Aisle Be There

On a Wednesday morning in January, a line of people wrapped around a grocery store in Glendale, Arizona before the sun came up. The store was Vallarta Supermarkets, a family-owned Latino grocer with 63 locations in California, and this was the first one it had ever opened anywhere else. The first 300 people in line walked out with a free bag of groceries, and the company handed checks to local schools and food pantries before it had sold a single thing. Nobody in that line needed to be told what they were waiting for.

Inside, there is a kitchen making tacos, pozole, and menudo, tamales being rolled in the open, ceviche all year instead of only in summer, and a meat counter with a marinade recipe the company will not share. Those are the things people drive across town for in California, and now Vallarta plans ten more stores in Arizona and wants to keep heading east, into cities where most shoppers have never heard the name.

Your Task: Imagine you are on Vallarta's new-store team, and the next store opens in a city where almost nobody knows what Vallarta is.

1. The Kit
Some things ride into every new Vallarta no matter the city. Pick the three that matter most, from the tortillas made in the store, the marinade, the free bag for the first 300 people, the checks to local schools, or anything else you saw. Rank them, and for each one say the job it does for the store. (3 sentences, one per item.)

2. The Welcome
Someone walks in who has never been inside a Latino grocery in their life. Say what they see, smell, or taste in the first minute, and how you make them feel like the store is for them too, without watering down what makes it Vallarta. (3 to 4 sentences.)

3. The Next City
Pick your own town for the store after that one. Say what Vallarta would have to learn about your town before opening day, and name the one thing it should never change to fit in. (2 to 3 sentences.)

This Skillbuilder is in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month.

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