The challenge: Decades of upgrades in under a year

Tetta’s Market went dark in the summer of 2018, leaving little more than a handwritten note as explanation for curious passersby in the hamlet of Samsonville, New York, itself a part of the town of Olive. By the summer of 2019, a lot had changed.

Primo Stropoli, the grandson of the owners, had taken over the store in the wake of their passing. Primo was officially the 4th-generation owner of Tetta’s Market.

And he had inherited a beloved local gas station and convenience store that was a product of its time—and in many ways, a relic of the previous century. Primo and his father, Richard Stropoli, handled the lion’s share of the renovations themselves in the span of a year, from the summer of 2019 and a grand reopening in the spring of 2020.

But Primo realized that his biggest challenge wasn’t remodeling the physical space—it was modernizing his grandparents’ approach to running a business. Payroll and finances were purely physical, the equivalent of keeping receipts in an old coffee can.

From cash registers to payroll to bathrooms, Primo had to find solutions and install them from scratch.

“It was a really steep learning curve in the first couple of years,” says Primo. “My grandparents never hired outside of the family, so they never had to deal with payroll or time clocks or scheduling—any of that stuff. In the very beginning, we would keep track of when my employees were working using tacks and little pieces of paper that they’d stick to the wall in the back.”

As Primo and his family worked to update the fundamentals of Tetta’s Market, he also took this opportunity to expand their offerings in a big way.

He added a hot food counter serving breakfast sandwiches, a deli counter, a pizzeria, and a sit-down eating area. He converted part of the store into a space for live events, held almost monthly at this point.

But every addition expanded the scope of his duties as a manager and owner. He would need a dedicated pizza maker. He would need a kitchen manager to handle everything from menu creation to ordering inventory. Eventually, an accountant would join the roster. Plus, he needed the usual rotation of part-time workers that you expect in retail and food service.

“After 3 months of being open, we were like: ‘Okay, we need to hire our first employee,’” says Primo. “Fast forward another year, and we have half a dozen employees. And then you’ve got to pay them. And then you’ve got to keep track of when they’re there. I didn’t know what I didn’t know.”

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But Primo was nothing if not a quick study. He learned to identify the biggest need in the moment, and prioritized finding the right solution. He updated their antique cash registers in 2021, moving Tetta’s Market to Clover as their first-ever digital POS system.

Every other aspect of the business now loomed as a close second, but Primo identified timesheets as a major issue—their timesheets rarely matched the hours scheduled for each week, and a more accurate system could increase accuracy and save money.

But once Primo found a solution for timesheets, he’d need one for scheduling. And payroll. And taxes. And recruiting. “You’re putting out fires as they arise,” says Primo. “And you’re wasting so much time on something that’s so frivolous.”

Through Clover, Primo discovered an app that offered time clock features while integrating with the POS his team was already using: Homebase. He tried it out, and liked what he saw. After dabbling with Gusto for a couple of weeks, he decided to adopt Homebase for payroll as well.

That’s when the plan came together.

“It’s hard to put a number on it, but I’m saving hundreds of hours. Once you include all the little things I could get sucked into that Homebase is just taking care of, it’s saving me a whole lot of time.”

— Primo Stropoli, Owner of Tetta's Market

The solution: Growing a business without the pain

Primo found Homebase organically, but stuck with it because it made sense for Tetta’s Market, it worked, and it made his life easier almost immediately.

“I wanted to give my employees a centralized professional platform to communicate,” says Primo. “Just having a place they can access so that we’re all on the same page when it comes to scheduling and requesting time off, and even messaging each other.”

Communication is key for Tetta’s Market—it sits at the heart of a small community, but people are still fairly spread out from one another. Employees could be driving 20 to 30 minutes both ways just to get to work, so everything Primo can do to ensure their time is respected helps everyone feel informed and empowered.

His full-time employees (about half of his staff of 8 to 14 depending on the season) have a salary that needs to be paid on time, but they also require Primo to follow specific state tax compliance regulations. Now, the fundamentals can be logged and tracked automatically, ready for their accountant come tax time. 

But the centralized nature of Homebase helps Primo look out for his part-time workers, too. Like many other businesses in the food industry, Primo acknowledges that turnover is pretty common for his part-time workers. Since 2020, Tetta’s Market has seen 60 or more workers come and go—but through Homebase, he’s always recruiting and adding potential new hires to the pool.

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Renovating and reopening Tetta’s Market was a huge task in and of itself. But Primo’s decision to expand its scope to become a wider community hub represents his vision and passion for taking over the family business to begin with.

“Homebase has filled a lot of voids and demands. And we try to do the same at Tetta’s Market.”

— Primo Stropoli, Owner of Tetta's Market

The impact: Hundreds of hours saved, payroll done in 5 minutes

Primo has no illusions about the challenges facing a small business like Tetta’s Market—like the increase in seasonal residents in his community, or how much more time and labor would be required to run the food service part of the business. Every change and addition he makes comes with new variables to consider and unforeseen problems to solve.

“I have a lot of grey hairs. I don’t get a lot of sleep,” says Primo. “But I’d be getting even less sleep without Homebase. Part of the reason I like Homebase is that it’s always changing and evolving.”

By delegating key parts of daily operations to his full-time employees, Primo was able to match their better-defined roles with new job titles, creating a path for continual growth for his entire team. And Homebase’s integration with Clover allows Primo to quickly verify the timesheets for his part-time employees without needless back-and-forth and wasted time for all involved.

His payroll process has been transformed: What used to take hours of menial data entry and comparison is now handled in 5 minutes a week, all while auto-populating the tax forms Primo shares with his accountant.

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While Tetta’s Market gets busier and more complex with each new chapter in Primo’s growth plan—coordinating and booking monthly live events is a recent example—he’s able to commit to these changes because of all the room to grow he has made thanks to Homebase.

“It’s hard to put a number on it, but I’m saving hundreds of hours,” says Primo. “Once you include all the little things I could get sucked into that Homebase is just taking care of, it’s saving me a whole lot of time. Monetarily? It’s priceless in terms of time and money saved, and even when it comes to hiring people.”

“Tetta’s is the town center.”

Primo Stropoli quite literally built his vision of Tetta’s Market with his own two hands—with plenty of help from family, friends, and his growing team of employees. His renovations, modernizations, and expansions to the family business were made with that community in mind and a strong sense of what they wanted and needed.

“We all have this internal compass leading us in a direction,” Primo says. “There has to be something there that you’re passionate about—especially in the last couple of years. You have to do everything as a small business owner. Otherwise, you’re gonna get chewed up and spit out.”

But it isn’t just passion and a strong compass that keeps Primo moving forward; he wants Tetta’s Market to stand the test of time for his neighbors and customers—and for its future owners.

“I would love for there to be a 5th generation of family owners,” Primo admits. “But to get there, we need to continue to foster our relationship with the community, and be the hub that the area needs, because there’s nothing else around.”

It’s a responsibility he continues to take seriously—but now, he’s got the right tools for the job.

“Homebase has filled a lot of voids and demands,” Primo says. “And we try to do the same at Tetta’s Market.”