Why Did the Naples Daily News Run a Photograph of Tarrytowners on its Front Page?

Here's a clue. The photo appeared along with a Feb. 10, 2012 story having as a headline "Shoppers Mob Trader Joe’s First Florida Store as it Opens in Naples." The same photo also appeared on the front page of the Bonita Daily News (an affiliate of the Naples Daily News) on Feb. 11.

Trader Joe's, which has stores locally in Hartsdale, Scarsdale and Larchmont, is known for its specialty foods, Hawaiian-shirted employees, bell-ringing communication between employees, 19-cent bananas and "Two-Buck Chuck" wine (now priced at $2.99 per bottle, available at the new Florida location but not offered at all of its stores). Trader Joe's never runs sales and doesn't accept coupons. .

The Alperts, residents of Tarrytown, were among the early arrivals at the latest addition to the Trader Joe's supermarket/convenience-store chain when it opened on Feb. 10 in North Naples at the Granada Shoppes, 10600 Tamiami Trail North (U.S. 41).

Alpert is an Internet marketing consultant for restaurants in New York, including Il Sorriso in Irvington, and in Florida and Italy. He is also a computer graphics artist known for applying software to give photographs the appearance of oil paintings. His work, based on photos taken during extensive travel through Italy, has decorated the walls of many restaurants in Westchester and Rockland Counties, New York City and upstate New York.

Alpert's pictures also appear in "Salt, Pepper, Love and Creativity," a cookbook written by Marcello Russodivito. Russodivito is the chef and owner of Marcello's in Suffern and the 200-year-old Ho-Ho-Kus Inn in New Jersey.

Alpert was the subject of a posted last year about an Italian actor who came across an Alpert rendition of the actor's childhood home in Priano, Italy while he was visiting the Bread Alone Cafe, a bakery and restaurant in Woodstock, N.Y. The actor, who had not seen his home in 50 years, broke into tears when he happened by chance to see the picture on the wall.

Alpert has held one-man art shows at Zuppa in Yonkers, the in Tarrytown and numerous restaurants. 

Click here to see the opening-day photograph of Marv and Alexa Alpert at Trader Joe's and eleven other related pictures that appeared on the Naples Daily News website. In the front-page photograph, Alexa Alpert is the woman wearing a red sweater and khaki pants at the left of Marv Alpert, the man in the blue shirt. Credit: Greg Kahn/Staff, Naples Daily News.

Click here to see the Naples Daily News story that ran in its Feb. 10 edition.