Hershey is a town of tourists and transplants.
It’s also a town with a short, yet rich history whose population was once two-thirds Italian American. It’s the third-, fourth- and fifth-generation natives who help to foster the sense of community in what can otherwise seem like a town of strangers.
No place better exudes community and caring than Pronio’s Market, a downtown staple located at the corner of Caracas Avenue and Valley Road. In a country that has watched downtowns morph from busy centers of life to empty streets, Pronio’s has remained an anomaly as a small, family-owned anchor of community.
Since 1983, Mike Pronio has run the store, taking over from his father, Vincent, who took over from his father, Michele, who founded it in 1919.
So, exactly what kind of store is Pronio’s? It’s a taste of Italy, with a touch of central Pa.
Locally, Pronio’s is famous for its specialties, which are made in-house. These include sausages, deli salads, strombolis, meatballs, meatloaf, ham loaf and baked goods. The meats are cut and ground fresh seven days a week, and local produce is stocked when available.
Pronio’s son, James, has procured products from five different Italian specialty vendors, including cheeses, sauces and other goodies from DiBruno Brothers, the large South Philadelphia Italian specialty purveyor. Shelves also feature goods from other local cooks and bakers including Thom’s Bread from Lancaster, Chocolates by Tina Marie in Hummelstown and Handmade Pasta by Jean Marie.
“People aren’t going to come here for Cheerios and Bounty towels,” Mike Pronio said.
Incredible Place
While many families might plan trips to grandma’s house or the Caribbean over Christmas, the Pronio children fly across the country to help their dad run the store during its busiest time. With a two-fold customer rush, Pronio’s four adult children help to fill the gaps, doing everything from manning the register to helping their dad make sausage until 2 or 3 in the morning on Christmas Eve.
“I don’t know what we would do without them,” Pronio said of daughter Ellen who lives in Colorado, son James who lives locally, daughter Natalie in New York, and son Matthew in Texas. “They make the pilgrimage every year to help out over the holidays.”
None of this is lost on filmmaker Michael Accorsi, whose fondest memories are childhood visits from his Baltimore-area home to his Italian grandmother in Hershey when she would line him up with grocery orders from all of her friends, sending him back and forth to Pronio’s to fill their requests.
“When I think of the old times, it’s Pronio’s,” Accorsi said. “I’ve got to tell that story. It’s such an incredible little place.”
So, he did, in a 30-minute film, “Pronio’s: A Cornerstone of Hershey History,” which came out in July.
The film opens and ends with owner Mike Pronio helping customers to their cars and loading grocery bags. Baggers offer to take groceries to the cars for every customer at Pronio’s, rain or shine. No job is too small for the owner, and it carries through to all of his staff.
Deli workers not only slice the meats and cheeses, they also prepare the salads, strombolis and soups from family recipes.
Shelley Dohner, who started at Pronio’s at age 19 and now has been there for 40 years, is Mike’s right-hand person. She orders for the whole store, deals with specialty vendors, and prices the goods, does most of the computer work, schedules, unloads trucks, runs the cash register, bakes and hops into the deli if it’s short-handed.
“If I would get run over by a truck, the store would be fine,” Pronio said. “If she [Dohner] would get run over by a truck tomorrow, I would throw the keys away and say, ‘I’m leaving.’ She knows this store from one end to the other. That kind of sense of responsibility is just hard to find.”
Just as Pronio praises his employees, particularly for showing up whether rain, snow or COVID, they return the love of the workplace he has created.
“It is pretty much a family atmosphere,” Dohner said, explaining that her nephew works as a butcher, her best friend is a deli worker, she’s known another worker since high school, and Betty Bracale, a cashier for 31 years, “is just like another sister to me.”
Bracale tried to retire five years ago, but that lasted fewer than three months.
“I didn’t have anybody to talk to,” she said, noting her close relationships with customers. “I had a lady come in. Her mom had passed away. I asked her how she was doing, and she said, ‘I had to come in for a Betty hug.’ I’m a hugger. If you see me walking around and going to the side, they know a hug is coming.”
Pronio also employs people with disabilities. He works with Hershey and Lower Dauphin School districts to help young people in need of more supervision acclimate to the world outside of school. Many of them stay on or return as employees.
“Some of them become part of the fixtures here,” Pronio said.
Heart of Gold
Pronio’s retains all the values of a store three generations strong.
“It’s never lost its core identity from what it was on day one,” said longtime patron John Dunn.
He noted that the family has always helped those in need with credit and care packages. Most recently, Pronio’s has been collecting donations of money and clothing for Ukraine. Mike Pronio also sends frequent care packages to those in the military.
“They are like family because of their heart of gold,” Dunn said. “They are so unselfish and sensitive to the needs of those that truly need.”
Philanthropy, great service and attention to customer desires set Pronio’s apart.
“This store shouldn’t be here,” Pronio said. “Where do you find the store that has the whole selection of things you need in one stop? The people in this town seem to want to see this store survive. They support us; we support them.”
Stop almost any Pronio’s regular, and they will echo what Ernie Accorsi—Michael’s dad and former general manager of the Baltimore Colts, Cleveland Browns and New York Giants—said in the film: “We should be thanking them.”
Pronio’s Market is located at 236 W. Caracas Ave., Hershey. For more information, visit www.pronios.com. To view the film about Pronio’s, go to https://vimeo.com/843728222.
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