Experiences For Foodies → Strategy Used by Eataly®

Listen to the customer retention strategy used by Eataly®.

Founders. You’ve probably heard of Eataly, the Italian marketplace founded in Italy in 2007. Listen to host André Brathwaite share the backstory of how founder Oscar Farinetti turned his passion into a lasting brand that uses a customer retention strategy: Hobby-driven experiences, including locations (Eataly Stores in multiple cities) and activities (events, cooking classes, and market tours in Italy and other global cities).

Listening to this episode is just one of the many ways we at Forms of Recreation provide founders with the strategy to turn one-time buyers into repeat customers.

The opinions expressed are solely those of Forms of Recreation and do not necessarily reflect the views of any brand mentioned. We encourage you to check their corresponding websites for further information.

• Transcript

  Episode 41

  Experiences For Foodies → Strategy Used by Eataly®

  ____

  Most food retailers compete on convenience.
  More products.
  Lower prices.
  Faster checkout.

  Eataly took a different path.

  They slowed people down.

  Instead of treating food as something to grab and go,
  they treated eating as something to sit and savor,

  something to lean into,
  something to learn from.

  They didn’t reward people for buying more.

  They gave them reasons
  to understand more.

  And that decision didn’t just pull customers in.

  It built retention.

  Because if Eataly had optimized for speed,
  they would’ve become a typical grocery store—
  visited out of necessity,
  not intention.

  Instead, they gave people something worth returning to:
  the joy of eating.

  OPENING REFLECTION — HOBBY AS RECREATION (2 minutes)

  Picture a long table.

  Flour on your hands.
  Ingredients laid out—
  not for efficiency,
  but to keep you present.

  You dice fresh San Marzano tomatoes

  You boil the Pappardelle pasta

  This is just the beginning  

  as you prepare your Ragu alla Bolognese

  You taste as you go.

  Does it need more salt?
  How’s the texture?
  Should you turn up the heat?

  Cooking asks for your attention.

  Eating what has been cooked

  brings out your curiosity.

  You notice differences—
  between regions,
  between ingredients,
  between techniques.

  Why does this tomato taste sweeter?
  Why does this pasta hold sauce better?

  You start asking better questions.

  This isn’t consumption.

  It’s participation.

  And once you learn how to eat this way,

  you don’t go back
  to just feeding yourself.

  You seek better ingredients.
  Better preparation.
  Better understanding.

  You return—
  not because you’re hungry,
  but because you’re curious.

  That belief—
  that food is something you enjoy, not just consume—

  is exactly how Eataly was built.

  ____

  Oscar Farinetti was born in 1954.

  He grew up in a town named Alba,
  found in a region of Italy known for its gastronomy—
  wine, truffles, and agriculture: Piemonte.

  The Farinetti family had a long history
  of making pasta.

  Even the surname traces back
  to the Italian word for flour.

  His father, Paolo,
  expanded the family pasta business
  into a grocery store.

  Then added a pasta factory.

  Followed by a coffee roasting workshop.

  Oscar didn’t hear about his dad’s business.

  He grew up inside it.

  Ingredients.
  Production.
  Customers.

  All in one place.

  Until his dad did an unusual yet successful pivot.

  He opened a warehouse for clothing and linens,

  which made a gradual shift towards household appliances,

  far removed from pasta making.

  Oscar helped transform it into one of Italy's largest electronics retailers.

  And then, he sold it.

  Most would stop there.

  He didn’t.

  He went looking again.

  Not for another category.

  For a better question.

  Food in Italy—
  arguably one of the richest culinary cultures in the world—

  was being reduced
  to convenience.

  Supermarkets were growing.

  But knowledge was shrinking.

  He was looking to return to his roots.

  His family’s legacy.

  Around this time,
  he became involved in the

  Slow Food movement,
  founded by his friend

  Carlo Petrini.

  The philosophy was clear:

  Protect local producers.
  Preserve biodiversity.
  Respect how food is made.

  It was a counter-position
  to industrial food.

  Before launching anything,
  he traveled across all 20 regions of Italy.

  To find producers.

  Small ones,

  Who cared about their craft.

  People who knew their product.

  What he saw was the gap.

  So in 2007,
  he opened the first Eataly
  in Turin.

  Not a supermarket.

  Not a restaurant.

  A place where food could be:

  Bought.
  Eaten.
  And learned.

  He didn’t build it
  to sell more food.

  He built it
  for people to experience the joy of Italian gastronomy.

  ____

  Here’s what most food retailers miss.

  If the act of enjoying food is the hobby,

  you need places
  that supports what hobbyists practice.

  Eataly built them.

  Start with the stores.

  Eataly stores

  These aren’t optimized for speed.

  They’re designed for exploration.

  You walk through regions and sections.

  Pasta.
  Cheese.
  Wine.

  Each section tells a story.

  You don’t just grab products.

  You learn context in a marketplace setting.

  Then comes
  La Scuola di Eataly.

  Cooking classes.

  Hands-on.

  You don’t watch.

  You participate.

  You make pasta.
  You taste wine.
  You understand pairings.

  And then the events:

  – Wine tastings
  – Chef-led dinners
  – Market tours
  – Ingredient deep dives

  This is where the strategy locks in.

  Eataly doesn’t rely on hunger.

  Hunger is temporary.

  They rely on curiosity.

  Curiosity compounds.

  Because once someone learns:

  – Why one olive oil tastes different from another
  – How pasta should be cooked
  – What makes a wine pair correctly

  They can’t unlearn it.

  They return to improve.

  That creates the loop:

  1. Learn how to taste.

  2. Experience quality.

  3. Understand differences.

  4. Return to refine.

  Most grocery stores sell ingredients.

  Eataly nurtures foodies.

  ____

  Here’s the choice Eataly made
  that most food brands avoid.

  They built a business
  with the conviction that customers
  want to learn.

  They didn’t simplify food
  to move faster.

  They made it more complex
  to go deeper.

  Most retailers train customers
  to shop quickly.

  Eataly trains them
  to eat intentionally.

  And once someone learns gastronomy,

  they don’t drift easily.

  Because people don’t return to products.

  They return to identities.

  You can sell convenience.

  Or you can cultivate taste.

  One creates transactions.

  The other creates customer retention.

  ____

  If loyalty disappears when convenience wins,
  it was never loyalty.

  Give customers a reason to return:
  hobby-driven experiences that make people feel alive.

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