Tracy Schuhmacher

@RahChaChow

Danny Daniele today accused Wegmans of pulling his family's pasta sauce from its shelves in spite of high customer demand.

"I'm quite certain the Whole Foods project has something to do with it," Daniele said in a telephone interview.

The Daniele family is attempting to develop Whole Foods grocery store and other retail establishments on the former location of Mario’s restaurant and Clover Lanes bowling alley. Wegmans has been among the many voices raising concern about possible traffic snarls in an already congested area, and the Danieles have pointed to the influence from Wegmans as a reason for delays in the project. In January, Daniele said Wegmans was to blame for tanking plans for fast food restaurant Chick-fil-A being a part of the plaza, though Chick-fil-A representatives did not comment on the plans.

"The sauce has always been a top seller in its category with outstanding sales and a huge following growing year after year," Daniele said in the emailed press release. "After over 12 years Wegmans abruptly pulled the sauce from the shelves without as much as a phone call. We knew right away after Wegmans sent letters to the town of Brighton to oppose the Whole Foods project on the old Mario’s Restaurant site it would only be a matter of time before Wegmans would retaliate and remove my father's sauce from their stores."

Wegmans said its decision to pull the products was based on sales.

"How a product performs is our single measure for what stays on our shelves and what goes," Jo Natale, Wegmans vice president of media relations, said in an emailed statement. "When sales of a product decline, as was the case for this product, we stop carrying it in favor of a product that is in greater demand. We discontinued two of the three varieties in August 2016, and discontinued the third variety in January. In both instances, our category merchant immediately notified the distributor, who would have then notified the supplier."

Daniele said that Wegmans recently increased the price of the sauce from $3.99 to $6.99, while not increasing the price it paid for the product. He said the price increase may have been designed to torpedo sales.

According to Wegmans, none of the Mario’s sauce varieties were ever priced above $6.49. They were in line with current pricing for regional specialty sauces; Guglielmo’s sauces are $5.99, In My Father’s Kitchen of Syracuse is $6.99 and Canale’s of Liverpool is $5.99.

Wegmans recently faced a threatened boycott because the Gates-based grocery store chain sells Trump Winery products at its Virginia stores; instead, the products sold out.

"It seems the grocery giant has been choosing sides in recent politics as well, choosing to keep Trump Wines on the shelves while sending Mario, the local immigrant, out in the cold," Daniele's press release said.

Daniele said that Wegmans represented 40 to 60 percent of the sales for Mario's pasta sauce. Without distribution through Wegmans, it will probably discontinue making the sauces, he said.

Tom DiTucci, partner at Honeoye Falls Marketplace and Mendon Marketplace used to order the sauce directly from Mario's restaurant when it was open. He would call the restaurant, and a van would drop off the sauces the next day. When the restaurant closed, he stopped ordering it.

"We didn't have a big call for it," DiTucci said.

Mario’s pasta sauce is still available locally at Herrema's Food Market, 125 Pattonwood Dr., Rubino’s Imported Italian Food, 1304 East Ridge Road in Irondequoit and Bazil Italian Restaurant, 1384 Empire Blvd. in Penfield.

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TracyS@Gannett.com