John Catsimatidis
John Catsimatidis
John A. Catsimatidisis a Greek-American billionaire businessman and radio talk show host. He is the owner, president, chairman, and CEO of Gristedes Foods, the largest grocery chain in Manhattan, and the Red Apple Group, a real estate and aviation company with about $700 million to $800 million in holdings in New York, Florida, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Catsimatidis also owns the Hellenic Times, a Greek-American newspaper based in Manhattan. He is also the chairman and CEO of the Red...
NationalityGreek
ProfessionBusinessman
Date of Birth7 September 1948
I'm not ashamed of being successful. You know, they criticized Romney for being ashamed of it. I think we've got to inspire our kids that we shouldn't be ashamed to be successful.
I'm not a Johnny-come-lately Jew. I've been around. I watch out for the Jews; I watch out for the Catholics.
I just want to reflect the respect I have for animals.
New York never felt the recession. New York never felt a depression.
New York is for everybody; it's for the poor, it's for the middle-class, it's for the wealthy. We can't punish any one group and chase them away.
I started in the supermarket business in the early '70s. And by '75, '76, I realized you don't have a business unless you own the real estate.
It seems everyone knows the value of a cantaloupe or a quart of milk.
Anytime you cut food stamps, it naturally affects sales. People spend less.
We have to draw the line someplace with all the pesticides being used by the farmers.
The reason I grew so fast in the supermarket business, without help of the banks in those days, was through my vendors. I convinced my vendors, the companies I was doing business with, if I did more business, they would do more business.
Bill Clinton told me that when he was 14, he shook John Kennedy's hand, and that inspired him to be president.
You have to work at everything. You've got to make it work.
What transpired at Semgroup was no less than a $500 billion fraud on the people of the world.
Everyone - whether it's the Jews, the Greeks, the Catholics - everybody is entitled to religious beliefs and entitled to their traditions.