Italian Specialty Grocery Modernizes Business Processes with CATAPULT

A Brief History of Iavarone Bros.

Pasquale Iavarone, originally from Naples, Italy, was one of the over 22 million immigrants to pass through Ellis Island between 1892 and 1924 in pursuit of the American dream. With four of his friends from back home, Iavarone opened the first Italian pork shop in Brooklyn on the corner of President and Columbia Streets.

In 1927, their reputation for fine sausages, coppa, and prosciutto created enough demand for opening more stores in and beyond the borough. In 1951 the store name changed from "Pasquale Iavarone" and "P. Iavarone & Son" to "Iavarone Bros." Iavarone's sons Joseph and Jerry took the reigns and continued their father's tradition of great food and innovation, which included expanding the business and introducing chicken cutlets, chicken sausage, and fresh homemade mozzarella.

The early 1970s saw a new era of expanded growth in business and family participation. Joseph's sons Pat and John came aboard and, together with their father and uncle, opened stores in Middle Village and Maspeth. An exclusive fresh pasta line, a hot catering service, and the concept of "prepared foods" were added to the mix to keep up with high customer demands in the ever-changing culinary landscape. Soon Long Island towns, like Huntington and New Hyde Park, applauded the arrival of Iavarone Bros. great Italian food stores. The delicious offerings garnered great reviews in the local media. Now the Iavarone family has a total of five stores. Chris Iavarone is the store manager for the Wantagh and New Hyde Park locations, where they currently use CATAPULT to stay on top of their burgeoning business. We caught up with Chris to find out how CATAPULT is helping him automate his grocery.

ECRS: Now that we have some history about Iavarone’s chain of stores, give us some specifics about your current locations running Catapult?

Iavarone: We are Italian specialty markets that have full produce, butcher, seafood, prepared foods, cheese, bakery, and grocery departments – as well as imported specialty groceries. In these two stores we run nine terminals, with 98 employees in this (Wantagh) location and 75 in Lake Success Center (in New Hyde Park). This store is a little over 12,000 square feet.

ECRS: How is Iavarone Bros. different from most grocery stores?

Iavarone: We are different from a traditional supermarket in that 90% of our foods are imported, from olive oils, to vinegars, to biscotti cookies. That in itself really separates us from your basic run-of-the-mill grocery. This particular location offers the whole puzzle of fresh and imported one-stop shopping. We feel our seafood department is one of the best on the island right now. We carry over 350 types of cheese from many different countries.

ECRS: Tell us about the customers who shop Iavarone Bros.

Iavarone: We serve about a thousand customers a day in this location on average. Our clientele is residential and suburban. You know, there are families who come in after school to pick up dinner or groceries for the weekend. It really depends on the specific store. Our New Hyde Park location has more of a lunch trade. It’s across the street from a lot of office buildings and several hospitals are nearby. We have been running Catapult in this store since it opened in November 2004. In our other location we have been running it since mid-2004.

ECRS: How did you come to choose Catapult as your automation solution?

Iavarone: We chose Catapult for its ease of use. The touch screen, reporting, and backroom Inventory control are so important to a store our size. One of my favorite functions is the ability to run store coupons, which we never had an effective way of tracking until Catapult. Now we can see exactly how many coupons are scanned and it’s a better way for us to measure our success with coupon advertising. We got through the holiday season without any problems. Before Catapult we tried a few inexpensive POS systems that were not nearly as user-friendly and did not offer the level of support we get with ECRS.

ECRS: How is Catapult helping Iavarone Bros. manage its operations?

Iavarone: Catapult has exceeded our expectations of what we know retail automation to be. When we are busy is when we need Catapult most. We use plenty of Speed Keys. We ring items on department keys, and we use menus for breads, produce, and basic items that don’t scan. Catapult's touch screen makes training new employees easier. The screen layout is self-explanatory and easy to navigate. We also use Catapult's VIP Customer program to track sales history.

ECRS: How has the POS Prompts feature been helpful?

Iavarone: I use Catapult prompts for catering because that is a pretty big part of our business. I have a prompt for an ordering number when someone is ringing up a catering job. We've also used prompts for zip codes to see where we were drawing our customers from so we could target our market for advertising.

ECRS: What other Catapult feature has proved beneficial?

Iavarone: Our prepared foods are broken down by category with Inventory PowerFields, like soups and sauces in our deli, and beef, veal, and poultry in our butcher department. Our Sales reports summarize by these categories. It’s just a better way of seeing how each product moves.

ECRS: Can you rate the quality of Technical Support you have received with Catapult?

Iavarone: Most of our support needs are met by our local Catapult Dealer. On the few occasions that ECRS Support has been involved, their response has been prompt and they have worked with us diligently to solve the problem.

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