Written on 25 March 2013, updated on 21 September 2026. Above: a certificate I received in Chicago.
Below: a photo of the Esselungasigns
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Below are the signs from the ‘Omni superstores’, which belonged to the Dominick’s chain and were its flagship outlets in the late 1980s.
I worked as a shop floor assistant for several months in the Omni superstores, specifically in stores 302 and 304 (see also From Supermarkets to Superstores 1).
I also worked as a cashier in Chicago’s Hindu neighbourhood.
A truly wonderful experience.
Before the Lecco superstore opened in 1990, Esselunga did not have any signs indicating the number of aisles or the product categories available. In the small Esselunga supermarkets of that time, there were simple signs, nicknamed ‘eagles’ by the staff.
We took our inspiration from Dominick’s when designing the new signs.
The only differences were the colour (burgundy in our case) and the absence of any advertising.
Esselunga did not even have staff badges, which were essential for clocking in and out and for identifying staff (both amongst themselves and to customers).
This was one of the first suggestions I made upon returning from the USA, and it was promptly taken on board by my father; I have a written record of this in my archives in Albiate.
In the years that followed, in the shops, the trade unions objected that – for privacy reasons – the employee’s surname should be removed. And so this was done for shop floor staff and cashiers.
I kept the one with my surname on it.
It is worth adding that I also brought back another small innovation from the USA: the intercom ( you can read about this on page 162 of *Le Ossa dei Caprotti*).
If used sensibly (without shouting…), it could prove very useful in what were by then very large retail spaces, where calling the cashier out loud had become impossible.
Over time, the intercom came to be used as a marketing tool: following an agreement with Radio Montecarlo, facilitated by Jan Miguel Battistoni, we sold ‘on-air’ advertising slots to our suppliers in exchange for promotional contributions.
Of course, these innovations were by no means the only ones. See also ‘From Supermarkets to Superstores 5’ on this subject.
Whilst using the box cutter I used to open cartons, and whilst “in the warehouse, cutting open a tin of engine oil, I deeply cut my hand…
… You can still see the scar’ (Le Ossa dei Caprotti, published by Feltrinelli, 2023, page 141).
