What started as a roadside fruit stand in Morgan Hill is now a bustling grocery store in Redwood City and Palo Alto.
Sigona’s Farmers Market, a family-owned business specializing in locally grown, organic produce and everything from artisan cheeses, microbrews and wine to seasonal olive oils and balsamics is celebrating 50 years in business this year.
The founding brothers of Sigona’s – John Jr., Carmelo, Joe and Paul Sigona – all grew up in the produce industry, spending their weekends selling fruits and vegetables at San Jose’s Berryessa Flea Market with their parents, Rose and John Sigona.
In 1975, four of the brothers started their own roadside produce stand in Morgan Hill, expanding it to three locations before the construction of the U.S. Highway 101 bypass diverted traffic around the town. In 1984, the brothers opened their Redwood City flagship store, expanding to Stanford Shopping Center 14 years later.
In 2008, they established Sigona’s Fruit For Thought, an online business focused on dried fruits and other snacks, as well as Sigona’s Office Deliveries, which creates assorted fruit boxes for corporate accounts. Both are based in San Carlos.
To celebrate 50 years since Sigona’s founding as a roadside fruit stand, the Redwood City and Palo Alto stores will hold a cake cutting and meet-and-greet party April 26. From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Redwood City, then 2:30-4 p.m. in Palo Alto, attendees can mingle with the founders of Sigona’s and sample Sigona’s private-lable items, including cheese, jam, olive oil, balsamic and marinara.
I talked with Robbie Sigona, the grandson of John and Rose Sigona who now co-owns the business with his cousin Jimmy Sigona, about how Sigona’s and consumer habits have changed over the years, how they decide what products to offer and what the future of Sigona’s looks like. This conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Peninsula Foodist: How do you decide which products to offer at your stores?
Robbie Sigona: The criteria is number one, it has to be a good product. Number two, it has to be clean. We really look for unique items that customers can’t find anywhere else, that would just be unique to Sigona’s, to the degree that we can. Healthy, to the degree that we can. We will buy the occasional pie and cake and all that, but we want that to be as clean as possible, with real ingredients in it. So we’re pretty strict on paying attention to what ingredients go into the product. And we definitely steer more toward buying as much local product as possible.
Peninsula Foodist: Are there any products you’re currently obsessed with?
Robbie Sigona: Our marinara. We process our own Sigona’s marinara, and it’s the best marinara we’ve ever had in a jar. So it’s our own recipe that we process right here in Redwood City.
Another one that we’re very proud of would be our dried mango, and this definitely isn’t local – it comes out of Mexico – but we source some of the best quality dried mango that you can find, and we’re very, very proud of what we have there.
We collaborate with a local bakery, Woodside Bakery, and we create pies with them. We just got done doing a mango pie. And in the summertime, we do heirloom peach pie. We just started up our strawberry shortcake program with (Woodside Bakery). We really give a cool product to the customer that they can’t get anywhere else, because (Woodside Bakery) does it for us.
Peninsula Foodist: How has Sigona’s changed over the years?
Robbie Sigona: We felt we’ve really had to adapt. So when my father and uncles started it…it was a lot of dried fruit and nuts and maybe a few bags of chips and sauces and small stuff like that. We’ve had to expand on that to make it as convenient for the customer as possible. So we carry dairy, we carry meat, we have a cheese department. We’ve expanded on all our dry goods, and we’ve really expanded on private label, like the marinara. We do our own jams and olive oil. We’ve made it a one-stop shop for customers.
Peninsula Foodist: You have multiple employees who’ve been with Sigona’s for 40 years. Why do you think that is?
Robbie Sigona: I think the culture that my father and uncle started back in the day and that my cousin Jimmy and I have carried on is (one) of family. We really, really treat everybody like we’re family. And I know that’s probably a saying that gets thrown around quite a bit, but we actually live it and breathe it. So we’re very compassionate toward people’s needs and wants.
Peninsula Foodist: What makes your produce different from what you’d find elsewhere?
Robbie Sigona: We always focus on quality. So everything that we purchase fruit-wise is tasted by us, literally. And we try to give a fair price, deals where deals can be had, and we bring in unique items, maybe where other stores don’t want to mess with something where they might lose a little money on (it) because it’s delicate.
Peninsula Foodist: How have shopping patterns changed over the years?
Robbie Sigona: The packaged salad area has increased. That would be something that they definitely buy more of. What’s been surprising to me, as far as how movement and sales go, are some of these exotic items. They’re buying more of that, regardless of the price…We carry cherimoya, dragon fruit, little wild ramps.
Peninsula Foodist: In terms of seasonality, what produce right now is really good that you think people should be buying?
Robbie Sigona: Springtime screams local strawberries, and we have a lot of great local strawberry connections, organically grown. We’re one of the few stores in the area that sells an open pint strawberry that’s not in a 1-pound clamshell type thing.
Local artichokes. We have an heirloom artichoke that’s super cool. Hardly anybody grows the heirloom variety artichoke. And then we have some organic local asparagus right now from the Stockton area.
Peninsula Foodist: What differentiates Sigona’s from other markets in the area?
Robbie Sigona: Number one, the customer experience. So when the customer comes in, they’re greeted. We have a gentleman by the name of Juan out front who greets everybody… We may not be the cheapest in town, so to speak, but they come in and say, ‘Yeah, I get a bunch of spinach there. I get some vegetables there, and they last.’ I’ve heard that thousands of times over the years. ‘They last. I get them at other places, they might not hold up. They go bad in the fridge.’
Peninsula Foodist: What is the future of Sigona’s?
When our time comes up, we’d love to keep this going. Whatever that means at the time, we don’t have an answer to that right now, but we’d like to keep this going as long as we can. We think it’d be a wonderful thing to keep Sigona’s around forever.
As far as expansion goes, if the opportunity is right, we are definitely open. So (we can) let other communities and up and down the Peninsula nearby experience what we have to offer.
As far as the customers go, it really is all about the experience. I think to myself, ‘Would I like to shop at this place?’ And the answer is always yes, because I do. I shop and create this wonderful meal, bring home all the stuff from Sigona’s, and cook it up and have a great meal, and I love it.
We definitely want to expand on creating new items, whether they be private label or collaborations. So to be as unlike the other guy as much as possible, and keep giving customers what they’re coming in for and what they want in our store.
Sigona’s Farmers Market, Instagram: @sigonasfarmersmarket. 2345 Middlefield Road, Redwood City; 650-368-6993. Open Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. 399 Stanford Shopping Center, Palo Alto; 650-329-1340. Open Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.