The Caprotti family and architects: Ignazio Gardella and the first Esselunga Superstore

When Bernardo Caprotti, with remarkable foresight, decided to build larger supermarkets, his passion for architecture led him to seek the collaboration of great architects such as Ignazio Gardella, whose designs changed the concept of the supermarket from a simple container to a building with distinctive architecture, another element that allowed Esselunga to strengthen brand recognition and establish its shops as a central service to neighbourhoods, especially the most peripheral ones. Such large supermarkets, however, need to be filled, and at that point my American experience suggests how to do this through 'non-food', that is, 'everything that is not food': from products of all kinds (from stationery to laundry to crockery) to services (customer care, express checkouts, home shopping, e-commerce).

‘Supper Market of style’: Kean Etro’s men’s fashion show on the shelves of the Esselunga in Via Washington, 2001

In 2001, Kean Etro 'wandered around [in the Esselunga on Washington Street] presenting his collection of plant-dyed cotton sweaters among the very first organic product counters. 'They took us for fools. Then the organic line is still there' ". In 2014, Chanel also paraded its models among the shelves of a supermarket at the Grand Palais in Paris. Only the supermarket was fake.

Chicago 1987, before superstores

Charles Fitzmorris, Esselunga's IT service provider, convinces my father to let me go to America to gain experience. He puts me in touch with the family of one of his clients, Dominick Di Matteo, who has a chain of supermarkets in Chicago. During my two-year stay, during which I worked my way up through the ranks internally, starting as a general worker, I learned the basics, and then in Milan I was able to put to good use what would become the great change, the quantum leap that would make Esselunga's fortune.