We recently connected with Vincent De Cosmo and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Vincent thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. One thing we always find fascinating is how differently entrepreneurs think about revenue growth and cost reductions – both can be powerful ways to improve profitability. What do you spend more of your time and energy on?
Well, this has been a concept we have been struggling with, as a small family business that has A LOT of overhead costs. But what it keeps coming down to is, we don’t want to compromise the quality of our products by solely focusing on cutting costs, at all costs. No, rather we began working on creating events and promotions to drive business and bring awareness to our business. And one way we’ve been doing so, has been by building stronger connections within the small business community and attending more events outside of our location. Through these connections we hope to expand our support system or “village”, so to speak. How does the saying go? “It takes a village”.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Vincent De Cosmo. I’m one of the three DeCosmo brothers who own and operate DeCosmo Italian Market in Pinellas Park. We will be celebrating 3 years of operation in September of this year. The idea for the deli and grocery store actually sprouted from our uncle. But the passion for being Italian Americans definitely stemmed from our mother. The recipes we use for our take home meals, soups, sauces, meatballs, and more, have come from our mother, grandmothers, or from ourselves. We wanted to build one big table for everyone to eat at, and that’s what our market is. A place where people can come to taste what we ate at our dinner table growing up. We are proud of our heritage and we want to share that with everyone who wants to share a meal with our family. Other than our take-home meals, We have a full cafe and espresso bar, with draft Italian beer and wine by the glass. We carry wine from all 20 regions of Italy. We have fresh italian pastries and cookies. We serve fresh sandwiches, in house prepared deli items, pasta, salads, and imported meats and cheeses as well. Ive also been studying the Italian language for 12 years and host an Italian language Meet up group every First and third Sunday of the month from 1 to 3 pm.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
Honestly, I believe it is authenticity. These aren’t recipes we’ve found on the internet, or meals we are buying premade and reprepare for sale. These are recipes we’ve inherited from our family and that we craft fresh in the kitchen everyday. One of the brothers, if not all three of us, are usually at the store, ready to greet and get to know the families who shop there. We’ve actually even grown quite a lot of close connections and relationships with many of our customers these past 2 years already. Our reputation comes not just from the quality of our food but also from the quality of our character. And we will continue to honor quality and integrity above all.
Where do you think you get most of your clients from?
Honestly, I believe an integral source of new clients for us has been working with Uber Eats and utilizing their delivery system. We’ve just recently been getting a better handle on what the online ordering community really seems to look for, and we’ve been doing our best to target that market and provide more offerings of products that they seem to want. As of late, we’ve added an entire new menu to Uber eats and it seems to have been what the customers were hungry for. Because we see new customers through Uber Eats everyday.
Contact Info:
- Website: DeCosmo Italian Market https://share.google/r9PSPWyP4MmVDAbzS
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/decosmomarket?igsh=c2l5c3J5cnhnZTA2
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1AYDKqZsF8/
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@decosmomarket?si=3ecZ5TF0lEBt4dMa
- Yelp: DECOSMO ITALIAN MARKET – Updated July 2025 – 257 Photos & 91 Reviews – 6832 49th St N, Pinellas Park, Florida – Internationhttps://share.google/f64hObnO1JvsKHPPp
- Other: Eventbrite https://share.google/hNx104j1r0aUc11Tu
