Join us for an inspiring episode of ABFI Table Talk as we sit down with Teresa Spinelli of the Italian Centre Shop. In Episode 8, Teresa shares her remarkable journey of unexpectedly taking over the family business after losing her brother and father and her journey of transforming a single store founded in 1959 into a thriving community enterprise with five locations and 672 employees across Alberta.

In this episode, discover how Teresa navigated the challenging transition from being “the little girl who played cashier” to becoming a respected business leader. She delves into the importance of building authentic community connections, fostering a family-first culture, and maintaining the warmth of a neighbourhood hub while scaling across multiple locations and cities. Teresa shares candid insights about balancing motherhood with business leadership and how her husband has supported the business and became a stay-at-home dad to support her family business. 

Whether you’re interested in family business dynamics, community-based retail, or leadership transitions, this episode offers valuable lessons on leading with heart while driving growth. Learn from Teresa’s experiences on building an inclusive workplace culture, managing succession planning, and staying true to core values while embracing innovation. 

Tune in to ABFI Table Talk for a compelling blend of business wisdom and personal reflection, as Teresa shares how she transformed from reluctantly joining the family business to passionately leading an organization that’s not just about “selling salami” but about creating community through food, culture, and genuine human connection.

Matt Knight  00:07

First off, thank you very much for coming on Table Talk. The point of ABFI and Table Talk is really to get in the stories that inspired the family businesses that we see in our communities. And I’m really thrilled that you’re here. Theresa Spinelli, you’re with the Italian center. I kind of see it as a bit of an Alberta institution that’s really kind of growing from this small, local, Little Italy storefront into a pretty powerful community enterprise. So for maybe those who don’t know much about the Italian center, can you just quickly introduce yourself, yourself and let us know kind of what makes the Italian center special, awesome.

Teresa Spinelli  00:48

I’m Teresa Spinelli. I’m first generation Canadian, and my father started the Italian center shop 65 years ago. In 1959 we he had one store, and it really was a community hub, and then I took over in 2000 and, you know, wasn’t sure that I wanted to do that. I just ended up there by mistake, really. And as I was figuring out my way, I realized that really wasn’t about selling salami for me. It was really about people. And I thought, how are we going to grow our people. And what Italian size shop offers, really is community. It really is a gathering place, and we offer community like through food and cultural experiences. That’s really where the fact that we sell some salami and some coffee on the side, that’s a different thing, but really that’s what we are. And so I thought, Okay, well, if we’re going to grow, how am I going to once I realized I was going to stay there forever. What was like what we’re going to do? So the only way to grow is to open other stores so that our team had opportunity grows. That’s how it started,

Matt Knight  01:44

nice. So maybe let’s start at the beginning. There, you said. So 1959 tell us, what was it like growing up in the business? Kind of some of those early memories.

Teresa Spinelli  01:53

Oh, yeah. So I really grew up, literally. I grew up in the business. I literally took down my first, first steps down the past aisle. That’s really true. I was born there. You know, my mom was a cashier, and I sat on the side of the till while she was cashier, and then she’d give me a bottle and then go back to work, those kind of things. And my brother grew up that way too. I think that’s one of the reasons of our success, actually, because people are really connected to me because of that they really feel, and I feel too like they they feel they feel like they know me really well, because they watched me walk down pasta. They watched me grow up. Then I was cashier, and then too, like every week they would come to a store, and their kids were four, six and eight, and then the next year, they were five, seven and nine, and so on, so and so I watched their family grow up. They watched me grow up. So there’s a big connection that way, yeah, for sure.

Matt Knight  02:42

Doing a little bit of research, I found a bit of a quote that I think relates a lot to some of our other business families and a lot of even my friends and family businesses, where they kind of didn’t necessarily go to the family business because they wanted to, they were somehow either forced or, like you mentioned, it was an accident. And I know a couple of my I was talking with a friend the other week where he joined it because he wanted to be closer to his dad, and he didn’t have any other way of making that relationship. So I heard a camera where came from, but quote that was attributed to you was, I’ve never really wanted the business. I just wanted my dad. And can you maybe share a bit of that emotional, personal journey for you in kind of that connection to family.

Teresa Spinelli  03:24

So, you know, really traditional Italian family. So my brother was supposed to take over the business. That’s just the way it was. It was kind of never really said that way, but it was really that’s way it was gonna be, just because he was the boy. Really, he was a lot smarter than me too, for sure. He unfortunately died just before his 33rd birthday, and then shortly thereafter, my father’s diagnosed with cancer and died a few months after that. So that’s how I ended up in the business. And I can say, when I was there, it wasn’t something I assumed I was going to do. So really have to do a lot of soul searching. And you know, I really had to, you make me cry. I had to think about, was I doing this for my dad? You know, it wasn’t anything I enjoyed. I hated going to work. I hated having to yell at my team to get them to do anything. I didn’t like anything about that role. And I thought, why am I doing this for my dad? Is that? Why am I doing this? I do a lot of soul searching. So, you know, I hope that each one of us can say we’ve live a life of choice, right? That’s so important, right? And that’s what I want for my son, too. I want to live a life of choice, but it was a very, very very difficult time.

