About D'Agostino Grocery Store

For over 90 years, D'Agostino Supermarkets has held its place as a true New York original, a family-built chain that began as a single small shop on the Upper East Side during the Great Depression. Founded in 1932 by Italian immigrant brothers Pasquale and Nicholas D'Agostino, the store pioneered a revolutionary concept for its time—bringing together meat, produce, dairy, and baked goods all under one roof, helping to popularize the very idea of the "supermarket". From its early days, D'Agostino's built a reputation for quality and service, with on-site butchers, a famous meat counter, and a tagline that became part of the city's cultural fabric: "Please, Mr. D'Agostino, Move Closer to Me". The chain became such an iconic part of New York life that it appeared everywhere from Friends and Will & Grace to the novel American Psycho and films like Ghostbusters II. At its peak in the 1990s, D'Agostino's operated 26 locations across Manhattan and Westchester, generating over $200 million in annual sales. Yet in the 2000s, the chain faced mounting pressure—from online delivery services like FreshDirect, the expansion of Whole Foods, and the crushing realities of New York real estate and labor costs. By 2016, the chain had consolidated to just nine stores, and in 2018, a controlling interest was sold to John Catsimatidis, the billionaire owner of rival chain Gristedes. Today, D'Agostino's operates around 11 locations in the New York metro area, still carrying the family name but with a changed identity. The legendary meat counters that once offered custom cuts have largely been replaced by pre-packaged products, and the cheese selection and pricing now mirror the Gristedes model. Still, for longtime New Yorkers, the name D'Agostino's remains a powerful reminder of an era when the corner grocer felt like family, when a "D'Ag Bag" was a fashion accessory, and when a trip to the supermarket was a neighborhood ritual.