The grocery cart may be less plump these days, but the economic diet imposed on consumers hasn't struck at one of the valley's new grocery stores, Cardenas Markets.

Baskets were brimming. The kitchen catered to a brisk, luncheon crowd.

Hundreds of hot, corn tortillas rolled off the grill, as vendors handed out samples of carnitas, fried chorizo sausage and guacamole concoctions to cart-clutching shoppers who wheeled by.

“We've done well,'' said George Matics, vice president of purchasing and marketing for the thriving Ontario-based supermarket chain with 25 stores — including three in the Coachella Valley — and plans to open three new groceries in Las Vegas by the end of 2009.

The Cathedral City store, which opened in November, is one of the top selling stores and has the second busiest kitchen in the Cardenas network, followed only by the top performer in El Centro.

Cardenas Markets posts roughly $500 million in annual sales and employs more than 2,660 people in its grocery venture and its sister company, Del Real Foods of Mira Loma. It counts as its formula for success its low prices, work ethic, family values and a solid line of what Matics describes as “comfort food.”


Read the rest of the story......