Matt Knight  04:22

Yeah, I can, I can hear that, and I can only imagine what that would have been like, the you know, trying to go into that place every day that reminded you of your family, yes, but also kind of going on this path that you never really planned or expected for yourself, so in that transition, so when you were kind of going into, you you know, stepping into that role as a leader and taking over the shop, I imagine it would have been really difficult with, you know, both that, that individual connection and process, but also the staff that were there, you know, they would have saw you grow up. And, you know, to go from kind of, you know, this little girl who was always in the past. I. L Yes to their their boss or their leader, how maybe, can you tell us a little bit more about that journey and what that was like for you and what that might have been like for them?

Teresa Spinelli  05:08

Yeah, so that was very stressful, too, right? My father was very, very much loved. I mean, everybody loved my dad. He was like, bigger than life, right? Just great personality. Everybody respected him. You know, I had some pretty big shoes to fill, and none of them, including me, thought that I could do it. So it was a very, very difficult time. And you’re right, they thought of me as a spoiled brat who used to play cashier, you know, taking direction from a woman, little one that they thought was just a kid, was very, very difficult, and difficult for me too. These are people that I respected. They’re a part of my life for long. They’ve been there longer than me, you know. And so every time I made a decision or a change, it was like, Oh, your dad wouldn’t have done that. Oh, that’s a stupid idea, you know. So lots of doubt, lots of soul searching to figure out, you know, because they knew more than me, so I really had to trust what they were saying, right? So it was a lot of debating back and forth. Yeah, it was, it was a, it was a very stressful time, for sure. Some people left, you know, when I finally figured out that that’s what I was going to do. Then it was some heart tarts like, Hey, I decided that I’m staying. This is what my vision is. And some people left. Some people didn’t like the direction of the company. Some people didn’t like me, and so we split ways,

Matt Knight  06:11

Yeah, I guess the plan was always either for your brother or probably not for your father to to not be involved as soon as he was right. So it was that unplanned scenario for sure, was there, like, had you had any conversations with the family about what succession would look like, or who would take it on from your dad or anything like that?

Teresa Spinelli  06:32

Like I said, it was always, it was always meant to be taken over by my brother. That’s the way it was. Unfortunately, my brother had his own demons to battle and but still. And so my dad always stepped back, like if there was an argument between my brother and I, he wanted us always to resolve it ourselves. And he used to say that, you know, you got to figure it out, because you guys have to work together. And I don’t think my brother and I would have ever been able to work together just because our visions were very, very different, right? So I always thought, okay, he’s going to be the boss, and I’m going to go do something else, because I saw that our visions were just too different, right? And I was okay with that. That was all good, yeah? So he, he my dad’s way of dealing with that was making us work out our issues and kind of stepping back, but that wasn’t good either, because we were never able to really work them out. And my dad was always there, so we both knew he was there, yeah. So.

Matt Knight  07:22

Going back a little bit to kind of taking over that business, when you think about either maybe advice for your younger self, or advice for other women that are taking over a business from their parents, or maybe going into an industry that isn’t you know, that is traditionally male dominated, what would you tell them? Or what would you tell little Teresa,

07:43

I think I’d tell her, to really trust your intuition, to really listen to your gut, to follow your heart. Like, to really follow your heart and see what you want to do. And you know, any business, as we all know, is very difficult. I was very blessed. I inherited a really good business, right? Was good, it was strong, it was very stable. And even that had so many challenges. So you know, if you’re prepared to work hard and really be clear about why you’re doing it, I think that’s really important.

Matt Knight  08:11

Trusting that intuition and trusting yourself, yes, and maybe that confidence in yourself shows others that you’re willing to do it as well. So you mentioned your father was kind of larger than life, and you grew up in the business, kind of from the very beginning. He probably started like sweeping floors and helping out wherever. I think I even heard somewhere that your dad even fired you once. Oh yes, yeah, what are maybe some memorable lessons that he taught you through, throughout that process of growing up in the business.

08:45

You know, my dad was really an amazing human. He never really worried a lot, like, even if it was a crisis, like, if there was something like, I remember, we were a distributor for unico foods at one point, so we sold to all the Safeways in the store that was one that was a big part of our business. And then unico decided that they didn’t want a distributorship from us anymore. And I must have been like, I don’t know, 2022 and I was very worried about that. I went, Oh my God. You know, it’s gonna be terrible. My dad didn’t worry. He wasn’t a big worry. And I think that’s really important in business, because if you’re a worrier, man, it’s gonna be tough. It’s gonna be a tough road, right? You have to really trust that everything’s gonna go the way it’s gonna go, the way it’s going to go, and you can only do the best that you can. And I really learned that from my dad. I really learned that every time there’s a problem, there’s at least 10 solutions, and you’re going to figure it out, and then every solution causes other problems. So yeah.

