St. Charles grocer celebrates 80 years with new supermarket

One Sunday some 52 years ago, David Lencioni's mother taught him a lesson crucial to the family business -- how to make change. He was 8.

By the age of 12, Lencioni was running groceries to customers' cars and replenishing shelves as a stock boy at the Blue Goose Super Market in St. Charles.

"All the customers knew me," Lencioni recalled fondly, adding with an ornery smile: "It actually became a problem later in life because they all knew me, but I couldn't remember their names. So I faked it."

Today, Lencioni bears much heavier responsibilities as president of St. Charles' oldest family-owned retailer. But he's still making change.

On Friday, the St. Charles native and third-generation co-owner of the family business will open the Blue Goose's largest and most sophisticated grocery store in the company's 80-year history. For Lencioni, it signals the beginning of a new era for what has practically become a local landmark.

"It's going to knock people's socks off," he said on a recent tour of the sparkling-new store at 300 S. Second St. The opening "can't happen fast enough for me."

In addition to being 50 percent bigger than the store's previous location at 164 First St., the 30,000-square-foot Blue Goose boasts plenty of new perks, including expanded bakery, produce, deli, floral and gift departments.

It also has a coffee bar, indoor and outdoor seating areas, two cashless, self-check-out registers, and new wine and sushi selections.

The walls are lined with photos from the store's past, and several departments are named after longtime employees and Lencioni family members who influenced the mom-and-pop operation.

Lencioni said he's investing "every penny of my net worth" into the new store, which is a cornerstone of a monumental city effort to redevelop First Street as a quaint residential and shopping district. He agreed to vacate the last Blue Goose location in exchange for a property donation for the new store from the city. The land was valued at $1.3 million, officials have said.

David Richards, a city alderman and executive director of the Downtown St. Charles Partnership, said family-owned businesses are vital to the success of downtown, and the Blue Goose is no exception.

"It really is kind of the building block around which downtown is structured," he said. "Just the fact that this family is making this investment in the community and downtown lends credence to the fact our downtown is very strong. The Lencioni family is definitely looking toward the future with a long-term relationship."

Humble beginnings

The Blue Goose began in 1928 as a fresh fruits and vegetable market overlooking Main Street, just west of the Fox River, with Lencioni's grandmother, whose name was Annunciata but who went by Nancy.

She was a "strong-willed" woman who ventured into business on her own, even as her husband brought home wages from a Geneva bottling company, Lencioni said. The couple were turn-of-the-century Italian immigrants who happened upon the city of Geneva while searching for Lake Geneva -- or so the story goes -- and decided to live there, although the business would be in St. Charles.

There was no deep meaning to the name Blue Goose, Lencioni said. His grandmother simply saw the phrase on a shipping crate, thought it sounded right and took it as her own.

The Goose survived the Great Depression and, in the 1940s, moved a block or so west to Third and Main streets. In 1963, it moved again to an expanded location built by Lencioni's father, Vasco, who about that time brought his four adoptive children into what had become the family business.

Lencioni, a 1965 graduate of Marmion Academy in Aurora, said he's not sure what he would have done professionally if it hadn't been for the Goose. He taught aviation and scuba diving -- his hobbies -- and studied social science at Michigan State University after high school, but eventually returned to the store.

"I was kind of the designated hitter" as the eldest of four children, Lencioni said.

All in the family

Today, Lencioni runs the place with the help of his sister and co-owner, Mary Pearson, who works mostly behind the scenes but whose "influence cannot be understated," Lencioni said. The two bought out their siblings for ownership last year.

Lencioni's son, Paul, who also serves on the St. Charles plan commission, is being groomed as the company's next president. Daughter Kate works as a pastry chef and pursues other interests.

Lencioni admitted business has been hurt by the Tri-Cities' increasingly competitive grocery market, now inundated by rivals such as Super Target, Dominick's, Meijer, Aldi and Jewel-Osco, or the "J-word," as Lencioni puts it. But it continues to thrive on its folksy reputation, family-owned status and personable employees.

Lencioni said he continues to fight the perception that his store is "high-end" or "exclusive" when, in fact, its prices are mostly comparable to its competitors.

"We're not snobs here," Lencioni said. "If we just had to depend on rich folks, we wouldn't have been in business as long as we have. Everybody's welcome here."

The store employs about 100 people.

"It's more like we're all family," said Robert Judd, a St. Charles resident who got a job as a grocery bagger in 1967 and never left. Today, he manages the main grocery department.

"It's a destination place, a meeting place," said Judd, who was introduced to his wife while the two worked at the store. His children also work there. "Some people say they can't get out of here because they keep bumping into friends," he said.

Dwight Koop of St. Charles, who has done his shopping at the Blue Goose since 1972, joked he would have to go on vacation when the store shut down briefly this week before the new one's opening.

"I come in on Saturdays just to hang out and see my friends," he said. Also, he likes the "fact it's not the mechanical big box."

For the Lencioni family, the Goose's future is one that must be approached cautiously, as competition continues to mount -- particularly with the potential opening of the area's first Costco wholesale store in St. Charles later this year.

"I had always hoped to have three or four stores open by now," he said. "Looks like that's gonna be up to the next generation."

Through the years

Here's a brief look at the Blue Goose Super Market's history in St. Charles:

1928: Annunciata "Nancy" Lencioni opens the Blue Goose Fruit Store on West Main Street, between First and Second streets. She sells mostly fresh fruits, vegetables, eggs and other sundries.

1943: The Blue Goose moves to the corner of Third and Main streets.

1963: Vasco and Germaine Lencioni open a 20,000-square-foot, full-service grocery at 164 S. First St. Technological highlights included automatic produce and meat scales and refrigerated produce cases.

1995: The couple brings in their four children, David, Mary, Donna and John, to help remodel the Blue Goose and add a bakery, floral and gift departments, an expanded delicatessen and extra shopping area.

2008: The Blue Goose moves to its fourth and largest location at 300 S. Second St. New additions include an outdoor patio, an indoor café, expanded produce, bakery, deli, floral and gift departments, and new merchandise such as wine and sushi.

Source: Blue Goose Super Market

Festivities

A public ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10 a.m. Friday will mark the opening of the Blue Goose Super Market's new location at 300 S. Second St. Store hours and phone numbers will remain the same.