All in the family

As one generation retires at Guido’s Fresh Marketplace, a younger one takes its place

BY JIM T HERRIEN PITTSFIELD

The rehearsals are over and the curtain has risen on a new — yet quite familiar — team of owners at Guido’s Fresh Marketplace.

On New Year’s Day, management of the popular and consistently crowded Guido’s stores in Pittsfield and Great Barrington formally passed to three members of the Masiero family’s second generation. Brothers Chris and Matt Masiero, who founded Guido’s, officially retired on New Year’s Eve. That’s more than four decades after the brothers opened what was originally a modest fruit and vegetable stand on 1020 South St. not far from Guido’s current Pittsfield store.

“I think in this day and age it is really an anomaly that a business such as ours will go to another generation,” Chris Masiero said recently. “I have a daughter, Anna, who is taking over along with her cousins and my brother’s two children, Nick Masiero and Luke Masiero.”

The kids will be alright, their elders say.

“They know what they are getting into,” Chris said, “and

I believe they are excited; they love the business.

“Being around the Masiero family for 30-to-35 years I think has taught them a whole lot about how the business is run,” Chris added. “Of course, they are taking it over, and I believe they’ll make changes, which they should. I believe that all the changes that they make will be for the better.”

“As far as the kids taking over, they are more than ready, more than capable,” Matt Masiero said. “They can bring Guido’s to another level; I have no doubt about it. I see it in the way they work, in the way they handle customers, in the way they handle staff. They are mature beyond their years.”

The Masiero brothers are both in their 60s (Chris is 2 1/2 years older than Matt). Their children are in their 20s and 30s, around the same ages they were when they started the business.

CHELSEA MARKET

Guido’s — the store is named after Chris and Matt’s father, a former schoolteacher — had