Holiday Market, a 70-year-old family-owned gourmet grocery store located at 1203 S. Main St. ( just south of downtown Royal Oak), is entering a new chapter today as siblings and owners and operators Tom Violante Jr., and Gina Mangold, along with her husband, Craig, announce their successors, brothers Johnny and Matthew Shouneyia.
Founded by the late Tom Violante Sr. in 1954 as a small neighborhood butcher shop and specialty store, Holiday Market has grown to a 60,000-square-foot marketplace from a 2,500-square-foot space.
Over the years, the Violante family added expanded offerings and features, including catering, chef-prepared meals to-go, a smokehouse, and Mirepoix, a hands-on cooking school. The store got its name from the movie, “Roman Holiday,” which was a favorite film of Tom and Janet Violante Sr.
The ownership transition will formally take place in the coming weeks, with no changes planned for the store’s operations. As the new owners, the Shouneyias plan to retain all employees and deliver on the same level of service shoppers have come to know over the years. Violante and Mangold will continue to operate Mirepoix.
“Holiday Market has been part of our family for 70 years, a milestone we celebrated earlier this year, and Gina and I have been committed to preserving our dad’s core values and maintaining the legacy he built for this community for more than 25 years as we operated the store,” says Violante Jr.
“Johnny and Matthew believe in the same values that have been guiding our operations since day one, and with their care for their employees and the community, and their proven experience as grocers, the future of Holiday Market is bright and we look forward to what is ahead.”
Like the Violante siblings, the Shouneyias grew up in the grocery business and followed in their father’s footsteps to build a portfolio of stores they own and operate today, including Value Center Marketplace stores in Clinton Township and Madison Heights, and Johnny Pomodoro’s in Farmington Hills.
The Shouneyias assumed the role of owners and operators of the Holiday Market Canton location one year ago, purchasing this sister store from another one of the Violante siblings, Lisa Pardington, and her husband, John, and it was this transition — and the way the brothers seamlessly retained the culture and operations of that location — which led to the deal that adds the Royal Oak location and the Holiday Market Select in Birmingham to their portfolio.
“Johnny and I are family-oriented guys and we intend on carrying on the family traditions of Holiday Market and continuing business as usual,” says Matthew Shouneyia. “We know how important it is for the families who shop in our stores to have a familiar place to come back to again and again, and the same experience people have in Royal Oak or Birmingham today is what they can expect tomorrow and in the years to come.”
For more information, visit holiday-market.com/.
