Mercado Gonzalez Northgate opening, "Wegmans" or "Bristol Farms" of Hispanic grocery stores

[ClownLoach]

Northgate is opening a completely new concept this Saturday called Mercado Gonzalez in a converted 70,000 Sq ft Albertsons in Costa Mesa.

The early pictures from a social media influencer preview are hitting tonight and they are are absolutely incredible, about 20 different perimeter service counters and restaurants inside. No exaggerating, it looks like it was modeled after Wegmans or a super sized version of the new Bristol Farms "Newfound Market" concept, with a giant area of food service counters, bakery, deli, meat, seafood, etc. all together. They already had a very high end flagship store in Anaheim that is near upscale neighborhoods like Villa Park that is a impressive and beautiful, clean store, but this looks like an instant contender for the fanciest supermarket in Orange County.

My only concern is that it's in a rough part of Costa Mesa, but at the same time the area is undergoing rapid gentrification as old closed car dealerships and motels are leveled and replaced with luxury condo developments.

For anyone who thinks that the ethnic operators cannot run a first class store, the facts are that they are opening up locations that are far superior to conventional stores in service, selection, freshness, ambiance and cleanliness. This is going to be another example of a store that takes execution to the next level; the sales volumes these stores are doing allow them to staff the stores exceptionally well and thus they're maintaining higher standards than the conventional chains especially in cleanliness in these newer stores.

[veteran+]

I hardly ever disagree with you but.....................

I viewed the photos and it seemed very circus like and chaotic with an orgy of graphics all over the place. And the colors, Loud! Felt like an assault on the eyes and claustrophobic.

Perhaps I was looking at the wrong photographs?

[storewanderer]

I hardly ever disagree with you but.....................

I viewed the photos and it seemed very circus like and chaotic with an orgy of graphics all over the place. And the colors, Loud! Felt like an assault on the eyes and claustrophobic.

Perhaps I was looking at the wrong photographs?

It is color overload in the photos.

But Northgate will execute. They are a strong operator with high standards. They are the gold standard when it comes to Hispanic operators. They will staff well and bring in quality fresh products.

[ClownLoach]

I hardly ever disagree with you but.....................

I viewed the photos and it seemed very circus like and chaotic with an orgy of graphics all over the place. And the colors, Loud! Felt like an assault on the eyes and claustrophobic.

Perhaps I was looking at the wrong photographs?

The colors definitely are bright which is part of the culture, but the building has a extremely high ceiling (like Costco height) so it should be very comfortable. Waiting to see it myself next week but the pictures of the foods at the various counters were impressive. They did a fantastic job in Anaheim several years ago and this just escalates it. It's hard to tell but it looks to me like the exact Wegmans type layout where all those booths, counters, etc are all at one end of the building, and then the aisles are all on the other side with a wall dividing the building.

I'm also waiting to see real professional photographs instead of the constantly moving flat-looking cell phone pictures that make everything look like chaos. The few stills I saw changed the perspective completely and revealed large open spaces. The other social media pictures also had lots of added tables for sampling and such which won't be present in the store once it opens, basically they were running a giant free party. They even had an entire temporary stage set up in the middle of everything with a Mariachi band crowding it further.

Wegmans is also chaotic in that deli/bakery/food hall end of the store but I find their decor to be too dark and monotone. It's pretty clear they traveled outside California because this has a strong resemblance to elements of Wegmans, Central Market, and the newer concept Metropolitan Market.

The concern I have is that the surrounding neighborhood is in transition (becoming gentrified) but it is currently very rough; Home Depot, Vons and Target nearby are all very high shrink stores with everything locked up, blocked off entrances, etc. and I'm about 99% sure the Albertsons closed at the end of its lease due to the high shrink coupled with costs of running such a massive building that is probably the largest supermarket in North Orange County. So I hope Northgate is successful because all of these colorful departments, food stalls and counters, etc. are going to require lots of labor. We have all seen when a high-labor store starts up like this, Whole Foods used to operate the same way, once those counters start seeing their hours cut back, closed certain days etc. the customer confidence drops to zero and they stop coming in for them. This will be the most challenging store Northgate has operated as it is being set up where it must become their top volume store immediately. There are many small Hispanic markets in the area though but nothing close to the size of this operation; you could probably fit one of those neighborhood bodegas inside this building with ample room to spare.

