve lived in this neighborhood for 23 years, and I just got so excited about having a grocery store within walking distance. It’s a beautiful store.”
First Selectman Fred Camillo described the arrival of DeCicco’s as “probably the most anticipated” store opening of recent years in Greenwich.
The elected officials’ enthusiasm was undiminished by one notable, but temporary, omission from the shelves.
“Attention! Beer is coming!!!” state signs on the doors of several empty cases, with those notices embellished with a cartoon of a sunglasses-wearing beer bottle. “We know you’re ready for beer. Trust us, we are, too. Just waiting on our license.”
However, DeCicco’s will not offer in-store imbibing in Greenwich. While nine of the 11 DeCicco’s stores in New York have bars, the new supermarket will not have one because Connecticut does not allow grocery stores to hold a grocery-beer permit and an on-site consumption permit.
Aside from the new store in Greenwich, there are DeCicco’s establishments in the Westchester County communities of Ardsley, Armonk, Bedford, Eastchester, Harrison, Larchmont, Millwood, Pelham, Sleepy Hollow and Somers, as well as Brewster in Putnam County. The next DeCicco’s store, in Scarsdale, New York, is expected to open within the next few months.
About 100 employees work at each store, and DeCicco’s officials said that there are open positions in Greenwich.
Today, a second generation of DeCiccos – John Sr.’s sons, Chris and John Jr., and Joe Sr.’s son, Joe Jr. – is running the business. But 53 years after opening their first store, John Sr. and Joe Sr. have not faded away. On Wednesday, they not only participated in the ribbon-cutting, but they also helped out with tasks such as bagging groceries and putting away shopping carts.
DeCicco’s is the second family-owned grocery chain founded in New York state to expand to Connecticut in the past couple of years. In July 2025, Wegmans opened its store on Connecticut Avenue in Norwalk, marking its first location in the Nutmeg State.
“We offer everything people in this area are looking for – an elegant store, great service and a great quality of products,” said John DeCicco Sr. “We have the right formulation for this location and area.”
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This article originally published at ‘So grateful’: DeCicco & Sons opens grocery store in Greenwich’s Glenville neighborhood.
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