STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — With the Easter crunch behind them, Staten Island restaurant owners are now taking stock of a development that hits close to home: Sysco’s acquisition of Jetro Restaurant Depot, including the borough’s 64,000‑square‑foot cash‑and‑carry warehouse on South Avenue that many independent operators have come to rely on since it opened almost three year ago.
For local restaurateurs, the deal feels less like distant corporate news than an intensifying reality. It’s a pressure-cooker moment layered onto an already fragile operating environment between the cost of goods and rising labor costs.
Sysco will acquire Jetro Restaurant Depot for $29.1 billion, including debt. The transaction places the warehouse retailer—which began serving Staten Island restaurants in late 2023— under the umbrella of the nation’s largest food distributor…