Kick off the new year right with Santa Cruz’s go-to grocery store, Shopper’s Corner. Widely known for their attentive, knowledgeable butchers, extensive wine and cheese selection, Shoppers also checks all the boxes for organic produce for the family.
With roughly 100 organic items available depending on the season, right now families and chefs alike are flocking to the shelves for their incredible mushroom selection. Be sure to catch it before the season ends.
Andre Beauregard, owner of Shopper’s Corner, explains that even though chanterelle and black trumpet mushrooms are soon to be moving out of season, “we can always look forward to things coming back into season like local artichokes, sprouts, stone fruits, strawberries- you name it! We take pride in offering as many locally grown options as we can.”
“There is always something to look forward to and something that you’re sad is going out of season.”
— Andre Beauregard, owner of Shopper’s Corner
The store, which has been a staple in the community for many years, has always carried organic options, but has continued to grow their selection from local and regional farms. With deliveries coming in 7 days a week, they always have the freshest produce on hand.
Beauregard explains how this fresh produce, combined with their small batch stocking methods, equals “better quality control and fresher, tastier produce for customers. Sure; our way is more time consuming and labor intensive, but it’s the way it should be. People know they can count on us for high quality blemish free produce every time they shop.”
This includes their ripe, ready-to-eat avocado selection. Shopper’s prides themselves on offering a seamless customer experience. “Having green unripe avocados seems like an inconvenience to customers, so we store and rotate ours until they are ready to go,” says Beauregard.
Esteban Rodriguez, the produce manager who has worked at Shopper’s for over 20 years, gets to work at about 4:30 AM everyday to make sure the section looks perfect. Anything not making the quality control cut gets donated to Gray Bears, who then distributes the produce to seniors in the area.
Shopper’s currently works with: Lakeside Organic Gardens, Pinnacle, Happy Boy Farms, Sea to Sky Farm, and Rodini & Co.
Shopper’s also knows that customers make resolutions to eat healthier in the new year, and they want to make it easy for them to achieve that goal by providing a wide variety of fresh, organic produce. The team strive to emphasize that organic produce is not only better for the consumer, but also better for the environment.
“As a market where foodies love to shop, we always cater to them by having the highest quality products we can get, and the produce department is no exception to that.”
— Andre Beauregard, owner of Shopper’s Corner
In addition to the organic produce, the store is also offering a selection of other organic products such as dairy, meats, and pantry staples. They hope that by making these products more readily available and easily identifiable, more customers will choose to incorporate them into their daily lives.
The Shopper’s Corner team believes that by highlighting their organic produce selection, they are not only providing their customers with better options for their health and the environment, but also supporting local farmers and sustainable agriculture. “Personal chefs often shop with us because they know they can count on us for quality that they say is comparable to the farmers market.”
Shopper’s Corner is open everyday from 7:00 AM to 8:00 PM, located at the corner of Soquel and S. Branciforte.
More from Shopper’s Corner
‘For me, shopping here was the family way’: Holiday meals start at Shopper’s Corner
‘For me, shopping here was the family way’: Holiday meals start at Shopper’s Corner
Oldest family-owned market: The history of the Santa Cruz institution Shopper’s Corner
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