Smart & Final completes relocation
Grand opening of new Smart & Final Extra! well attended
Porterville residents gave a warm welcoming to the new Smart & Final Extra! store, which had its grand opening Wednesday.
At approximately 31,000 square feet, the Smart & Final Extra! store is three times the size of its older location, which closed its doors Tuesday night after being opened to the Porterville community since 1979, said the store’s District Manager Jim Wood.
Porterville resident Sherri Guilliams said she is glad the old one closed because it was way too small.
“It made me claustrophobic,” Guilliams said.
Guilliams said Smart & Final Extra!, which provides an additional 6,000 club size items, more high-quality perishables, organic and natural foods, and expanded frozen, deli and meat sections, is absolutely amazing.
“It is nice, it’s got everything you need,” Guilliams said. “It is like a miniature Costco.”
George Martinez commuted from his home in Terra Bella to get a look at the new store and was not disappointed.
“It is outstanding,” Martinez said of the store. “It feels like a superstore, it is so spacious.”
Martinez said he usually travels to Porterville to do his weekly shopping, but dreaded going to the old Smart & Final store because it was always crowded and didn’t offer enough variety of items. With Smart & Final Extra!, Martinez said that is no longer the case.
“There is four times the volume here of merchandise and you can actually pick what you want,” he said. “Over there, [old Smart & Final] it was too reduced of an area.”
Porterville resident Erika Cuna couldn’t agree more.
“It is way bigger and they have more deals here, too,” Cuna said.
Wood said there are 21 of such stores from
Bakersfield to Modesto, six of which are in Tulare County.
Getting the new store opened in Porterville, he said, has been several years in the making.
“We have been waiting for a piece of ground to open up because we wanted to be very close to our old store so we could move the customers down nice and easy,” Wood said.
In comparison to traditional Smart & Final stores, Wood said Smart & Final Extra! stores also offer shoppers
a wide selection of private label offerings, goods tailored to business and household customers, self-serve dry bulk goods by the pound, unique products such as oven-roasted chicken, and non-food products such as catering supplies.
With so much to offer, Wood believes everyone can use Smart & Final Extra! as their one-stop shopping place.
“We are going to be able to meet all of the needs with all of the new items that we have
included in here,” he said.
Store Manager Andy Cerda said the new store is a gift to the Porterville community and is happy to be a part of it.
“I am excited to serve the community I grew up in and look forward to introducing the expanded offerings of our Extra! format to our Porterville customers,” said Cerda, who has been a Smart & Final
associate for 15 years. “Our community has really been looking forward to this store.”