The final two Balducci's locations in Manhattan closed on Sunday after a heart-wrenching week of discounts, with customers reportedly bursting into tears and even yelling at the staff. One employee tells the Times, "The customers kept asking, 'Where are we going for lunch?' But what I want to know is, where are we going for jobs?" See, that's not Chelsea Pepper's problem; the 24-year-old customer was so totally distraught to find the Chelsea location picked clean on Sunday: "It’s saddest thing ever!" Others like Barbara Colasanti think the expensive gourmet chain—started by Italian immigrant Louis Balducci in 1946—only has itself to blame: "They priced themselves out of the market, it was hubris... Do you really need chipotle raspberry finishing sauce? What is finishing sauce? People don’t need all this stuff. It’s a lesson." It's unclear what fate awaits the spaces formerly occupied by Balducci's, but the Voice reports that stores in other locations have been sold to an investor group, and D.C.'s lone Balducci's will close at the end of June. more ›

The upscale gourmet grocery Balducci's is closing its two NYC locations. The Post reports that Lincoln Center-area West 66th location and the 17,000-square-foot store on Eighth Avenue at 14th Street will shutter at the end of April. Back in 2003, the longtime Balducci's location on 6th Avenue at 8th Street closed, after the store was sold to a larger supermarket chain, Sutton Place, after some Balducci family in-fighting. But now Sutton Place is closing other Balducci's locations—one in Ridgefield, CT and one in DC—a Balducci's marketing director told the Danbury Times, "Right now we are restructuring our company. We had to close some of our under-performing stores." Perhaps the store's prices weren't helping these days: The Post article leads with, "There will be two fewer places for Big Apple foodies to buy $39.99-a-pound triple-cream goat cheese and $23.99-per-pound veal chops" while a 2003 NY Times reader wrote, "If you wanted to spend $6 on a jar of imported marmalade that could be had for $4 elsewhere, then Balducci's was the store for you." more ›

Chanukah may not be the holiest of days on the Jewish calendar, but we don't think eating pork products is allowed. Still, NancyKay Shapiro found that Balducci's is touting the deliciousness of various hams for the Festival of Lights. She writes that the gesture seems to be from the "the Monumental Cluelessness, Well-Meaning Division." If you're celebrating Chanukah, what are you eating? We're planning on eating pounds of greasy latkes with equal amounts of... more ›