Thomas Cingari Jr.: 2025 Produce Business Merchandiser of the Year

Master Class in Merchandising

Thomas Cingari Jr.

Cingari Family Markets, Stamford, CT
Produce Business 2025 Merchandiser of the Year

There’s a saying in produce Thomas Cingari Jr. holds dear: If you put out five apples, you may sell three. But if you put out 200 apples, you may sell 180.

“I believe that growing overall produce consumption is all in merchandising,” says Cingari, vice president of produce and floral at Cingari Family Markets, based in Stamford, CT. “Customers buy with their eyes, so hand-stacking, putting out large quantities of items, will always positively impact sales. It just gives the customers a real sense of freshness.”

It’s that basic produce principle that earned Cingari the Produce Business 2025 Merchandiser of the Year award.

“Thomas Cingari Jr. has redefined produce merchandising at Cingari Family Markets, bringing creativity, expertise and an unwavering commitment to excellence to every aspect of the department,” writes his nominator.

Cingari is quick to credit the work of his team. “I believe we have the best produce managers in the country, and these guys are absolutely unbelievable. I cannot do this myself,” he emphasizes. “I believe most of this award should go to them, because they’re the ones doing it every day.”

Family-owned and operated for over 90 years, Cingari Family Markets owns 10 ShopRites and two Cingari Family Markets (Grade A Markets) in southern Connecticut. It is part of the retailer-owned cooperative, Wakefern Food Corp.

GREW UP IN MARKETS

It was inevitable Cingari Jr. would gravitate toward the family business: At 5 or 6, on the weekends, he was helping package chopped lunch meat in his father’s meat department. As he grew, he worked every department from the ground up — bagger, cashier, dairy, stocker, you name it. His first produce job? Trimming and crisping greens.

“When a customer walks in, we’re going to hit them with a ton of color, freshness and texture. It’s a real color explosion when you
walk in.”
— Thomas Cingari Jr., Cingari Family Markets, Stamford, CT
Produce Business 2025 Merchandiser of the Year

The retail education surrounded him even when he didn’t want it: He played travel hockey, and everywhere his team competed, the weekend included a stop at the local supermarket. “As a young kid, I was upset about this,” he confesses, “but in the long run, it opened my eyes to both good and bad things of how to run certain parts of the store.”

After graduating with a business degree from Bryant University in Smithfield, RI, he started a rotation with every store department, and over two years, learned the boots-on-the-ground roles.

“Basically, I got to learn what the workday looked like, and what it took for everybody to get their job done,” says Cingari. “It was invaluable time.”

He landed in produce full time because that’s where the company needed him, “but I really fell in love with produce.”

“I just loved that there was constant movement, the colors, and the relationship between us and the growers,” he explains. “Produce was just super dynamic, and I was just drawn to it, and developed a real passion for it right off the bat.”

FORGING THE FUTURE

Cingari has played a pivotal role in the company’s overhaul of all of its 12 locations, both conceptually and strategically. Renovation has been completed at seven stores and three store renovations are currently underway. And produce has been the focus of each makeover.

“Our shining star, when you walk in every single one of our stores, is the produce department,” says Cingari.

“The science behind merchandising is we want to lead with fresh,” he explains. “So, when a customer walks in our door, we’re going to hit them with a ton of color, freshness and texture. It’s a real color explosion when you walk in.”

Right away, that subliminally triggers the idea that if this store has the freshest produce, the quality in the rest of the store is similar, says Cingari.

“We work really, really hard to make sure that every time you walk in, it looks a certain way.”

The reputation of the stores’ produce was solid pre-reno, he adds, “but we enhanced what we were previously doing with newer displays and a completely different color scheme.”

The new produce departments keep all the displays low, so when shoppers enter the store, they have clear sightlines straight to the back, with a profusion of color everywhere — showcasing all of the product.

The remodels also moved the value-added section, the cut fruit and vegetable program, to the front of the store (an idea that came from an employee), so shoppers also pass it by first thing. “The sales are extremely positive, and we’ve really grown that category in a big way.”

Cingari spends a lot of time in the stores, both pre- and post-renovation, watching customer body language and shopping patterns, and getting verbal feedback from both employees and shoppers. “I’m talking to the customers, and my guys are talking to the customers, and our store managers are talking to customers.”

The result? He makes real-time adjustments based on that feedback, because “what looked great on paper didn’t necessarily translate into 3D.”

“At the end of the day, we might make a decision that looked great, but it didn’t make sense for our customers,” he explains. “I literally keep a running list for a couple weeks of customer suggestions, and positive and negative feedback, and we use that.”

Each successive remodel builds on that customer feedback, Cingari adds, “and we’ve gotten better and better and better at what we do, not only from a merchandising standpoint, but also from an overall flow or how we set up that department for traffic patterns.”

Above all, each remodel focused on the needs of the community it serves.

MERCHANDISING FOCUS

The newly renovated stores showcase produce freshness through mass displays, often hand-stacked for visual appeal. Color and texture are key to spotlighting the produce.

