Digital Services Bring Everyone to the Table
The Scaffidi Restaurant Group is a multi-brand Foodservice Corporation headquartered in Steubenville, Ohio with a variety of concepts within its portfolio, all with the mission to bring the taste of “Grandma’s House on Sunday” to its customers. Run by Frankie DiCarlantonio, his cousins, and their mothers (known as “The Nonnas” to guests), Scaffidi’s prides itself on being a welcoming neighborhood restaurant.
Digital platforms help Frankie and his team engage with customers, so they feel like part of the family, too. Frankie and his cousins share videos and pictures of the Nonnas making fresh pasta sauce on Facebook and Instagram, like all families do. Facebook analytics just lets them know which pictures, videos, and other ads have the largest reach. Google Ads and keyword optimization also ensure that the family name is at the top of search results, and in-video ads on YouTube, so their small business is not overshadowed by chain brands.
Affordable, effective digital tools are crucial to the success of a small business like Scaffidi’s that runs on tight margins and cannot spread large advertising and tech costs over multiple locations and regions like major chains. Frankie appreciates the affordability of high-quality digital services like QuickBooks, ADP, and Slack, and prefers bigger providers for their data collection and integration of cloud storage, email, documents, coupons, advertising, and payments, all at affordable prices.
Even during pandemic lockdowns, the strength of Scaffidi’s digital platforms helped them stay in touch with customers through social media and offer delivery when they couldn’t visit in person – the same way families everywhere were keeping in touch.
Now, Frankie is concerned that policymakers’ attempts to break up Big Tech will hurt small businesses who “prefer having only a few digital services instead of several” and benefit from “having each service provide several functions.” Congress, he says, needs to make sure that “small businesses that lean on digital platforms to succeed are not collateral damage” in any regulations.
