Jacqueline Quattrone is CEO of Supermarket Italy, one of the leading online destinations for authentic gourmet imported products from Italy since 2009. It has expanded its offerings to include an even wider variety of international foods. The website now features 6,000 products from 44 countries, including regions in Europe, North America, Africa, the Middle East, the Caribbean, South America, and Australia.
Supermarket Italy is deeply rooted in a family tradition of Italian and international cuisine. They are business caters to chefs, restaurants, foodies, and culturally curious consumers, offering a wholesale division alongside its direct-to-consumer platform. Supermarket Italy experienced a surge in demand during the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly tripling its growth since its founding. Customers can now explore premium imported ingredients from around the world to enhance their home cooking and discover perfect gifts for any holiday or special occasion.
Jacqueline manages all aspects of Supermarket Italy, including operations, sourcing products, overseeing the website, blogs, social media, and marketing. Jacqueline also brings experience as a real estate investor. As a mother and active community member, she is particularly passionate about promoting leadership for women and minorities. For more information, visit www.supermarketitaly.com
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Christopher Santomassimo: Welcome back to the Think Factory podcast powered by OGC Solutions. I’m your host, Chris Santomassimo. And I’m here in Lyndhurst, New Jersey, not too far from our office, having a great time with Gio Quattrone and Jacqueline Quattrone, the executives and owners of Supermarket Italy. So thanks for having me. Welcome to the podcast!
Jacqueline Quattrone: Thank you for coming to visit us today.
Christopher Santomassimo: Yeah, thank you. You know, podcasts are recordings, obviously, but I really wish that people could take a trip through what I saw today, your warehouse, your packing operation, just the ingredients and the foods that you sell are just amazing. I mean, it’s like a wonderland of Italian food back there. And I also noticed a little bit of Korean food, as you mentioned too, right?
Jacqueline Quattrone: Yeah, from all over the world. We wanted to show you the whole operation and really see what we do. It’s kind of hard to explain!
Christopher Santomassimo: By the way, Jacqueline is the CEO and Gio is literally the partner—because they’re a married couple. Doing a great job here! I would love to hear a little bit about how the business was created and really what you folks do.
Gio Quattrone: So my dad started the business in ’82, and he started with just mostly cheeses. So he imported a lot of cheeses all over the world, mostly Italian. And then me and my brother came on in like 2009, 2010, and we really expanded it. And then Jackie came on in 2020, during COVID—and really got the online business going and organized.
Christopher Santomassimo: Well, COVID was probably a really difficult time, I would think, because the entire industry operation was upset and some of your customers are restaurants, right?
Gio Quattrone: Yeah. So Jackie came right after when COVID started and the way our operation was set up before COVID was “okay”—let’s just put it that way. But once COVID hit, I mean, it got to a point where we were a month behind orders. So Jackie came on and within maybe two months, she was able to get it to almost same day shipping.
Jacqueline Quattrone: So I came in, I saw a lot of things that needed to be fixed. I have experience with lean manufacturing, so I use that to cut back on waste and improve our processes to be able to push out these orders a lot faster.
Christopher Santomassimo: To go from being a month behind to same day shipping is quite an achievement in a relatively small amount of time!
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