Dave’s Fresh Marketplace may have started as a humble fruit stand on West Shore Road, but now it’s achieved international renown.

Not only did the store, with 10 locations throughout Rhode Island, win a USA Retailer of the Year and Food Innovation awards, it finished in a tie for the Independent Grocers Alliance’s best independent grocery store in the world. The IGA competition included more than 7,700 grocery stores from across five continents in the International Retailer of the Year competition.

“We were shocked by that,” said Susan Budlong, Dave’s director of marketing and communications. “There were so many impressive grocery stores. It was amazing.”

This was Dave’s first year participating in any IGA competitions. Budlong said the company had been encouraged to enter by its wholesaler, Bozzuto’s Inc., which had shown off the store as a model to other independent stores over the last 10 years. Last year, Cesario and Hogan finally relented.

“Both Bill [Hogan, director of business operations] and Dave [Cesario, owner] are very humble guys. As a company, we’re run under the radar, we keep to ourselves, we support our communities and we do the right thing by people,” Budlong said. “These are two guys that try not to make waves, right? They’re not trying to be anything but the best community stewards and be involved … At the time, I think they didn’t realize what a big deal it was. It wasn’t until we went to Vegas and realized that this was a lot of competition and this was a big deal.”

Dave’s tied with Nam Dae Mun Farmer’s Markets, a Korean grocery store with eight locations in the greater Atlanta area, for the international honor.

In his acceptance speech, Hogan said that while local and independent grocers face increasing challenges from national chains, the most important priority for Dave’s has never been focusing on its competition. Rather, it’s been about making Rhode Islanders happy.

“We truly appreciate our customer base,” Hogan said in his acceptance speech. “For 50-plus years, Dave’s and its 10 stores have served Rhode Island well and given our customers clean, vibrant, neighborhood-themed stores loaded with caring staff and impeccably fresh, innovative food departments … Our motto, ‘What’s so hard about being nice?’ has always worked well for us.”

Budlong said that the way that Dave’s makes and prepares its food is unique for a grocery store – making small batches of each of their foods at a time to ensure consistent quality. That preparation, Budlong said, impressed the IGA, and led to Dave’s winning its Food Innovation award.

“We produce everything either through those kitchens or through our central commissary and our scratch bakery,” Budlong said. “That’s very different than an average grocer. Most grocery stores work with vendors that provide some prepared foods for them, but we develop the recipes … I don’t think I could name another grocery store that has a 10,000-square-foot commercial bakery on the premises.”

At the moment, according to Budlong, Dave’s is currently considering things to celebrate the honor, and get the word out to the community.

For now, though, the mood at Dave’s can be summed up in one word: pride.

“Bill and Dave set the tone; we just try to manage it,” Budlong said. “We try to make sure that people feel comfortable, and we want people to feel as though they can shop. We want people to be proud, right? This has made not only our employees tremendously proud, but Bill and Dave tremendously proud of the work they’ve done.”