Zia Pia Imports has closed its space at 7th Street Public Market. The Italian importer will focus business on online sales and wholesale. Zia Pia was an anchor tenant at 7th Street Public Market, where it had both a kitchen space to serve take-and-bake and hot meals and a retail section of pastas, flours, oils, and more.

Owner Victoria Custodi says the decision to shift areas of focus was based on sales trends. As Uptown office buildings shut down, the market saw fewer customers. Beginning in mid 2020, however, Custodi noticed that their wholesale and online sales were trending up.

“We saw a lot of growth in wholesale and we saw a lot of growth in online, so that growth began getting more and more time, attention, resources, and energy,” she says. “We have limited bandwidth, so we decided at the end of the year just to make that choice to focus on the wholesale side. That’s where the energy and resources are best spent at this particular moment.”

Zia Pia’s online store includes gift sets, pasta, rice, oil, chocolate, tomatoes, and more imported directly from Italy and ships across the country. During quarantine, home cooking has grown as a hobby. As a supplier to independent specialty food shops where these home cooks are shopping more often during the pandemic, Zia Pia has seen an increase in sales. Operations for Zia Pia are moving into a new warehouse, and Custodi is working on improving on the online retail presence as they work to lean into the wholesale side of business.

In the new space, Zia Pia will eventually welcome customers in for a retail experience, allowing them to come in and shop for what they need. Custodi also hopes to sell prepared meals in the future, using the products Zia Pia imports.

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