Matt Knight  09:33

So you and I’ve heard before too, that you kind of have a say, Yes, first and then figure it out. Type of approach sounds sounds like that’s kind of what your dad taught you as well. Yes. Can you kind of share any times maybe that you had to go through that are maybe similar to that unico foods, one where you had to kind of say yes and lead first before you knew kind of what the answer was and what that breakthrough or challenge became.

09:57

Oh, wow. So many. Um. Right? Usually, it’s always with people, you know, it’s always with people. I can’t think of any one thing.

Matt Knight  10:08

Well, we’ll come back to that and see if anything pops up. So, you know, I think you talked about it a little bit, just about the growth that you’ve had so since you took over, you know, it’s probably, you know, the one little Italy shop, maybe 2030 employees. That’s right. Very good. Probably. Is it six locations now, 555, and probably four or 500 employees? Yeah, 672, wow. Okay, it’s amazing that you know that exact number two. It’s a little bit of your leadership as well. One of the things I know from kind of friends and colleagues in the industry, is that the diversity of people on staff, so the number of languages and that kind of the diversity in staff and in thought that you have is pretty remarkable. How do you kind of use that, that diversity to strengthen your business and connect with other communities? And where did that come from?

Teresa Spinelli  11:01

It kind of just happened naturally, right? So we have a lot of people that work for our company that are husband and wives, a lot of people that are brothers and sisters or aunts and nephews, a lot of and, like big box stores, do not allow you to hire family. We do that a lot. We don’t do it on purpose, and we try to make sure that, you know, the wife is not reporting to the husband. And those kind of things we have in separate departments and stuff, departments and stuff. But that really makes so just now, just two people got married recently. They both were foreign workers. They came as foreign workers. They got married, they got permanent status, and their wives came, and now their wives worked for us, right? So just kind of happens. I mean, I think they’re happy to know that their wife’s going to have a position when they come. Because imagine if you’re an immigrant and you’re bringing your wife over and you’ve got to feed them, feed your family. How are you going to do that? So that that’s been, that’s been really, really interesting. So I just heard about those two yesterday. So that’s what comes to mind. That just kind of happened. And I think that we are one big family. You know, we’re really one big family. I could tell you hundreds of stories of how that works, like we had one guy at our South Side Story worked part time for us, and there was another colleague of his who worked part time also, and she lost her other job, and she was a single mom, so he gave up his hours so she could work. If she came to us, we would have found a way to make it work. But she never came to us. She just told him, and then he came to us, and he said, I’m gonna give her my hours because, which was amazing, like, we never told him to do that. And it’s like, when you have 10 kids and you can’t feed the 10th one, you get rid of the 10th one. No, you eat a little bit less so that the 10th one can eat. And we very much do that at the Italial Centre Shop.

Matt Knight  12:32

Okay, so really about taking care of that family, absolutely, building that culture together. How you mentioned, you know, the the Italian or the Little Italy one, and some of the other ones are really more of a community hub or community center. Can you tell us a little bit more about what that means to you and what that means?

Teresa Spinelli  12:51

I think that’s what our strength is, is the fact that we’re a community that we build community. You know, this past summer, I was in Little Italy, and I was having an espresso, and this guy that comes in every day is a regular, but I don’t know who he is. He stood beside me. He said, you know, Theresa, this is a very special place. I said, Oh, thank you very much. He said, No, no. He goes, I’ve traveled all over the world. This is a very I said, thank you. That’s very kind of you. Thank you for your support. And he said, No, he goes, You don’t understand. He goes. Sometimes I wake up in the morning. I don’t want to get out of bed. He said, I I’m severely depressed, but I come here because I know when they ask me how I am, they really want to know, and they know that when I walk in the coffee that I want, and I said, Oh, that’s beautiful. Thank you. That’s very humbling, and so awesome. So then I shared that with my team. I said, Hey, I just want you to know this guy came here, told that story, and they started going, is it that guy? Is it that guy? Is it that guy? That tells me there’s a lot of lonely people in this world, a lot of lonely people. And even with our team, even our team, I see we are their family. They have no other family but us. The only meal they eat is with us at the we’re at work. It’s really amazing, the loneliness that we have. And after COVID, it was horrible, right? Like, it just made things way worse. And again, I think the fact that people feel welcomed, and they feel like they’re part of our family is really beautiful. I think that’s what makes us successful.

Matt Knight  14:06

And is that kind of the family culture and how, how this how you treat employees like family? Did that come from? How your dad ran things as well?

Teresa Spinelli  14:14

Yeah, for sure. At our Christmas table every year, there’s always people that I didn’t know. I’d never met them before. And to this day, even at my Christmas table, there’s people that we don’t know that we don’t they work for us, but don’t have anywhere to go, so that we invite them to share a meal with us, right? Because they don’t have any family or haven’t connected with friends yet, and so they share a meal with us. So it’s the way I grew up, and everybody was always welcome. And you know, our parents taught us to respect everybody, whether they were a janitor or the president of the company, it didn’t matter, and it was always a place to gather and tell stories, and that’s what we try to do.

