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| Hispanic market edges into Coastside By Mark Noack [ mark@hmbreview.com ] Published/Last Modified on Wednesday, August 26, 2009 9:30 AM PDT Cunha’s Country Grocery is just down Main Street. Safeway is right across the highway. And New Leaf Community Market is practically right next door. But even though there are many local grocery stores in Half Moon Bay, the Garcia family sees a big opportunity for one more. “We’re mainly going to sell food for the Hispanic community,” said Teresa Garcia, co-owner of the new Mercado Mi Familia at the shopping center off Highway 92. “We’re going to sell meats, produce, tortillas — everything you’d need for a Mexican picnic.” Tucked between The Happy Taco Taqueria and Procopio’s Fashion, the Garcia family’s new small market, or carneceria, will specialize in ethnic foods for the large Hispanic population on the Coastside. The owners say they hope to recreate the tradition of small markets acting as magnet sites for socializing for the local communities in Mexico. “We just want to set up a scene where people can come and feel comfortable,” said Oscar, Teresa’s husband. “Over here, customer service is respectful. But over in Mexico, you go in a store and you’re family.” Teresa and Oscar were both working hard last week setting up shelves, refrigerators and display racks that would soon be filled with Mexican varieties of bread, meats and cheeses. Dishes from south of the border usually require different butcher cuts and sometimes meat not normally used in American fare, such as tripe, intestines and tongue meat. Oscar Garcia explained that most Mexican families have different considerations in mind when they buy groceries. They don’t care too much about food being organic, or glucose-free or locally grown, he said. Instead, he said the prime concern is finding familiar foods from the old country at a good price. And because other local stores don’t sell the right chiles, spices or other Mexican foods, many Hispanics have been traveling to the Bayside just to get the foods they love. Garcia estimated that 90 percent of Hispanic families on the Coastside choose to buy groceries over the hill. “We’re trying to keep people shopping local,” he said. “We always knew it was a good idea ... and the opportunity presented itself.” Garcia family members said the Highway 92 shopping center seem like the best place to locate their store because it would mix well with the other Hispanic stores nearby. The family’s plan faced a major obstacle. New Leaf, the large premium grocery store in the same plaza, has rights in its rental contract to be the only grocery store in that strip mall. The Garcia family met earlier this year with New Leaf owners and laid out their plans for the small Mexican market. The family was surprised when New Leaf representatives told them they had no problem letting them open a neighboring grocery store. “We didn’t object to their market,” said Scott Roseman, co-owner of New Leaf. “We’re trying to be a community market. If we’re true to our mission we’re not going to stand in the way of their project.” Although this is their first market on the Coastside, the Garcia family isn’t new to the grocery business. The family patriarch, Rogelio, opened his first neighborhood market decades ago in San Pedro, a large city in the Mexican state of Jalisco — an area many Coastside Latinos used to call home. That market, called “Mercado Abigail” remains open to this day and is now managed by an aunt. Rogelio Garcia, and his wife Martha, moved to the United States in the early 1970s and met here, starting their family on the Coastside. Today the couple has three grown children and six grandchildren who will be part of their market. Their daughter-in-law, Libby Garcia, says the Coastside has long been home for the Garcia family, and opening the market is another step in that direction. “This is a very important step for our family,” she said. “I really hope that the market is successful and the Coastside community feels that they are a part of our family as well.” Mercado Mi Familia is due to open on Saturday. |