How Dave's Marketplace Is Buying – And Selling

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Mike Saccoccia is director of procurement for Dave's Fresh Marketplace , which means he buys a lot of food for the local supermarket chain.

He arrived at Dave's more than 30 years ago and has weathered many storms in the food industry during that time.

The latest is the challenge posed by egg shortages caused by the bird flu that has resulted in retail egg prices increasing 13.8% in January 2025 after rising 8.4% in December 2024, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture .

With the problems behind egg shortages unlikely to end soon, we talked to Saccoccia about the challenges it creates for Dave's and how the market handles those concerns.

It's a big strain. Of course, if you can't get them, that drives the price up . We have a supply and demand scenario in this industry that affects us all. It's not only the supermarket business. It's the restaurant business. It's the bakeries. Everybody uses eggs. So until they can get this bird flu under control, and with the migration of the birds a couple of times of year, it's very difficult.

That's a real tough question to answer at this point. It's whatever we can get from our manufacturers right now. It's so hit or miss on how many they can deliver.

All of our business is in Rhode Island, and we depend on local customers to come to our stores to keep us in business. During hard times, just like we did during COVID-19, we try to keep the price where it is and not worry too much about how much we're making on it. Let's just get the customer something and let's make sure it's something they can afford. That's the way we do the business. The owners of Dave's live in Rhode Island. They look a little deeper into how they take care of the customer than foreign-owned big companies do. I think we do a great job of that.

So between Little Rhody Farms in Foster and then of course Pete & Gerry's , our partner up north, as well as even the local guy who might deliver to just one store, we're able to get supply from three or four different places plus the regular bigger suppliers ( Hillandale Farms ), too. They will give you a few cases. When you can get it from everybody, instead of one guy selling to everybody, it does help out.

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