Matt Knight  14:42

Wow. What kind of, you know, I think for family businesses, a really difficult thing to do as kind of the new leader sometimes, is to balance kind of the vision and legacy of the previous generation while also having kind of innovation and new ideas. And doing things your own way. Can you talk about how, like, maybe some of those struggles, and, you know, probably like bringing in the cafe or the restaurant or prepared foods, and how that kind of was different than what your dad might have done, and how that that helped, or how that was hard?

15:15

Yeah, really hard, even when, after my dad passed away, like even when my dad was alive, I used to tell him that in our deli there’s big, long lineups. We need to put a number system in. My dad said, Nope. I said, but you need to, because, like, people are waiting in line. They’re getting angry, nope, nope, nope. So when he passed away, that I knew that was one of the things I want to do, but I want to respect him, so I waited, like, two years before now, although I knew that that’s what I had to do, you know, I really knew that that was what we had to do in order to do in order to make it more comfortable for our customers and our team, right? Because our team would get yelled at and stuff. So I did that, and then it just kind of happened naturally, right? Just like somebody would say something, and I said, Oh, that’s a good idea. And then I kept hearing it over and over again. I thought, Okay, then let’s move that way, right? And again, always, every decision we make at the attached is always about people, whatever change we’re making, we’re gonna go, how’s it gonna affect Sally, the cashier all the time? And that’s how we base all our decisions the Italian snap shop. And then we really listen to our to our members, right? Like our team members, like, if they tell us something, they’re cutting salami every day. Me in my office, I don’t know what it means to use a different slicer, but they’ll tell me, okay, you know what? My shoulder hurts because, like, we need a different slice or whatever, right? So we really, really listen to them.

Matt Knight  16:23

Nice, really taking, kind of that front line focus or the heart focus, and figuring out how that’s going to impact the business.

Teresa Spinelli  16:29

Absolutely, absolutely

Matt Knight  16:31

Nice. So, you know, I think there’s some parallels, and kind of some of the stories I’ve heard about, you know, I think you, you know, bring, or have brought your own son into work a lot, and kind of had him there from an early age. How has that kind of experience, both of you growing up in the business and him growing up in the business? How have that kind of made a family friendly workplace? Like, has that kind of led by example that that that’s okay?

Teresa Spinelli  16:57

Yeah, for sure. Yeah. We had, we had a we had. She still works for us, actually. So she’s been with us 17 years. She used to bring her daughter, who, you know, Catholic schools on Thursdays or half days, so she didn’t have any sitters or anything for me. So she’d bring her daughter to work with her every day. And we made that okay, because she didn’t have anywhere to put her daughter, and her daughter would stand next to a while, didn’t didn’t infringe her work. She still did her work, and her daughter was next to her right? So we made it okay to do that, and then my concave, my son came as a surprise. So I remember once I brought he was still in his little baby chair, and I put him on top of the table, and I was screaming at somebody, because I was letting them go. And it was a big it was a horrible, horrible situation, but he was sitting there, and I’m yelling at these two guys, because I had to let them know how serious this was. And he was just sitting there like giggling. You know, it was very interesting, right? Interesting, right? So, yeah, so again, family is really important, right? Would we let everybody bring their kid to work? No, I mean, there has to be, like, a situation where we’ve done that a lot, actually, a lot, a lot. I even think about kids that were packing while their mom was working because they didn’t have any school and didn’t have any childcare for them. So, yeah, we’ve done that a lot, I have to say.

Matt Knight  18:02

And how do you think, how do you see his relationship with the family business, and What lessons do you hope he takes from kind of your leadership and how you’re growing and building the business?

Teresa Spinelli  18:12

I think he’s really young. He’s only 17, but he really gets the whole family connection thing, and he really gets that people are important. Yeah, he really gets that part. So that’s really good. He also really gets his role in life. So we live in the inner city, and so the first few years, he went to inner city school. So at that school, we’re probably one of the wealthiest families there. They’re all immigrants and stuff. He’s one of one, one of five white kids in that school. Beautiful, beautiful school. And, you know, I’d say to him, Well, did you tell your friends that were gonna go see Justin beaver? And he said, I’m not gonna tell him that they’re not gonna be able to go to Justin beaver. That’s not nice. Did you tell him we’re going to Hawaii for Christmas? They’re never gonna go to Hawaii. I’m not gonna share that with them, you know? So I saw that I couldn’t keep him in that school because he wasn’t able to share the way we live, right? Because it was very different. So we went from that school to being the poorest family in another, different school, a different area of Edmonton, right? So again, you know, we go to live every year, but they go on African safaris. So it was good, because he gets to learn where we are in life, right, and how we are all the same. We had all the same issues that he had with his friends in the inner city, same issues with his friends in a wealthier neighborhood, right? So he understands about people really well, and he’s very intuitive about people. So that’s really good, because I think that’s a big part of business too, is being able to understand people.

Matt Knight  19:28

And do you think he he got that from being around the business and maybe seeing that customer service focus and like, is that maybe where some of that emotional intelligence came from or and I know that’s a hard question.

