Officials cut the ribbon on the new Vallarta grocery store in Madera Wednesday. Photos by Edward Smith

The line outside Vallarta Supermarkets in Madera started with 10 people at 3 a.m. for the ribbon cutting of the newest store for the grocery chain.

By 5 a.m., that number had swelled to 200.

 

Madera Mayor Andy Medellin, along with county supervisors, development directors and one of the founding brothers of the company were on hand to commemorate the opening of the second largest store for Vallarta.

Bobby Kahn, executive director of the Madera County Economic Development Corporation said courting the company took six years before they finally found a location. Kahn compared the negotiations to asking a girl to dance.

“You keep asking her to dance and finally, she says, ‘ok,’” Kahn said.

Construction began in March to transform the former 59,000 square foot Mervyn’s space at 1467 S. Country Club Lane. They took the original big-box architecture to build the stylized façade. They also moved the doors from a central entrance to two sets of doors on opposing sides.

 

They hired 250 new employees from the area and brought a few over from the Fresno and Visalia locations, according to Ivette Serrano, director of digital marketing.

The large size of the Madera location allows them to test new aisle sizes and vendors. It has one of the largest meat counters for the organization.

“We can’t really do that with some of the smaller stores,” said Serrano.

This will also be the northernmost store for the Sylmar-based company. Serrano says that the company has eyes to keep moving northward as well as westward.

Being in Madera will allow the grocer to reach some of the unincorporated areas of Madera County and beyond. Serrano said team members in Fresno locations had said how far people come to shop.

Five brothers, including Alfredo Gonzalez, who spoke at the opening, started the grocery store in 1985 as a way to bring the flavors of Mexico to their home in the Los Angeles area, said Serrano.

“For somebody who’s here and is missing home and they can’t find some of those authentic foods, they can come here and it’s a little bit of coming home,” said Serrano.