Clement Mini Market

I’ve been intrigued by the Clement Mini Market on Clement and Arguello for many years. It looks huge from the outside since it spans half a block. I love that they have candy machines outside the front door. Not enough markets still do that. There are a lot of variety stores in the Mission that have small vending machines selling toy “Peek-A Poohs” and such but the candy machine, specifically designed to attract small children and their parent’s pocket change is becoming a thing of the past. The reason for this is all too clear to me since I have my own candy machine that takes nickels. There is no way to make even your investment back on small coins and nobody wants to feed a candy machine the same amount of money it would take to buy an entire bag of candy. I resent feeding four or more quarters into a vending machine for anything.

Walking in to Clement Mini Market I immediately felt its “mini-ness”. The aisles between the coolers and metro racks were so narrow that you almost had to turn sideways to get through them. We had to squeeze between a half empty freezer and a chip rack in order to get to the next aisle. When I asked Vic what he wanted he inexplicably went to a six-pack of small San Pellegrino waters. I couldn’t imagine that he would want to drink his share of small bubbly waters but since it was so much better than buying him junk I relented. The grocery selection was unremarkable but the beer selection was even worse. I had never seen such a limited selection in a store that size. It always seems to me that the majority of their business would be beer. Victor was helping me look and he chose a 12 oz. bottle of the wheat beer Blue Moon. I’m not a huge fan of the light vaguely celery tasting concoction but there wasn’t anything much better. They had an entire wall of liquor that you could shop on your own instead of asking for it from behind the counter. I was very tempted to buy a small bottle of vodka having run out of any hard alcohol many months ago. But when I was being rung up I balked at the cost and changed my mind.

Of course when we got to the ice cream case in the front Victor lobbied hard for a push-up. They guy behind the counter was playing around on a laptop. He didn’t seem like he worked there that much having to call the owner, whose picture was hanging above, to find out the prices. There were bars of European chocolate on the counter but I held my ground and we left with our puritan purchases.

Vic’s “snack” San Pellegrino water and a Push-Up Beer of the Day—Blue Moon 12 oz bottle