PITTSBURGH — Bill Sunseri is busy enough leading the transition of his family’s Pennsylvania Macaroni Co. store that has been an anchor business in the Strip District since the earliest years of the 20th century.
But amid all his training, negotiating with suppliers and fine tuning of a retail operation for which he’s in the third generation of family ownership, Sunseri also is entertaining the prospect of exporting the legendary Penn Mac brand to other satellite stores some time in the future.
“Once I get this place buttoned up, I would like to,” said Sunseri in a recent interview with the Pittsburgh Business Times.
To be sure, Sunseri, 63, has other more immediate priorities after taking over full leadership of Penn Mac to start the new year, serving as president, treasurer and secretary in a family agreement with his three brothers and one sister. Sunseri returns to a business he grew up in and spent most of his life learning before shifting to working with his wife Fifi in running her Uptown pizza shop, the original Giovanni’s Pizza on Fifth Avenue in Uptown.
He’s now considering the potential of establishing Penn Mac stores within an hour or so of the Strip District flagship.
Working to emphasize an established approach as an Italian specialty food store, Sunseri suggested communities within the tri-state area he expects would be receptive to it.
“Wheeling has a huge Italian population,” he said of the West Virginia city.
He added, “Steubenville has a good Italian population” of the Ohio town just over the Pennsylvania border, close enough to be in relative community distance of downtown Pittsburgh.
He also referenced Morgantown and Bridgeport as well as north in Cranberry Township.
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