Opinion: Grocer remodeling, improving stock

Save Mart on Howard Road is becoming the best-looking grocery store in Madera. Save Mart’s owners have put in new floors and have rearranged the store shelves to update their display of merchandise.

The redecorating of the store isn’t finished yet, but in a couple of weeks, no other store in town will be as good-looking or better stocked.

Another store doing a good job of improving its business is Pak N Save, although its progress toward remodeling is a bit slower than that of Save Mart.

Pak N Save still has the best bread bakery in town. Their French bread loaves, which sell for a mere $1.99, are delicious. If you don’t pick up one of those loaves every couple of days, you are missing out on a good treat.

Pak N Save also has a big produce section, bigger than Save Mart, although Save Mart’s produce is nicely selected.

At Rancho San Miguel, if Mexican food is your preference, you will find that you can order meals cooked in the store. Rancho San Miguel carries stock to suit the Mexican pallet, along with a good selection of produce that can please anybody.

If price is important to you, the Grocery Outlet Bargain Market on Cleveland Avenue will please you. But there is a problem. They don’t always stock the same things all the time. The bargain you bought yesterday may not even be in the store at any price tomorrow. And their produce isn’t all that fresh some of the time. However, they are extremely nice at that store, and will bend over backwards to help you.

The same is true of the people at El Toro Loco on D Street, located in the same building that once housed The Bridge Store, one of Madera’s best-regarded grocers. El Toro Loco has a good meat department, and is stocked to cater to the Mexican way of cooking.

The Nishimoto family, who once owned The Bridge Store, still owns Fastway Market on D Street, and Fastway Chicken, on the opposite side of that street.

They remain some of the best-regarded merchants in the city.