DeCicco & Sons: Turning Shelf Data into a Competitive Advantage Across a High-Performance Grocery Chain

• Retailer: DeCicco & Sons
• Segment: Regional Grocery
• Stores Deployed: Chainwide across DeCiccos Northeast stores
• Focus Areas: On-shelf availability, pricing accuracy, labor efficiency, integration across teams and existing systems
• Key Wins:
  • 35% reduction in out-of-stocks within the first 60 days
  • 28% reduction in average out-on-shelf duration
  • Daily, automated shelf visibility across all stores
  • Tally insights integrated into existing systems, supporting operations, e-commerce, and business intelligence

DeCicco & Sons has built its reputation on a premium grocery experience. With smaller-format stores, a curated assortment, and customers who expect a high standard, DeCiccos engaged Simbe to automate routine shelf checks, gain more frequent insight into store conditions, and put that information to work across its broader technology ecosystem.

DeCiccos entered the proof of technology phase from a position of strength. On-shelf availability was already high, pricing accuracy was a priority, and store teams ran disciplined operations.

As the business scaled, maintaining the same firsthand understanding of store conditions became more challenging. What was easy to observe in a single location became harder to track consistently across multiple stores. Manual store walks and visual checks worked, but did not provide the always-on insight needed to operate at scale.

As John DeCicco Jr., CEO of DeCicco & Sons, described it, the goal was to “automate the hate,” removing repetitive tasks store teams did not enjoy so they could focus on customers and execution.

Beyond identifying out-of-stocks, DeCiccos wanted reliable, product-level information that could plug directly into its systems and inform decisions across replenishment, pricing, space planning, and store accountability.

Simbe stood out for its ability to capture store conditions autonomously and make that information useful beyond the shelf. Frequent scans provided the consistent visibility leadership wanted, while APIs, product location insights, and aisle-level imagery gave DeCiccos the flexibility to integrate those inputs into its own systems and workflows.

A highly tech-savvy organization, DeCiccos approached store digitization with a clear point of view: technology needed to integrate cleanly and make teams more effective, not busier.

They launched a proof of technology with Simbe’s Store Intelligence™ platform in two stores, focused on gaining daily insight while fitting into the tools and workflows teams already used.

From the beginning, DeCiccos treated Tally as one part of a broader technology ecosystem:

• Autonomous scans captured on-shelf conditions multiple times per day
• API integrations fed product information directly into DeCiccos internal tools and business intelligence (BI) systems
• Flexible workflows allowed teams to act on insights through the tools they already used
• Aisle maps and images provided visual context alongside product-level information

That integration-first approach has become increasingly important as DeCiccos builds its own data layer across business intelligence, ordering, production planning, and internal AI tools. Tally serves as one input into that ecosystem, providing in-store intelligence that DeCiccos can combine with its own information and put to work across the business. This foundation gives DeCiccos the flexibility to support new use cases as its needs and technology evolve.

Product location is one example. DeCiccos combines Tally's view of where products are actually positioned with historical sales, cost, and profit information to evaluate performance across stores and departments. The team is also using those insights to inform planogram development and assess whether product displays are being maintained as intended.

Vendor operations are another focus. By combining real-time shelf information with inbound and ordering records, DeCiccos can identify the source of availability issues and pivot to alternate suppliers when needed, helping resolve issues faster across a complex vendor network.

Proof of technology locations saw a 35% reduction in out-of-stocks and a 15–28% reduction in average out-on-shelf duration within the first 60 days, showing that frequent, automated detection could help teams resolve issues faster, even in well-run stores.

Store teams embraced Tally from the start, with less resistance than DeCiccos had experienced with other technology deployments. Automated detection meant teams could spend less time searching for issues and more time addressing them.

“Our managers had a voice in how this technology came into our stores. We tried it, shared feedback, and worked through what our teams needed. By the time we introduced it more broadly, people could see how it would help them. That’s something DeCicco’s does really well: giving us resources that support our teams and make it easier to serve our customers.”

- Chris Dapolito, Store Manager, DeCicco & Sons, Sleepy Hollow

The broader impact has been how DeCiccos puts Tally insights to work across the business. What began with daily store execution now supports use cases spanning vendor management, e-commerce availability, and business intelligence. As DeCiccos technology stack evolves, reliable API access gives the retailer the flexibility to determine where those insights can be most useful.

That approach helped take Simbe from a two-store proof of technology to a chainwide deployment across DeCiccos Northeast stores. DeCiccos is now exploring how the same model can extend into fresh and perishable departments, beginning with RFID.

DeCicco & Sons shows that store intelligence can create meaningful value even for retailers already operating at a high standard. For DeCiccos, the opportunity extends beyond automating shelf checks to making reliable in-store intelligence available across the systems that run the business.

That foundation gives DeCiccos flexibility to apply store-level insights wherever they create value, from operations and e-commerce to merchandising, vendor management, business intelligence, and emerging AI use cases.

Just as important, fitting new technology into existing workflows can make adoption easier at the store level. By delivering useful information through the ways teams already work, DeCiccos can introduce new capabilities without adding unnecessary complexity to daily operations.