Anthony and Marilyn Graziano started Anthony’s Food Shop in York, Maine in 1989. Back then, it was a part-time gig; Marilyn brought homemade lasagna and brownies into the shop to sell, and Anthony kept his job as a corporate sales manager as their main source of income. But soon enough the business took off, and it became their full-time focus.
38 years later, not only is Anthony’s still around — it’s thriving. A family business in the truest sense, it’s now run by Anthony and Marilyn’s son Mark, who keeps it humming with help from his own kids: Dan, who manages the kitchen; Emily, who runs front of house; Matthew, who mans the floor; and Bri, the retail manager. As the operation has evolved, it’s become a food shop and market, with grab-and-go options like baked goods and salads in addition to made-to-order pizza and sandwiches. That’s not all — they also roast and sell their own coffee, operate a scratch bakery, offer catering, partner with local resorts for food service needs, and collaborate with local breweries and distilleries.
We spoke with Bri about the experience of bringing her grandfather’s legacy into the future, and the tools — like Toast — that move the business forward.
A family affair
In movies and TV shows, kids don’t always want to go into the family business they grew up in. But Bri says that there wasn’t that kind of drama in real life. “We all took time after high school to explore other paths,” she says. "But [we] came back to our roots to support the family business.”
According to Bri, the decision to stay and work at Anthony’s was influenced by her grandfather. He passed away in 2015, but she’s clear that his legacy lives on at the store. Her father Mark was involved from the very start, so he stays steady at the helm. “Our father’s experience running all the areas of the business is incredibly valuable to us,” she notes.
A community-centric outlook
Anthony’s isn’t just a market and food store. With its long history in York, it’s also a pillar of the community, and the family takes that aspect of their work seriously.
“We’ve always been involved with our community,” Bri says. She describes a program where members of local youth sports teams receive a full meal at a reduced cost for every away game they play, and says that Anthony’s makes regular donations to various local groups, including schools, fundraisers, and food pantries. She also mentions a uniquely valuable program Anthony’s offers: members of the Yorkwise organization, which focuses on preventing drug and alcohol use among the town’s young people, receive a discount. “We’ve been a staple in the community for 35 years, and building relationships with our customers has helped us grow,” Bri says. “Our local customers are the reason we are able to have a successful year-round business.”
The tools that keep things running
When Anthony’s started using Toast in May 2021, they were the very first retail store to do so. The brand had recently introduced Toast Retail POS, an all-in-one platform built for stores with more than one kind of sales. “We are unique in that we are a restaurant that also has a large retail inventory,” Bri says, and that was part of what made Toast so appealing.
Toast Retail POS runs the retail shelf, grab-and-go cases, and made-to-order food all on one system with Toast IQ — the built-in AI assistant — works across your whole business to turn sales data into restocking, pricing, and margin insights in real time. The idea: Instead of digging through spreadsheets to figure out what’s selling, what’s sitting, and where the busiest shifts are, owner-operators get those answers surfaced automatically. Employees get those hours back and, in turn, have more time to connect with their customers versus doing admin work.
Bri says she’s seen noticeable improvements since using Toast IQ, and cites one key example: with a product that was sold both as cases and individually, Toast IQ explained how to set up “alternate packaging” that kept track of the inventory for her. “Toast makes my job easier with functions like automatic inventory tracking, cost change alerts, and custom sales reports. These features save us time and money and make it easy to know when we need to change pricing, check what products sell the best, and tell us what needs to be ordered,” she explains.
Toast is also a key part of how Anthony’s keeps its community work front and center. The Yorkwise discount, for instance, only applies to items that are made and sold in-house. While that could have been a confusing distinction, Toast made it easy to set up and implement. “Toast’s module for discounts and promotions is very straightforward and accessible,” Bri says.
A living legacy
Over the last 35 years, Anthony’s has gone from a mom-and-pop retail shop, to a well-loved institution, to a beloved market and food shop with award-winning pizza and a spot of honor in the community. Through it all, it’s been owned and operated by family.
When we ask Bri which aspect of her work is most meaningful to her, she speaks again about her grandfather’s legacy. “It’s important to us that we are maintaining the highest standards which we have been known for over the years,” she notes. Finally, she referred once more to the people of York, Maine. “We are incredibly fortunate to have the support and business from our community. Being able to give back is very important to all of us.”
Explore Toast Retail to learn more.