November 14th 2023: The grand opening for Northgate Costa Mesa has been announced for Friday November 17th which is welcome news for the residents and community around the store. The store will also have soft openings on Wednesday November 15th and, Thursday November 16th if you want to check out the store before the grand opening.
Since the Albertsons supermarket closed at the end of 2019 the neighborhood around Harbor and Wilson in Costa Mesa has been without a full service supermarket. Of course it wasn’t surpose to be so long but with the pandemic as well as trouble to get staff it’s been a long wait.
Major construction has finished at the supermarket with the office in the parking lot as well as storage area removed. There is a little minor construction still going on inside but most of the huge group of contractors have moved on. Right now the displays and merchandise are being set up as the store gets ready for the official grand opening.
What makes this new store different from the standard Northgate Market is the market theme with 20 stalls inside selling various fresh foods. The supermarket will also have a couple of restaurants as well as a large outside patio with Mexican beers and tequila as well as other Mexican drinks as well as live music. The new supermarket is modeled after Mexican mercados such as Mercado de Coyoacan in Mexico City.
Northgate Costa Mesa is actually called Mercado Gonzalez by Northgate in a nod to the Northgate founders Don Miguel Gonzalez and Dona Teresa Reynoso de Gonzalez. The new store is a going to be a flagship store for Northgate who has spend lots of money on its new Costa Mesa location which looks like its going to be a very popular store.
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I have shopped Northgate Markets in Santa Ana and, they often seem a little dated with a 1980’s supermarket feel. I have visited the new Northgate store in Westminster and its much more modern but i think the Mercado style grocery store they are opening in Costa Mesa could be a game changer for the company. I think this store could give traditional chains such as the nearby Vons supermarket on Adams and Harbor heavy competition.
Ethnic supermarkets have done well although they don’t always draw outside their cultural base consistently i think this location could do well pulling in a non hispanic customer that normally might not shop at a hispanic supermarket.
This supermarket has the normal things that Northgate does well such as meats and vegetables with premade food; But takes it to a different level with 20 market stalls with fresh food, restaurants, outside patios to eat and, drink it is kind of becoming a central market and meeting place in Costa Mesa.
I think this concept is awesome, but I was kinda hoping for an actual grocery store. Maybe we can get a Stater’s in the old K-Mart spot when that dumb furniture store inevitably goes under. There’s never a soul in that place.
Thank you for your comment Drew. I think they did an amazing job with a very cool concept that i could see opening in many places. At the moment unless you go there 6 or 7 in the morning its really hard to do a grocery shop. Yes there is plenty of cashiers and quick check registers but moving around the store with the crowds there to eat at the restaurants is tough.
Hopefully over time the crowds die down a bit and bit and you can use it like a regular grocery store with slower times that you can get some regular grocery shopping done.