Teresa Spinelli  19:39

Yeah, I don’t know. I think it’s just the way we live our lives, just he sees it every day, right? You know? He sees just the way we live our lives.

Matt Knight  19:48

Awesome, what’s been, maybe some of the bigger challenges or learning moments in balancing family and business, so kind of in the growth of your son and your family to the growth of bit. The of the business as well.

Teresa Spinelli  20:01

Yeah, really hard. So my son showed up right after we opened up the second store, and that was really hard again. He came as a surprise, so wasn’t planning to have a family here he was and I tried to work from home, right? Tried really hard to work from home, but impossible, like I’d feed the baby, do the deposit, change the diaper, do the payroll. It was like crazy. So I said to my I was, like, working 20 hours a day, and I said to myself, I can’t do this. And so my husband became the stay at home dad, and that really worked. Sorry, what was your question? Just about balancing family? Oh, yeah, balancing so really hard to balance family. So he did come to work for me, with me for the first three, four months, for sure. And then my husband kind of took over. He was a very good baby, so he wasn’t a big problem. And I’m sorry I forgot the question again. So just on how to balance. Balance? Yeah, so I think I don’t think balance really exists. Sometimes I work too hard, and sometimes I play too hard, right for me as he grew up, if I couldn’t put him to bed that night because I was at a meeting, whatever I wanted to take him to take him to school the next morning. That was my balance. Everybody has to find their own but I don’t think there’s a perfect balance. You know? I’ve never missed one of my kids soccer games or hockey games or anything. I’ve never ever missed a birthday party or a family birthday. For that matter. My business has never suffered because of it, right? And I think he gets that too. He gets that family is really important.

Matt Knight  21:20

Okay. So it’s kind of that balance is a misnomer, but it’s more about seeking satisfaction in both of them.

Teresa Spinelli  21:25

Everybody’s different, right? Whatever works for you, for sure.

Matt Knight  21:30

How are you thinking about the future of the business and succession planning today?

Teresa Spinelli  21:36

Yeah, so interesting. Well, you know, we were hoping to still grow. We’re hoping to put another two, maybe three, stores in Calgary. We were working on Saskatoon, but that unfortunately fell through just last week. Because I really think that whatever Italian senshaw has, that X factor is really good for any community. I think people really gravitate towards that. So as we grow, that’s the challenge is, how do you still keep that family feel and that community feel as you grow? Right? So that’s really important to us. So we’re going to grow for sure. As far as succession planning, I have, I have a really good team. I have, like, a mastermind team that does a lot of the work with me. We make decisions together so they’re in the know. So I God forbid get hit by bus tomorrow, that business would still run. I do have one of my main guys who would take over. So yeah.

Matt Knight  22:28

I wasn’t planning on asking this, but does your son like work, work in the business today? Does he see he’s going to in the future, or does he have picked?

Teresa Spinelli  22:35

Oh, no, he wants my job.

Matt Knight  22:38

He’s coming for your job.

Teresa Spinelli  22:39

Yep, he wants my job. You know, ever since he was little, very little, you know, I saw an old employee in Calgary, and he told me that he used to be in Edmonton. He said he remembers being a cashier. My son was four with a little car. And he said to me, so what do you want to be when you grew up? And he said, I’m going to be your boss at four. It’s a big thing from but I tell him, he’s got to graduate from university. He has to get a degree, he has to go work for somebody else for a couple years, and then he can come to the Chinese can come to the Italian sash up. That’s been a struggle to get into school. But, yeah, that’s my hope for him, right? Because I think, I think that he would do well, but he’s got to work for it, right? He’s got to work for it.

Matt Knight  23:13

Yeah. And that whole idea of like, an externship and making sure that they can experience someplace else, of course, is so valuable, and definitely a common theme in the family business world. I know some of the other ones I’ve seen that are quite neat. Sounds like you’re planning something similar. Is they have to go and work for another business? Yes, for at least two years. Yes, that’s what I’m saying. Yeah, and have a promotion. Oh, wow. And so it’s like, unless you do both of those, you can come into the business and just an interesting metric and way to manage it that is fascinating.

Teresa Spinelli  23:46

It is fascinating and hard, very hard to do.

Matt Knight  23:49

 It is.

Teresa Spinelli  23:49

As a parent. It Is hard to do.

Matt Knight  23:50

Yeah, oh and probably as a kid too.

Teresa Spinelli  23:52

Oh, for sure, for sure.

Matt Knight  23:55

You touched a little bit on the future of looking at more stores and things like that. But what else do you see as the vision for the Italian center shop, and what are kind of some of the principles that you hope to take its growth forward with?

