Shoppers turned out in droves on the first day of the new DeCicco & Sons at Millwood Plaza last Friday, exceeding initial expectations for the region’s latest supermarket.

Whether it was curiosity, the novelty of a brand new store on opening day or pent-up demand after the immediate area had been without a supermarket for more than a year, the doors opened at 7:30 a.m. to a heavy volume of shoppers that lasted nearly the entire day, said John DeCicco, Jr., the company’s president.

“It’s great. There’s really a great amount of enthusiasm from the community and we feel very, very welcome and very, very happy to be here,” said DeCicco following a mid-afternoon ceremonial ribbon cutting led by County Executive Rob Astorino.

Inside the bright, sparkling 20,000-square-foot store, shoppers remarked how impressed they were by the enormous variety of produce, the selection of fish, meats and pastries at various counters, the craft beer and wine tasting bar off to the side of the checkout lines with large mounted flat screen televisions and even the 500-gallon freshwater aquarium.

There was a constant stream of superlatives from patrons who got their first look at the new supermarket up close.

“First impressions: One is wow. It’s beautiful, it’s clean, this produce looks absolutely amazing,” said Pauline Dennis of Briarcliff Manor. “And my second impression is it’s not big enough. We haven’t had anything like this up here. It’s been a supermarket famine around here. There just hasn’t been anything this nice and I think it’s a fabulous addition to all of our towns here.”

Kate Chess of Ossining was sitting at the tasting bar with her husband, Dan, taking in the buzz inside the store.

“It’s easy to be impressed because it’s brand new, but the way they designed it, it’s open, it’s really clean and bright and they arranged everything in a way that’s amazing,” Kate Chess said.

It was also a mob scene outside where it was difficult to find a parking space, the first time in years since the lot was filled to capacity. It didn’t seem to bother shoppers once they found their way inside.

Ari Rubenstein of Ossining said it was great to see DeCicco & Sons move close to his home. He works in Armonk and has been patronizing that location since it opened several years ago.

Rubenstein said his family values fresh and organic merchandise, which DeCicco provides.

“A big thing for me and my wife is knowing where everything is sourced from,” he said. “She’s pretty knowledgeable about local farms and knowing where everything is from.”

Councilman Adam Brodsky said the town and its residents have waited for a new supermarket for years. Prior to A&P leaving the same Millwood Plaza space, New Castle’s other market, D’Agostino, left town in 2011.

Since then, many town residents have been forced to shop in neighboring communities taking much of their spending money and the valuable sales tax revenue with them, Brodsky said.

“It was very inconvenient and so the fact that they’re here and we have not only a supermarket but an amazing supermarket, and they spent $6 million in our community, is a testament to New Castle and the location and that people want to do business in our community,” Brodsky said. “So we’re just thrilled. It’s fantastic.”

In addition to providing shoppers with a beautiful store that has all the comforts of a 21^st century supermarket, town officials have pointed out how DeCicco & Sons is committed to its host communities. The company plans to introduce its Cashier Receipt Give-Back Program in Millwood, by donating a percentage of the store’s receipts collected during the school year to a variety of programs in the Chappaqua School District.

DeCicco’s is also sponsoring the Millwood Community Garden that’s currently under construction and is donating 2,000 shopping bags to help New Castle and its residents adhere to the town’s new Reusable Bag Initiative that outlaws most single-use plastic bags in town.

The store uses a variety of green technologies, including rooftop solar panels, LED lighting and a special advance heat reclaiming refrigeration system, that takes wasted heat generated by refrigerators and recycles it into reusable energy. Only three stores in New York State, including the last DeCicco & Sons to open in Larchmont in December 2015, have the state-of-the-art refrigeration system installed.

During the ribbon cutting, Astorino gave DeCicco’s perhaps its biggest endorsement, saying that if the store was good enough for his mother to get her meatballs, then it was good enough for him.

“This is a great place and the DeCicco family is amazing and we’re just so happy that they invested here in New Castle where it was desperately needed,” he said.

Martin Wilbur

Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/