[storewanderer]

Northgate seems to be "all in" on being a SoCal focused chain. They had their chance at geographical expansion when they took the partnership with Cardenas for Pro's Ranch in AZ/NM/NV/TX but they sold off their share in those stores some years back. During that partnership those Pro's Ranch Stores were actually selling Northgate products and it seemed like Northgate was more involved in the operation than Cardenas was so that they walked from those stores and let Cardena's have them is interesting. With that said the Pro's Ranch Stores were very nice stores (a lot nicer when they were run by Pro's Ranch, and when they had Northgate involved, than they are now as Cardenas who has rather dumbed them down).

So Northgate should be able to get stores like this up and running and focus on them given they have this relatively small geographic area to focus operations in. They are headquartered in Orange County also so again it should be very convenient to supervise this operation. The next question is how many Ralphs/Albertsons divests could be candidates for this concept? Asian chains who are in my opinion rather weaker operators have been very successful with formats like this. A Hispanic chain especially a best in class operator like Northgate should be even more successful.

[ClownLoach]

Northgate seems to be "all in" on being a SoCal focused chain.

The next question is how many Ralphs/Albertsons divests could be candidates for this concept? Asian chains who are in my opinion rather weaker operators have been very successful with formats like this. A Hispanic chain especially a best in class operator like Northgate should be even more successful.

Ding ding ding!

This is exactly what they don't want to see happen, which is why they and the union push for stupidity such as C&S acquiring these stores. It's why they sit on sites in markets and neglect them instead of walking away.

They fear operators like Northgate who in fact now run better all around stores than they do. They see that an operator like Northgate can make a store that is for all of SoCal, not just the Hispanic market. Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons have been here for decades and forgot how to do this.

They know that if they let one site go to a superior operator like Northgate, Vallarta, or the rapidly improving 99 Ranch and H-Mart chains, that they will wind up taking serious amounts of sales volume out of an entire group of stores because of the simple fact that they run a better store now and they are afraid that people are going to realize that they have been had.

If these Ralphs/Albertsons divests were put up properly on a store by store basis for auction we would see the 4 chains mentioned above snap up every available unit in the state. And that prospect terrifies them. So they'll sit on stores that might not even bring in $10,000 a day like the Murrieta Vons in an effort to monopolize the market and keep the superior competition out. It won't work forever, and maybe if this merger is killed then we will see more of these conversions as Albertsons on its own has been more willing to let go of unwanted sites with landlord pressure for a higher traffic tenant (this site is an example along with the two Irvine stores they transferred to H-Mart).

[storewanderer]

The common denominator in all of these ethnic operators is they have... LABOR. Their stores (especially the hispanic ones) are VERY well staffed. The big chains have been figuring out how to cut labor and fresh offers for years (well except Stater) and look at where it has gotten them. Hundreds of store closures. Meanwhile these ethnic operators with a focus on service, numerous staffed service counters open late into the night, and tons of staffing continue to expand and get better and better at what they do.

[Romr123]

The common denominator in all of these ethnic operators is they have... LABOR. Their stores (especially the hispanic ones) are VERY well staffed. The big chains have been figuring out how to cut labor and fresh offers for years (well except Stater) and look at where it has gotten them. Hundreds of store closures. Meanwhile these ethnic operators with a focus on service, numerous staffed service counters open late into the night, and tons of staffing continue to expand and get better and better at what they do.

cough Market Basket New England cough....delightful fully staffed stores which do huge business.

[ClownLoach]

The common denominator in all of these ethnic operators is they have... LABOR. Their stores (especially the hispanic ones) are VERY well staffed. The big chains have been figuring out how to cut labor and fresh offers for years (well except Stater) and look at where it has gotten them. Hundreds of store closures. Meanwhile these ethnic operators with a focus on service, numerous staffed service counters open late into the night, and tons of staffing continue to expand and get better and better at what they do.

cough Market Basket New England cough....delightful fully staffed stores which do huge business.

Absolutely. Trader Joe's as well. Fact is that having enough staffing to actively drive additional sales pays for itself as volume increases thus the expense is leveraged. It does require a bit more behind the scenes to work, logistics and systems must be easy, cheap and highly effective.

[Bluelightspecial]

The common denominator in all of these ethnic operators is they have... LABOR. Their stores (especially the hispanic ones) are VERY well staffed. The big chains have been figuring out how to cut labor and fresh offers for years (well except Stater) and look at where it has gotten them. Hundreds of store closures. Meanwhile these ethnic operators with a focus on service, numerous staffed service counters open late into the night, and tons of staffing continue to expand and get better and better at what they do.

Isn't part of the reason they have more labor is that they are non union. There have been previous union operators that tried to do upscale ethnic supermarkets, but the labor is too expensive.