The large businesses in the area of Taylor and Halsted carried the greatest selection of the huge variety of products which Italian entrepreneurs had begun to import from Italy. The firm of "Bragno and Mustari, Importers and Wholesalers of Italian and other foreign food products" was an example of the size of these new enterprises. Formerly located at 718 S. Halsted, by 1919 Bragno and Mustari had relocated to a four-story building on the southwest corner of Halsted and Forquer. "It is one of the finest and most pretentious business structures in that part of the city," reported the trade journal Banker, Merchant and Manufacturer, "occupying the basement, a part of the first floor, and all three floors above with 50 feet of frontage on Halsted and 120 on Forquer." [116]

A list of prices for both domestic and imported olive oils and macaroni in the 1900 issue of The Modern Grocer suggests that the cost difference between the two was great. Yet, Italian imports were trusted and desired because they came from "home" where many Italians believed the foods were fresher, more wholesome, and trustworthy. A study of the Cinisi colony in New York suggests how enterprising Italians could profit from this nostalgia.

Now and then some Cinisarian takes his chances in the business world. He writes to his relatives in Cinisi, has oil, wine, and figs, lemons, nuts, etc., sent to him, and then he goes from house to house. He does not enter in a business way, but goes to visit some family, talks about Cinisi, then informs them that he has received some produce from the home town. And sure enough, the people will say, "You will let us get some, eh?" [117]

Yet, success in the import business required contacts in Italy, familiarity with both Italian and American business practices and import regulations, and enough capital to import stock in quantity. In Chicago, many of the successful importers entered the business after a series of jobs had exposed them to the business world. John Garibaldi, as noted above, began as a fruit peddler before establishing a commission house on South Water Street "representing some of the best Houses of Europe in Cheese, Olive Oil, Wine, and Liquors." A. Paris was the son of a sheep broker in Aquila, Abruzzi when he migrated to American at the age of nineteen. He worked as a lumberjack, whale hunter, and coal miner before the entered the retail food business in Chicago as an $8.00 a week grocery clerk in 1916. By 1921, he had founded the A. Paris Cheese Company and in 1924 reorganized it as an import company, not only for Italian foods but for imports from Spain, France, and Greece. [118]

Robert Foerster, a professor of economics at Princeton, credited emigration from Italy with fostering not only a market for imported goods, but also Italy's ability to supply those goods. "Wherever Italians have gone," he wrote, "they have been followed by supplies of fruit, wine, oil, olives, garlic, cheeses, macaroni, and other products." Production of such items as cheese from Moliterno was spurred by the existence of new markets in America. Returned emigrants, he speculated, were probably in the forefront of recognizing the existence of possible markets in countries receiving large numbers of immigrants and in establishing new enterprises within Italy to satisfy these markets. The ability to transport these products was enhanced by the boom in ship building and the expansion of Italian ports in cities such as Genoa and Naples, which Foerster saw as the direct result of large scale emigration from Italy. [119]

There was money to be made in imported products and import firms were some of the most lucrative businesses in the Italian community. Importers not only filled the shelves of both large and small stores with imported cheeses, olive oils, macaroni and tomato pastes but also shipped their products throughout the country and imported items from places other than Italy. Parodi, Erminio and Company, opened a branch at 236 N. Clark in 1918. The company also had branches in New York and San Francisco, a canning factory in New York and a dairy in California. The West Indies Fruit Importing Company, founded by Italians, imported from 850,000 to 1,000,000 cases of pineapple a year, primarily from Cuba, with a business of between $3 to $4 million per year. Andrea Russo and Company was established in 1883 and was located in the Haymarket. They imported and wholesaled Italian products with an annual business of about $3 million. Antonio Lombardo and Company did a $115,000 per month business, also in the import and wholesaling of Italian products. The Italian Importing and Manufacturing Company, Peter Maggiore and Brothers, Fontana Importing Company, Lo Presti Brothers, Garofalo Brothers, and V. Formusa and Company were among the large import firms in Chicago at the end of the 1920s. [120]

Importers and wholesalers ranked among the most organized and most aggressive of Italian businesses. According to Foerster, the Italian Chambers of Commerce in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco were "composed to an extraordinary degree, of bankers, fruit and wine merchants, and importers of fruits, wines, oil, and raw silk." Chicago's Italian Chamber of Commerce (CICC) was established in 1907 aided by Guido Sabetta, the Italian consul at Chicago, with the aim of acquainting local stores with the products of Italy and assisting the growth of commerce between Italy and Chicago. Two South Water Street Wholesalers, a candy manufacturer, and Alessandro Mastro-Valerio, editor of La Tribuna, constituted the provisional committee, which helped establish the organization. [121]

In the CICC, Italians joined together to promote and protect their businesses. The CICC supplied both Italian and Italian-American exporters with contact lists for each country, assisted in matching up suppliers with buyers, and exhibited Italian product samples in its offices. Not only was it a source of information on customs regulations and on the standing of various companies and firms, but the CICC also vigorously lobbied the Italian and American governments for import and export policies favoring its members. During World War I, domestic Italian-style products had been given a boost by the scarcity of imports during the war and American-made macaroni and California-grown fruits and vegetables offered strong competition to high-priced Italian imports. The CICC warned both importers and exporters about American companies using the absence of Italian imports during the war as an opportunity to promote their own products to the detriment of Italian commerce and reputation. They telegraphed the Minister of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce in Rome asking for the repeal of an order prohibiting the export of cheese and sought the cooperation of Italian Chambers of Commerce in repealing a ban on the exportation of tomato preserves. [122]

They also were not unwilling to take their compatriots on either side of the ocean to task in affairs that would affect or improve their business. Italian companies were berated for their unwillingness to spend money on advertising or attractive packaging while import merchants who mixed linseed oil with imported olive oil were warned of the strict federal laws on food adulteration. In the post-war years, the CICC protested increases in tariffs for items of "absolute necessity" such as lemons, olive oil ("an article of prime necessity for our population and not a luxury as it is considered in some quarters"), macaroni, tomato paste, nuts, beans, mushrooms, and preserved meats." [123]