Making New Investments

PWPM Merchants continue to invest in keeping their businesses current. Ryeco has purchased a new warehouse in South Philadelphia. “We modernized it and are using it to support our main store here at the market,” says Filindo Colace of Ryeco. “We hold the bulk of key items there and send them to the market as needed. It enables us to carry more variety of product.”

Nardella’s big commitment this year is its new website. “We are moving to the digital age, having our price list available and doing more via email, including a newsletter,” says RJ Durante. “We are younger in the sense of the digital world but it’s good we are ‘older’ and more seasoned operationally because it enabled us to stay solid in a way we would not have had if we had not had that leadership.”

Ryeco is also working to combine social media and Internet platforms. “We want to give customers online ordering,” says Colace. “That’s our next big project toward differentiating ourselves even more.”

The market itself plans on continuing its Zero Waste initiative in partnership with Natural Upcycling, based in upstate New York. “This company collects organic food waste and turns it into a renewable resource, such as electricity or natural gas, through a process called anaerobic digestion,” says PWPM’s Mark Smith.

PWPM partnered with Natural Upcycling in November of 2019 with the shared goal of using various landfill diversion methods to reduce the PWPM’s waste stream to effectively zero. “To date, we have improved landfill diversion by 50% over last year,” says Smith. “We are striving to reduce carbon dioxide pollution and eliminating the need to send food waste to the landfill, while saving money.”