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Northgate Gonzalez Market
It’s a story as old as America itself – an immigrant overcomes seemingly insurmountable obstacles to come to the U.S. and build a better life for himself and his family.
This is also the story of Northgate Gonzalez Market whose story spans generations and whose roots in the supermarket industry and Hispanic community in Los Angeles go back 40 years. Actually, the story goes back to 1952 when family patriarch Don Miguel Gonzalez Jimenez struggled to rebuild his shoe store in the town of Jalostotitian in Jalisco, Mexico after a devastating fire. After 14 years, Don Miquel and his oldest sons emigrated to Los Angeles where they worked long hours to help the family that remained in Mexico. It wasn’t until 1979 that the entire family was reunited in La Mirada, CA. By this time, Don Miguel heard about a supermarket that was up for sale in Anaheim, which was home to many people from his town. The first Northgate market was opened in 1980 in a 2,000-square-foot space. Today, the 35-store chain, has become one of the most respected retailers on the entire West Coast and its stores a beacon for Hispanic immigrants from all over Latin America as well as a growing number of non-Hispanic customers seeking the best in fresh ethnic foods. This growing customer base has produced steady expansion for Northgate.
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C A LI F O RN IA G RO CE R
“We’ve been opening a store a month in the past several months,” said Mike Hendry, vice president of marketing. “They are all within our existing marketing areas of Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties.
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By Len Lewis
New store locations include East Los Angeles, Inglewood and a store in San Diego is scheduled to open in December. The new units range from 35,000 to 40,000 square feet. This expansion has good news and bad news elements. “The economy is still tough although we are doing pretty well and our demographic segment is growing,” Hendry says. “A number of retailers have suffered in this area, but it’s given us the
opportunity to look at new sites that are more affordable than they’ve been in a long time.” While expansion is important to Northgate, the major reason behind its success lies in staying relevant to customers, according to Hendry. “As the Hispanic culture broadens to different groups, we’re growing in a lot of different ways” he says. “Our customers are accustomed to finding products from their own countries, as well as items you would find in any grocery store. So we’re doing a good job expanding our entire portfolio.” This is particularly challenging since the term “Hispanic” now means so many different things. “Our predominant customer is of Mexican descent,” Hendry says. “But we have a lot of South and Central American customers from places like Guatemala and El Salvador. As such, we have to market to individual neighborhoods and that’s true for everything from grocery to meat and produce.” “Our mix has always been heavily skewed to fresh, but we’re also expanding our center store in order