Established since 1932 at 55 boulevard Graziani, the family business has accompanied the development of the district and resisted the changes in activity in the city center. From the golden age of small business to the Covid crisis, the simple and extraordinary story of a Bastia institution
1932. Year of disasters. To Bastia, a room in the courthouse collapsed in the middle of the assize trial, killing seventeen people. In Paris, a Russian activist assassinates the President of the Republic Paul Doumer. In Germany, the Nazi party wins the legislative elections, a crucial step in its conquest of power. But in the family Life annuitieswe have very different memories of this chaotic vintage.
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It was that year that Bruno and Maria gave birth to Serge, the eldest of their three children. And it was that year that they opened, at number 55 boulevard Graziani, a grocery store that had become, nine decades later, a veritable institution in Bastia.
Arrived with his wife from the Tuscan village of Ponte Buggianese, a few years earlier, Bruno first worked as a baker, in Arena Vescovato, then as a market gardener, near Arinella. As often, it is a meeting that will change everything. “It was Mr. Giansily, winegrower in Vescovato and prominent personality, who convinced my father to open a shop to sell his wine, Serge explains. That’s how the story began.”
In its early days, the business was modest. It occupies only half of the current premises – in the other half is installed a Mr. Pucci, repairer of radio sets. It mainly sells wine and oil at retail, and of course, the early vegetables grown by Bruno at Arinella.
“We lived at the grocery store”
The business is modest but it will succeed in its implementation. It will survive the troubled years of the war and function well enough that in 1952, Serge decides to settle alongside his parents and open a grocery store in the premises formerly occupied by the radio repairman. “It was not necessarily the career I was destined for, he confides. I was an apprentice electrician and I had already worked in Dijon in aviation. But my father knew how to convince me, he even helped me to buy the key money. I started even though I knew that, a few months later, I would have to leave for military service.
It must be said that at that time, Boulevard Graziani was a very commercial artery. The district is rather upscale and, nearby, are two poles of the administrative and civil life of the city: the tax office and the Toga hospital.
In the years of prosperity following the war, there were butchers, tobacconists, restaurants, a haberdashery… and up to eight grocery stores. “At the time, we worked well, Serge remembers. The families were large and, as there were no supermarkets, everyone got their supplies from the grocery stores. People often paid monthly and we had few charges. Without being rich, we lived well.”
We work well but we work a lot. The store is open from 4:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., every day of the week, except Sunday afternoon. Behind the cash desk: Serge or his wife Berthe, a Pelletti daughter he married in 1957. “We lived in the southern neighborhoods but we lived almost at the grocery store, remembers Bruno, the son of Serge, current manager of the establishment. In the back room, my father had set up a small kitchen and a place to rest. My sister Yolande and I were educated at the Toga school and at noon we had lunch there.”
French Cup
It’s a bit like the golden age of the grocery store. The time when you can find everything there: Gloria milk, Pax washing powder but also fresh local products, bought at the market or brought directly by the market gardeners of Ville di Pietrabugno. The time when you can still buy dried cod “schjappe”, prickly pears, wild asparagus…“It was a business run by very nice people and it was doing well, remembers Vincent Bonci who was then an usher at a spirits wholesaler and who provided groceries. I mainly went to see them during the holidays, when I sold them wine, rum, liqueurs… They were customers and, later, they became friends. In 1972, Serge and I even went together to see Sporting play in the final of the Coupe de France.”
1972, a rich year at the sporting level and a pivotal year in family history. This is where Bruno, the founder of the family business, retired – he died in 1990. A partition was soon knocked down and the two premises, which had been separate until then, now became one. But the most important turning point undoubtedly took place at the beginning of the 1980s. When Bruno – the grandson – joined the family business.
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Especially at a time when supermarkets are multiplying on the island. An evolution which is manifested in the district by the opening of the “Lion” of Toga. “We were worried and we were not wrong, Serge recalls. Gradually, the street was emptied of its businesses. Grocery stores, butchers, almost all stores have closed. That’s where, in the street, we started to see empty premises.”
“Containment has revived us”
But the Vitalizi grocery store will manage to survive. By adapting and becoming what we now call a local business. A dozen years ago, the store joined the network of a national brand. “It’s very efficient in terms of organization and prices.explains Bruno. However, we continue to work, on certain products, with local suppliers and wholesalers.” The store also becomes a place of services where you can pick up a package or leave luggage in lockers. A capacity for adaptation that allowed him to overcome many obstacles. “Between 2017 and 2019, we had a little sawtooth turnover and I wondered about the continuation, says Bruno. Paradoxically, it was confinement that revived us. People panicked. We were open, we were delivering and they turned to us. The activity took advantage of that and then it held up.”
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This is how, 90 years after its opening, the business is still there. This is how, at 90, Serge Vitalizi continues to take his car every morning to be there at 4:30 a.m. and ensure the opening of the grocery store. A story both simple and extraordinary that should continue for a few more years. “I don’t think we’ll go to 100 years, warns Bruno, however. I have two daughters who have studied and I don’t think they will take over. The business may be sold if there is a buyer, but it must be someone brave because it is a difficult job.
But before tackling this new deadline, the Vitalizi will first celebrate. A small aperitif on sunny days with parents, friends and customers. History, all the same, to mark the occasion.
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