Hoping the entire community is ready to 'dig in,' BD Provisions, 125 South Main Street, celebrated its grand opening with a ribbon cutting ceremony on Saturday, November 10.

Members of the Newtown Chamber of Commerce, First Selectmen Dan Rosenthal, and many local residents came out to be part of the specialty grocery store’s official launch.

BD Provisions co-owner and Newtown resident John Boccuzzi told The Newtown Bee that seeing the response from everyone coming to the store, as well as supporting them on social media, has been “overwhelming in a very positive way.”

Mr Boccuzzi owns the store with his wife, Cynthia, and fellow husband-and-wife-team Tony and Tara DiPippa. The store’s name even incorporates both couples’ first initials of their last names.

After originally working as CEO of a software technology company, Mr Boccuzzi sold the business and began working as Head of Sales and Customer Care at Edible Arrangements. The career shift led him to meet Mr DiPippa, who was CFO there at the time. Both men left the company last year but continued to have an appreciation for franchising opportunities.

When Mr Boccuzzi and his wife began brainstorming business ideas while on vacation in April of this year, they knew they wanted to do something that produced less waste and packaging.

“We have seen bulk ideas before, and they have been around for a long time, but we thought, ‘What if we elevated the feel and added a coffee roaster [onsite]?’” he said.

When he returned from vacation, he was eager to run the idea by Mr DiPippa.

“He instantly said he loved it,” Mr Boccuzzi recalled.

Within months, the idea for BD Provisions went from a dream to a reality and is now nourishing the community and environment one scoop at a time, as its slogan states.

It is a source for freshly roasted coffee, freshly ground nuts, local honey (collected within a hundred miles from the store), a variety of California olive oils pressed with herbs, Vermont maple syrup, health and beauty products, two dozen teas, specialty holiday baskets, and 80 assorted spices.

“What’s really nice about [the spices] is if you have a recipe where you only need a tablespoon of something, you can come in and just get a tablespoon,” Mr Boccuzzi said. “You can get as much or as little as you need.”

There are also more than 200 self-serve barrels throughout the store filled with everything from baking ingredients to snack items to different grains.

“It’s really an adventure of the palate,” Mr Boccuzzi said of the store’s variety of products.

BD Provisions also seeks to do its best to provide customers with an environmentally friendly way to shop by encouraging people to bring in reusable containers, like glass mason jars or biodegradable bags.

“One of our key things is being authentic,” Mr Boccuzzi explained. “We’re not perfect, so we do have things that are in packages. We know that zero waste is 100 or 200 years away, but there needs to be a starting line, and we are part of that starting line.”

BD provisions is currently open Monday through Friday, 9 am to 7 pm; and Saturday and Sunday, 10 am to 6 pm. For more information, visit [naviga:u]bdprovisions.com[/naviga:u] and [naviga:u]facebook.com/bdprovisions[/naviga:u], e-mail [naviga:u]info@bdprovisions.com[/naviga:u], or call 203-491-2925.