6001 California

Again heading west on California Street Vic and I pulled up at 6001 California at 22^nd Avenue and conveniently parked in the 10-minute zone. There was a fantastic old red sign that said Appel and Dietrich’s Fine Foods but there were more modern signs, which said the market was actually called 6001 California. Benches and shopping carts in front of the store indicating this was actually a place to shop. When we walked in I noticed that although they still had old registers and bagging stations the store was attempting to fashion itself as a real grocery store. There probably wasn’t quite enough capital for the new owners to entirely remodel the place, just enough to get modern shelving and coolers and keep on chugging along.

The produce was mostly organic but not in fantastic condition. There was a good selection of cheeses, some of which they cut themselves. Shelves and coolers were filled with a combination of natural and conventional groceries. If you want coconut water and kombucha they got it but if you want some Cup O’ Noodles, which I did, they got that too. They even had actually case stacks—always a sign of hopeful sales and some merchandising knowledge. I immediately grabbed a couple of small bags of Veggie Booty from one of them—staying away from the “Pizza Booty,” a sign of somebody being sold on a new dog of a product.

We headed back toward the beer coolers which had a great selection that included all of my favorites but for some inexplicable reason I picked up a 22 oz Stella in a bottle. I don’t really even like Stella. The prices were pretty good too. There were two guys working in the store, both wearing butcher’s coats. One was at the register and the other wandering around and actually facing and fronting the store. They had a large meat case that was well stocked with both Marin Sun grass fed meat and Niman Ranch meats. I really had to admire this move. This store really has to be making an effort to stock such high quality meats.

I struck up a conversation with the guy straightening the wine bottles and probably since Vic was there the conversation turned to kids and private schools. We chatted for a while about the meat and then Vic and I continued our shopping. Victor decided on some goldfish crackers. After we paid the friendly guy we had been talking to thanked us for coming in. In all the stores we have visited so far we probably haven’t received one thank you so that was refreshing. We paid for our stuff and walked out to open the snack and realized too late that we had picked out pretzel rather than cheese flavored goldfish. We had to run back in and buy the right ones.

Vic’s snack—goldfish crackers Vida’s snack-Veggie Booty and Cup O’ Noodles Beer of the Day—Stella 22 oz bottle.