Giada De Laurentiis pushes Giadzy from online pantry into grocery stores

Why it matters

Giadzy is testing whether a founder's media audience can become a lasting grocery customer base. Retail gives De Laurentiis wider distribution, while exposing Giadzy to tighter margins, less customer data and store-by-store performance pressure.

Giada De Laurentiis is spending much of her workday on the unglamorous mechanics of turning Giadzy from an online Italian pantry into a retail grocery brand: importing, inventory, finance, shelf placement and store-level marketing.

The 55-year-old founder told Business Insider that Giadzy is stocked in a few Southern California grocery stores and that she visits locations to inspect where its products sit and create content. De Laurentiis described the retail expansion as feeling like "building a new business."

That shift is operationally significant, though it is not a new pivot. Giadzy announced expanded distribution on January 28th, 2025, naming Amazon, Goldbelly and select Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale's and Erewhon stores. Eighteen months later, De Laurentiis' schedule shows how much founder attention the move still requires.

The store visits also mark an inversion of the operating model that made De Laurentiis famous. Food Network put her recipes in front of a national audience beginning with "Everyday Italian" in 2003. Giadzy must now persuade shoppers to notice a box of pasta among competing products, buy it without watching her cook first and return after the celebrity association wears off.

From television distribution to owned distribution

De Laurentiis entered food media after training at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and working in Los Angeles kitchens, including Wolfgang Puck's Spago. A National Italian American Foundation biography says she had previously studied anthropology at UCLA and later worked as a food stylist before Food Network recruited her.

Her television career eventually gave De Laurentiis the audience needed to start building a channel she controlled. Giadzy began as a recipe, video and travel platform before adding imported foods and private-label pantry products. Giadzy's official site dates the platform's launch to 2017.

In a 2021 interview, De Laurentiis said she created Giadzy because Food Network remained the primary route between her and her viewers. The network had its own brand and a large roster of personalities to support, leaving limited room to build her independent online operation.

"I decided that I was going to do it myself," De Laurentiis said. She initially funded Giadzy herself and acknowledged that inventory and shipping would eventually make outside financing difficult to avoid.

That prediction proved accurate. Defy led a $5 million financing in March 2023, and CB Insights lists $5.8 million in total funding from investors including Defy, Watertower Ventures and BAM Ventures. Defy's account of its investment centers on De Laurentiis' audience and storytelling ability, the same assets Giadzy is trying to convert into a durable consumer-products brand.

Retail changes the founder's job

Direct-to-consumer commerce gave Giadzy control over its site, merchandising, customer relationship and product storytelling. Retail introduces a different set of gatekeepers and costs. Giadzy must secure buyers, manage wholesale inventory, maintain imported supply, support store launches and compete for shelf position. Retailers also own much of the transaction data that would flow directly to Giadzy through an online order.

De Laurentiis' current routine reflects that change. Her mornings are filled with calls on importing, inventory, marketing and finance. Afternoons can include grocery-store inspections and content production. She also sets aside time each week for restaurant performance calls and travels roughly twice a month to restaurants in Las Vegas, Chicago or Scottsdale, according to the Business Insider account.

Giadzy is entering stores with a broader catalog than the marketplace De Laurentiis first self-funded. Giadzy launched eight private-label organic pasta products in July 2023 and said the assortment more than tripled during 2024. By January 2025, the range included gluten-free pasta, canned tomatoes, olive oil, salts and spice blends, alongside imported products from other producers.

The assortment carries premium pricing. Giadzy listed organic pasta at $11, gluten-free pasta at $9.50 and canned tomatoes at between $7.50 and $8.50 in January 2025. That pricing supports the Italian sourcing and specialty positioning, while narrowing the group of stores and shoppers Giadzy can realistically pursue.

Giadzy also sells a paid membership that bundles lower prices, shipping benefits and exclusive recipes and travel material with the commerce operation. Giadzy claimed in January 2025 that membership had grown 377% since the second quarter, without disclosing the number of members at either end of that period. Current revenue, gross margin, customer count and retail sell-through remain undisclosed.

The shelf is the test

De Laurentiis gives Giadzy an acquisition channel most grocery founders would have to buy through advertising. Her recipes, restaurant work and decades on television can introduce products repeatedly and show customers how to use them. Giadzy can also connect a pantry item to recipes and videos rather than relying entirely on packaging.

Physical retail tests whether that attention translates into purchase frequency. A celebrity-backed product can win an initial order or a favorable meeting with a buyer. Reorders depend on velocity, margins and whether customers treat the product as a pantry staple instead of merchandise tied to a public figure.

De Laurentiis appears to understand how local that test becomes. Checking placement in Southern California stores is far removed from hosting a national cooking show, yet it is the work that determines whether Giadzy earns more shelf space. Her public profile opened the door. The next phase depends on what happens in the aisle.