Teresa Spinelli  24:09

Like I mentioned, like we just always continue to hope that we are a gathering place in a community hub, for sure that we still bring in the best known European products. It really is amazing, you know? So, for example, we sell lots of Polish chocolates, like tons and tons, all year round. And so I love chocolate. I tried it, so I asked people, you know, when they buy it, why are you buying this chocolate so good? I go, No, it’s not so good. Why are you buying it? Is it the price point is the color, and every story was the same. You know, this chocolate bar had eight squares. We were poor family. My mother would give us one square each. I used to make this soup with my grandma. She would sing to me when she made it for me, it was always about that warmth and that family and that connection and we hope. And even a while ago, we saw there was a family that had traveled to Brazil together on a holiday. They weren’t Brazilian, and they saw some Brazilian drink that we carry, and they got all excited. Because it reminded them of that holiday together, of that connection and the good times that they had, right? So I think that that’s really special, because, you know, food is involved, whether there’s a death or whether there’s a birth or whether there’s a wedding, it’s always about food. So I hope that we still continue to do that, to create, to let people know that sitting around the table is where families bond, it’s where memories are made, even where business is done, right? So that’s what we hope to create.

Matt Knight  25:22

Yeah, I am often surprised by kind of the diversity of the products. And, you know, I know people you know grew up with some people who are Polish, and they’re like, we always go to the Italian center because they have these products, yes. So it almost caters to a large degree of kind of European and even other cultures. I know, for me and my family, oddly, we go there a lot for gluten free products. Oh, fantastic. And we just see the types of gluten free products that you bring in are actually very unique, and they’re good and exciting for my daughter, who celiac it’s a really neat thing for us to rediscover it that way. Maybe a bit of an odd question on leading in from that, what are some of your favorite products that you carry?

Teresa Spinelli  26:02

Oh, so many, so many. I don’t know where to start. There’s just so many. I mean, you know, I have one in every category for sure. Yeah, there’s so many right now I’m we started a line of take home and warm up food like it’s the Mass Line, which is my son, because, you know, as I as he was growing up, it was, I forget to take things out of the freezer. I do, and I get home and I’m exhausted, I don’t really want to cook something healthy. This stuff we make every day in our Commissary Kitchen. You can read all the ingredients on simple things like chicken cutlets or pasta. And I really like this pasta we just made with Mafalda and sun dried tomatoes and chicken. It’s very, very good. So it’s one of my favorites right now. I think I’ve ate it three times this week. But, yeah, simple thing that, you know, if it’s simple to make, then it just makes it life easier. And a lot of our products are very simple to make, so that’s good, yeah.

Matt Knight  26:56

So kind of some of the pre made ones. And I was going to ask about Massimo as well, because I, I was wondering, wondering wondering about connected, the connection with the name there, and

Teresa Spinelli  27:03

That’s my son’s name.

Matt Knight  27:05

okay.

Teresa Spinelli  27:05

yeah,

Matt Knight  27:05

And, and is that kind of that next to the south location? Is that

Teresa Spinelli  27:12

Very good? Yes, very good. Yeah.

Matt Knight  27:13

Cool. So when you look at kind of where, you know, if you want people to learn about the Italian center, or for people who had never been there before, what types of messages or what do you want them to hear about it?

Teresa Spinelli  27:31

I think once you’ve come into our store, we know that you’re going to come back, because our team really connects with you, like if you’re a regular, my cashier knows your name. They know whether you have a sick kid at home, they’re really, really connected to our customers again. We don’t tell them that. We don’t say, hey, when you got you got it. We never share any of that. Or the guy in the deli starts to single solely me, oh, just because, you know, like, we don’t tell him to do that. Just a really great place to be. And so we know that once you come into our store, you’ll come back. I just think people, you know, people always say it’s their favorite store. It’s not the cheapest store, it’s not the most elegant store, it’s their favorite store. You know, they just love to be around there. So that’s a big, big compliment to us.

Matt Knight  28:12

And how do you balance, kind of, some of the new locations with the little like the with the original location? Because they are very different.

Teresa Spinelli  28:20

Yeah, they’re all very different, and they all have their own vibe. So that was our biggest concern, right? Even we opened our second ones like, wow, how do we bring Little Italy that’s old and been here forever? And even people that sit there in our cafe Little Italy are old and been there forever? How do we create that in the south side? But they kind of have their own spin. You know, still, community is at the at the core of it. All of them are really community focused, and our customers are in touch with everybody. The South Side girl wouldn’t actually once I went to the South Side store and I stood in line because there’s a long lineup for the coffee shop, so I didn’t want to butt in. And I got to the front and I said to her, Can I have an espresso, please? She said, $1.75 ma’am. I said, No, no, I’m Teresa Spinelli. She goes, dollar 75 ma’am. I had no idea who I was, right? I’m pointing to my picture, you know. And then they, the person behind me, vouched for me, so that was good. You didn’t have to pay, yeah? Well, I usually don’t pay for my coffee, but, you know, she did. She didn’t know I was I should have given that girl a raise, actually. But anyways, yeah, we really, really, they really, are all different. All very, very different. I just came back from my Calgary store, which is really amazing and again, different, but that community feel, that warmth is really there.

Matt Knight  29:31

What do you see as kind of new in the industry and for for your stores, like, how are you looking at things like innovation and technology and E commerce and other buzz words like that.