Cingari points to his favorite produce, all things citrus, as an example. “Sometimes you have a category like pears where all the colors kind of bleed into each other. And some of the citrus categories allow you to use color and texture breaks to really make those other categories pop, so I like to use citrus almost like a paintbrush in the department, to highlight some of the other different categories.”

It’s also cross-merchandising within the department, such as placing new varieties of items next to an everyday, familiar item — think blood orange next to a Gala apple. “They buy it because it looked so great, right?”

The remodel upgrades include expanded sections that integrate locally sourced and seasonal produce items. Enhanced displays include recipes, meal ideas and cooking tips, or signage that explains the uses of different apple varieties or the Scoville hot pepper rating.

While location and merchandising of sale items and other key staples are going to be consistent, Cingari says individual store produce managers have the creativity and take ownership of how they display their produce, based on the company’s standards.

The introduction and growth of Cingari Family Markets’ private label offerings have also distinguished Cingari as a leader in produce merchandising. By incorporating locally sourced ingredients into private-label products, he has created an array of offerings that celebrate the region.

Regardless of merchandising, though, Cingari emphasizes staff training as the linchpin to their produce department success, and he invites growers and others into the stores to give seminars to employees on all aspects and varieties of produce.

“It really comes down to the knowledge of the associates that are in the departments,” he says, “so that when a customer asks a question, they can answer it honestly, and really talk to the customers.”

DOING LITTLE THINGS RIGHT

Cingari stresses they never take the competition for granted, and often visit rival supermarkets to stay abreast of the market.

“We try to stay at the top of our game, and we try to constantly innovate in what we’re doing,” he says. “Our customers clearly have reacted in a positive way.”

Other Wakefern members often visit to glean tips to the Cingari success. “There’s nothing groundbreaking,” Cingari admits. “It all comes down to my team being unbelievable and setting that high standard, and making sure it’s upheld every single day.”

• • •

KEYS TO MERCHANDISING SUCCESS

Along the way, Thomas Cingari Jr. has gathered experience and knowledge that is building the markets’ presence, reputation and sales. And his tips are a master class in merchandising:

1. Never take shortcuts in produce. Longtime Cingari Family Markets employee, the late Al Salemme, took Cingari under his wing, and one of the things he emphasized to the young man? Never take shortcuts.
   
   “He taught me that any decision you make — whether it’s buying or whatever — is for the long-term benefit of the customer,” recalls Cingari. And he puts that in practice by focusing on consistent quality and maintaining high standards, and “making sure our stores look like it’s a grand opening every single day.”
   
   “You can walk into any one of my stores on a Monday afternoon, and it’s going to look the same as it does on a Saturday afternoon,” Cingari emphasizes. “Making sure the customer gets the same experience any time they walk into our stores is the key.”

2. Empower your team. Cingari gives his produce managers creative freedom, trusting them to make merchandising decisions while maintaining overall quality standards.
   
   I have members of my team that have been with us for over 40 years, so they’ve been teaching me throughout my entire career, and I still lean on them,” says Cingari.
   
   Cingari absorbs a great deal of information through a variety of channels: He’s vice chair of the produce committee at Wakefern; he attends the International Fresh Produce Association (IFPA) show annually; he meets with the co-op’s growers; and he sifts through the mountains of company data, and weather updates from growing regions.
   
   “All of that information, I pass down to my team, so they have the same level of information that I do.”

3. Be adaptable and listen to customers. Cingari Family Markets tailors every store to its specific neighborhood, constantly gathering and implementing customer feedback. Even in Stamford, where the company has four stores, each one is different, based on customer demographics.
   
   “We make sure we bring in the products that our customers are asking for,” says Cingari. “We’re constantly listening to them, taking their feedback, and doing what they ask.”
   
   And it’s that communication and flexibility that drives the banner. “What makes us successful is being able to be nimble and really give our customers exactly what they want.”

4. Focus on the fundamentals. Cingari emphasizes that getting staple items right is crucial — things like potatoes, onions, and basic apples must be consistently excellent before introducing more exotic varieties.
   
   It’s not grandiose, he explains, “but you have to nail your staples. You have to have consistency in your highest-moving items, otherwise, you’re not going to get a full basket.
   
   “Some of the less sexy items are your most important items — everything from a Gala apple to a loose Idaho potato to having the right onion. All of those little nuts and bolts items have to be right,” says Cingari. “And then once those are right, you can branch out, and bring in those fresh, different things.”
   
   The hardest part of running a produce business, he adds, “is keeping that consistency 365 days, 52 weeks a year.”
   
   And an early lesson is still one of utmost importance: “Make sure you’re in the right variety of fruit and vegetable at the right time from the right growing region.”

5. Transparency and learning from mistakes. “When I first started, a family member told me, ‘If you make a mistake, don’t try to cover it up,’” Cingari recalls. And that advice — be open about errors, fix them quickly, and use them as learning opportunities — continues to guide him and his team.
   
   “It’s always ‘what happened, and why did it happen,’ and ‘how are we going to learn from it and not make that mistake a second time?’” he says. “It’s always from a culture of learning and a culture of coaching. We all play for the same team, and we all want each other to get better, because we’re all rowing the boat in the same direction.”