Balducci’s Food Lover’s Market is a specialty gourmet food retailer in the United States with six grocery stores. The company headquarters is in Parsippany, New Jersey. Balducci's was the first company in New York City to sell premium quality foods with a butcher, fishmonger, delicatessen and greengrocer all in the same store. It became a model for specialty markets all over the city. In 1999, Balducci Enterprises became a subsidiary of Sutton Place Gourmet, a Maryland based company. Sales for the combined company were more than $130 million per year. The flagship store in... Greenwich Village closed earlier in the year . In November 2003, the company was purchased by an investment group led by Bear Stearns Merchant Banking. The new flagship store on Eighth Avenue at 14th Street in Manhattan opened in December 2005. Following its opening, Local 1500 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union began protesting outside the store against the non-unionized status of employees. "Right now we are restructuring our company," said Jennifer Barton, Marketing Director with Balducci's LLC. "We had to close some of our under-performing stores.
more