Teresa Spinelli  29:42

Yeah. So we’ve done a lot of things. We’ve gotten paperless, which is pretty amazing for me. It’s amazing anyway, that’s pretty amazing. So we’ve introduced a lot of technological advances that help us as a company. And again, wasn’t me, because I don’t know anything about that stuff. I got a really. Really amazing team. So that’s been a big change for us, and really helped us along the way. You know, AI is always in our minds, and we always try to look for things that can help us. We’re not sure that we’re there yet, but we’re always open to listening, and we go to podcasts and webinars and stuff like that to learn more about it, for sure. But I think the biggest change has been it stuff like making things easier, processes more seamless, that kind of stuff.

Matt Knight  30:26

Okay, so really looking at where you can make things more efficient, yes, almost kind of going back to the bringing in numbers, where it’s about adding that structure for both your customers, but also for your staff.

Teresa Spinelli  30:35

Yes, absolutely, absolutely, okay,

Matt Knight  30:39

When you look at, so you mentioned learning and looking at some of those other methods for webinars and podcasts and things like that, when you think specifically about family business and when you were taking over the business, what is there anything that kind of stands out as lessons or places you went to or things you wanted to learn when you when you were doing that.

Teresa Spinelli  31:02

I did go to the Alberta business Family Institute, I have to say I did, and I’d been to some of their events, for sure. Did that? Read a lot of books, read a lot of books on that kind of stuff? You know? I didn’t even have a son then, so it was so interesting. But I still thought about my team as my family. Okay, those 30 employees were, and still are my family. My 672 employees are my family. So even when I was thinking about succession planning, when I didn’t have my son, thinking, wow, I have to treat as if they’re all my family. So if I get hit by a bus tomorrow, they’re my family. How am I gonna distribute this? How’s it gonna look? Where’s it gonna go to, you know? So it’s very, very interesting. So yeah, a lot of reading things like this really helped Alberta business, Family Institute help. Because, you know, there’s checklists, and there’s other people have gone through it before, and I’ve met other people that have businesses, and then they’ll, they’ll mention a book and bring it to me, usually. So that’s really good, yeah, just kind of those things, always listening and learning from other people

Matt Knight  32:01

And that wasn’t a plant to promote us. But I do appreciate it.

Teresa Spinelli  32:04

It true. That’s really true.

Matt Knight  32:06

Is there kind of one, and I like to ask this to just about everyone on the podcast, is there kind of one main book or thing that you’ve read that really, you know, if you were good to give someone, as you know, here’s a business book or here’s a fun book you need to read to make you a better human. What would you point toward.

Teresa Spinelli  32:22

 A better human.

Matt Knight  32:23

I like to say that, instead of a many, instead of a business, better business person, or like,

Teresa Spinelli  32:27

Better human, well, I like the book from good to great, that made a big difference in our life. For sure, my life better human. Oh, there’s so many books out there about leadership, right? I think you have to figure out what kind of leader you want to be. I very, very much. Want to be a bottom up company. So it took a lot, because my dad was, again, an amazing human. My dad was the boss. It was his way or the highway kind of guy, right? I was very opposite. So turning that around, because your culture lives in the walls of a business, right? So turning that around was very, very difficult. I can’t think of a book you know, Danny Meyer’s book, a seat at the table. That was a really, really good book that was really about including your team and considering them, not that they are an asset. They’re your only asset, especially in the restaurant business. So things like that.

Matt Knight  33:15

How do you think? And I hesitated with this question, but how do you think your dad would feel about the growth and success and changes and innovation that you’ve done with the business.

Teresa Spinelli  33:27

I don’t know. You know. I People always say, Oh, your dad, be so proud of you. I don’t know. You know. I mean, he say, weren’t you good with one store? Well, why’d you have to do all that shit? And my mom was not impressed at all. My mom was not impressed that I had more stores. She just knew that was more stress, and she didn’t think that that was a way, that was a good way to live your life, right? So again, very, very different. I didn’t do it for my dad, that for sure. I know I really did it for my team. I really did and my me. That’s what I love to do. Even when I start thinking about other stores, I get excited. I think, okay, let’s do this, or growing a certain department, I’m excited about that. That’s what makes me tick, and people. It’s just giving people the opportunities. And again, I could tell you hundreds of stories. You know, we had a cashier who was really shy, and she didn’t talk very much, and then all of a sudden she worked in the HR department, just filing, and all of a sudden she’s doing a speech in front of 16 people, presenting something this shy little girl, she really grew up, and they’re really appreciative of that. They really understand that they grew up in the company. They really understand the opportunities that we gave them that they might not have gotten anywhere else.

Matt Knight  34:26

That’s pretty cool.

Teresa Spinelli  34:26

Oh, so cool.

Matt Knight  34:28

So you mentioned the beginning that you used to hate going into work, and then you just mentioned about how that’s like you love going to work and you and you have that excitement about building new things. When did that switch flip? How did that? How did that flip?

