One Woman Takes Fresh Approach To Market
Eileen Piasecki-Couch was this close to getting her soups and seasonings on supermarket shelves when she learned a hard lesson in big business.
As she was trying to cut a deal with Price Chopper to carry her Pine Island Herb and Spice products, it became clear that the spice market isn’t so easy after all.
“They told me McCormick pays for shelf space and I couldn’t be there because McCormick would be upset,” she said. “I don’t understand that. People want new things.”
But don’t pity Piasecki-Couch. Thanks to her popularity with local shoppers, she’s moved her business out of her Westtown home and into a Pine Island warehouse.
It’s still a one-woman show, but Piasecki-Couch hopes the appeal of a local product will persuade stores like Hannaford Supermarkets to join the Orange County farm markets that already push her products.
A microbiologist, she gave up the work-and-commuter life 17 years ago to spend more time with her children.
It was then she turned her love of cooking into a business. For more than 16 years, home doubled as a shipping center, storeroom and laboratory.
“My family and friends usually bear the brunt of my experiments,” Piasecki-Couch said, though she’s quick to point out that cooking “just comes naturally to me. This is the way my mom cooked. Most people don’t cook anymore and they don’t cook from scratch.”
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