History
Maceri Produce Wholesale Produce Distributors
History of Maceri Produce
In 1922, Tom Maceri became an independent produce vendor with offices at the Eastern Market supplying produce throughout the streets in Detroit. He went up and down various streets peddling produce to the residents off the truck.
In 1936, Tom Maceri’s son, Sam Maceri, entered the family business at the age of 13, and assisted his father. First thing Sam did was to add the words, “and son” under his fathers name on the truck. He started selling wholesale by selling bushels of cabbage to a store customer and profiting $.50. He thought, wholesale produce is the service that is needed. In 1948, Sam purchased his first new truck.
Servicing Detroit for 74 years
Sam Maceri serviced the wholesale industry at Maceri Produce in Detroit for 74 years in Detroit’s Eastern Market. He did not get his first warehouse until the early 1970’s. His first warehouse was on Green Street near the Detroit Produce Terminal. Then as business expanded, he moved to a warehouse on the Chrysler Freeway service drive near Detroit’s Eastern Market.
Love of the Business
His next warehouse was on Rivard in Detroit's Eastern Market. Sam Maceri’s son Anthony continues to operate Maceri Produce in Detroit's Eastern Market on Russell St. Sam Maceri and his father Tom Maceri's hard work, love of the business will live on in his son and grandsons.
4th Generation Producemen
Anthony worked with his father since 1967 when he started shifting gears on the truck at age 5. In 1976 he was delivering routes in semis before school. His sons, Anthony and Tom Maceri, are the 4th generation producemen in the business carrying on their grandfather's legacy in the wholesale produce industry.
Sam was vice-president of the Detroit Metropolitan Fruit Vendors Association and the Eastern Market Merchants Association.