Teresa Spinelli  34:43

I think when, when I first started, I took over the store, like I said, I really hated going to work, and I did lots of soul searching. I really did, I really did say, Am I doing this for my dad? You know? Why am I doing this? What did I want? Where did I want to be, you know? What did I want for my family and I and once I got clear about those things, and it just became. Easier. And then when I realized that it wasn’t about selling salami, that it was about people, that I focused on the people part, and that’s how we grew.

Matt Knight  35:08

Cool. Excellent. This has been an amazing conversation.

Teresa Spinelli  35:11

Well, thank you. You did your homework. Very very well.

Matt Knight  35:13

Yeah. No, I really enjoy your energy. And I like how a lot of those messages around, you know, both finding your own identity within the family business and looking at, you know, it’s kind of strategy and different tools and automation to grow the business, and also really thinking about how, you know, how you define a family business is really up to you. It’s true, and it can change. So, you know, in the early days, it might have been, you know, you and your nuclear family with your mom and your dad and your brother. Today, it’s you and your son and that nuclear family around that. But also it’s those, all of those employees that are with you, which I think is a very powerful message, and probably makes that a pretty special place for those employees to work.

Teresa Spinelli  35:56

Yeah, for sure. And also, another thing I want to mention in family business is so my husband, I got married late in life. I was 37 years old, so he came into this family business. And again, very different dynamics. He doesn’t know anything about family business, anything about time, all that stuff. So lots of culture shock and stuff. But that’s a really important part too, right? Because if you bring an outsider into a family business, that’s really hard. He doesn’t work for the for the we tried that didn’t work. And again, it works lots of times, but you got to find those right things. But that’s the really important part, because if you don’t have support from your spouse, your partner, it’s going to be really hard. And usually doesn’t work, because it causes lots of tensions. And you know, and even with my husband, that, you know, my husband’s a great guy, and if I came home with a problem, he wanted to fix it, but if I didn’t take his suggestion, he’d get really mad. And I thought, oh my god, like, you know, so I thought, okay, then I can’t tell him about this, because now he’s going to want to fix it, and if I don’t take his he gets mad at me. So it was really important to find a group of people that I could work with, that we could share, that were business owners, because business owners think differently than husbands, wives and employees, right? They just think differently. So that’s really important too, to get that kind of support.

Matt Knight  37:01

Yeah, to have that, that network in that community, to be able to share.

Teresa Spinelli  37:04

Yes,

Matt Knight  37:04

Grow

Teresa Spinelli  37:05

Yes.

Matt Knight  37:05

I know, with my own partner, I’ve had to think of like, okay, when she’s asking me this or telling me this about her day, is she looking for a solution, getting it off of her chest,

Teresa Spinelli  37:15

You’re a good husband. Good job.

Matt Knight  37:19

Excellent. So really, just to kind of bring things together, definitely enjoyed the story and the themes, how that ever kind of brought back to the transition and the growth you’ve seen, and then how you’ve developed yourself as a leader, and how you’ve built the leaders around you, and just really how you’ve built a pretty amazing community around all of the stores that you run and all of the people that You’ve helped as employees and your family members over the year. So, you know, could you maybe to close things off? Could you let know? Let people know, if they wanted to learn about the Italian Center, where do they go? If they wanted to find that, you know, Ukrainian chocolate or Polish chocolate, where do they go? And then, how can people get a hold of you if, if they want to ask you something

Teresa Spinelli  38:01

For sure, so I’m easy to get a hold of. My email is on our website, www, Italian center.ca, so you can find a lot of information on there, and then we have all our emails on there, including mine. You can walk into any store and ask a cashier how to get a hold of me. They’ll give you my business card for you to get a hold of. Yeah, just walk into one of our stores and ask whatever question you have, and somebody will know the answer. If they don’t, they’ll find someone that does. If you’re a deli, they’ll let you taste lots of different things. Usually, we’ve got demos of something that’s new, so that’s a great way to learn about different products. And if you don’t see something you want, ask, because if we don’t have it, we’ll get it for you.

Matt Knight  38:35

Nice. And I know I asked you your favorite product. My favorite product is the truffle cheese.

Teresa Spinelli  38:40

Oh, the molaterno,

Matt Knight  38:41

Yeah.

Teresa Spinelli  38:42

Oh, so good.

Matt Knight  38:43

I keep on. If I’m even close to an Italian center, I’m like, oh, I need that cheese.

Teresa Spinelli  38:48

That’s very addictive, too.

Matt Knight  38:52

I bought too much this time.

Teresa Spinelli  38:52

Yes

Matt Knight  38:53

I never have.

Teresa Spinelli  38:55

For sure, it’s fresh. It’s fresh season for fresh truffles. Yes, we fly in fresh truffles from Italy, black and white, and they’re very, very expensive. But people buy them.

Matt Knight  39:03

Yeah, no, and truffles are amazing. Yeah.

Teresa Spinelli  39:06

Very interesting. Oh, interesting. Good.

Matt Knight  39:08

Odd place to end the podcast, but I wanted to share that as kind of a personal piece again. Thank you so much for being on the show today.

Teresa Spinelli  39:15

Well, thank you. Thank you for the opportunity. It means a lot to us. Thank you.