Raymond Bartolacci Sr. started small in the 1940s with a butcher shop.
By the time he retired, the Italian immigrant had built a family business known as Laneco into a Lehigh Valley retail institution. He pioneered the superstore concept, with stores around the region, that would serve as a model for Walmart and other retail giants. One of the early stores was in a nondescript strip mall on Easton’s south side.
Now a young Lehigh Valley couple can follow in Bartolacci’s footsteps, from beginning as a wholesale meat business to — they hope — a chain of supermarkets and other businesses. They opened their second Bravo Super Market on July 19 in the South Side space that Laneco once called home.
Felix Perez, 32, and Grizel Mazariegos-Perez, 31, came to the Lehigh Valley from Guatemala, via New York.
They never knew Bartolacci, who died in 2015. But people who know the Lehigh County couple say they are hard workers, just like the late Laneco CEO.
“They are doing everything the right way,” said Ralph Bellafatto, a Bethlehem Township attorney who has provided the couple with legal assistance.
In addition to the Easton store, the couple owns another store in east Allentown; wholesale meat business, Easton Meat Services LLC, at the South Side store; and a day care, Future Child Stars, in Upper Saucon Township.
“We have several businesses,” Mazariegos-Perez said. “We manage everything. I do the office and administration.”
Easton Meat Services opened in 2020, but two groceries and a daycare have opened in the last year or so.
Easton’s newly opened grocers fill a critical niche, according to Mark Haldaman, immediate past president of the Easton Business Association.
“The store is immaculate,” Haldaman said. “The community really needed it.”
The South Side is considered a food desert due to the lack of local food vendors.
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Bellafatto, who grew up in Easton, recalled the days when the store was part of the Laneco chain.
“For [Perez]starting as a butcher and taking it to the level of a supermarket … it’s a big financial commitment and a big risk-reward situation,” he said.
The location, which previously housed a supermarket that had been closed for at least a year, had become “really run down,” Bellafatto said.
The Lowhill Township couple have invested about $4 million so far in the store, Perez said.
The Easton supermarket features approximately 12 shopping aisles and carries a selection of groceries similar to the Allentown store. The shop’s hallmark is its extensive array of meats, including steaks and ground beef, pig’s feet, oxtail and specialty sausages.
The couple, who employ about 50 people at their businesses, believe they can make both stores work in neighborhoods that have seen growing Hispanic populations. While Allentown’s population is more than 50% Hispanic, Easton’s is about 23%, according to the latest census figures; on the South Side, it’s about one-third Hispanic.
In addition, Hispanics like the Perezes are among a record number of new minority business owners opening businesses in 2023, according to payroll firm Gusto. Hispanic entrepreneurs made up 13% of new owners, compared to 8% last year.
A business empire begins
Bravo is an independent, regional grocery chain with about 70 stores stretching from New York to Florida, according to its website. Perez started cutting meat for Bravo when he came to the United States.
The couple met in 2015 in New York through a mutual friend. Mazariegos-Perez, who has lived in the US since the mid-2000s, had worked in various auto-related businesses. The couple found the Lehigh Valley while Perez was looking for an opportunity to operate his own store.
After opening the East Allentown supermarket, Perez and Mazariegos-Perez planned to move Easton Meat Services there. But when the tenant who leased the South Side Easton property where the wholesale business was located left, the Perezes jumped at the chance.
“We contacted the owner, and I explained my story and said, ‘I’m not a big businessman,'” Perez said. “‘I started small, but I know what my vision is here. If you give me the chance, we will do a good job.’ I know he had other people who loved the country. It’s a good place. But I said, “If you give me the chance, we’ll do a good job.”
Haim Joseph, a New York leasing agent and owner of the Easton store and adjacent shopping center, said he had never before dealt with the couple, who subleased the Easton Meat Services space from its previous tenant.
“We gave them a lease to take over, but we insisted that it function as a supermarket,” Joseph said. “They seemed like nice people, so we rented them.”
Another opportunity came in the form of the day care that Mazariegos-Perez opened about a year ago, renting space from Faith United Church of Christ off Route 378.
When the church was vetting potential day care operators, the person overseeing the search, Chris Youngs, was impressed with Mazariegos-Perez’s ambition and mission, recalls Rev. Bruce C. Stevenson.
“It’s not just a day care or just childcare, but more of an early childhood education program,” Stevenson said. “What [Youngs] told me, ‘I can’t imagine how much homework Grizel has done to learn how to run an education center.’ Now that she’s here and I’m seeing her, I can verify that.”
The Perez families are seeing the fruits of their labor and looking to what’s next, especially in the grocery store business.
“We hope to continue to open more,” Mazariegos-Perez said.
Morning Call reporter Anthony Salamone can be reached at asalamone@mcall.com.