December 4th 2023: Ever since the new Northgate store in Costa Mesa opened there have been huge crowds checking out its new Mercardo format.
Unlike a regular supermarket the new Costa Mesa store also has over twenty market stall like restaurants selling various Mexican meals. The food hall style store has brought constant huge crowds checking out the various food options.
The huge crowds are great news for the Gonzalez family who has had a wildly successful opening. The news might not be as good for other tenants of the shopping center at Harbor & Wilson. The first week or so the parking for neighboring tenants such as TJ Maxx, Five Below and Home Depot were filled with guests visiting the new supermarket.
Because of the parking issues the landlord directed the employees of these tenants to park only in certain areas such as behind the buildings. The parking situation with the changes as well as a slowing of the traffic a little seems to be helping with the problems. The big long lines at first were people checking out the restaurants inside the Mercardo.
There are still parking issues but they are mainly with people coming for lunch and dinner at the restaurants or grocery shopping after work so hopefully over time the issues will decrease.
I went at 5 pm today. Parked on the center strip by MacDonalds, grabbed some beer ,and was was out in
5 minutes. I haven’t had to park all the way over by TJ MAXX yet.
Thank you for your comment Drew. It has over time got better the first week or so there were lines just to get in the store. Over time its gotten better but still near impossible to get a supermarket parking space during lunch hours or dinner hours. Early to mid morning and after lunch hours until dinner is fairly easy to find a space. Even when the parking lot is overflowing other than being crowded its pretty easy to doing your shopping done as ample quick check outs and waiting cashiers. The lines form at the various restaurant stalls at peak times but still easy to get in and out if you are just shopping.
I’m lucky, since it’s a 5 minute walk for me, but it’s nice to know I don’t have to go home,park then walk if I’m driving by, I can just stop. I imagine it will settle down even more after the holidays, looks like very few people are buying canned and dry goods yet, the lines are all for hot food.