Family-owned grocer takes over operations of Glen Park market
Glen Park neighborhood grocer Canyon Market just got new owners.
Gus’s Community Market, a family-owned chain with four outlets in San Francisco, took the reins at the independent grocery store from co-owners and founders Janet and Richard Tarlov on Wednesday. The 7,200-square-foot store will not be closing as ownership changes, and operations will remain as they are, with the current 90person staff remaining.
The existing Canyon Market name and signage will stay in place, but the store will eventually incorporate Gus’s Community Market branding. Product stock is not expected to change dramatically, as both businesses’ suppliers overlap, but there are plans to eventually introduce Gus’s store brand products, such as Gus’s tortilla chip and chocolate labels, to the newly acquired store.
“Preserving the great legacy that the Tarlov family built there and offering a great fullservice market to the Glen Park neighborhood is an honor and a privilege for us,” Gus’s Community Market co-owner Dimitri Vardakastanis said.
The Tarlovs opened Canyon Market in 2006 at 2815 Diamond St., the site of the former Diamond Super, the previous neighborhood market which burned down in 1998. Seeing that the neighborhood had not had a grocer for eight years, the Tarlovs took on the opportunity. Over the past 16 years, Canyon Market has developed a strong reputation for its organic produce, ready-to-eat meals, coffee, baked goods and wine and beer sections.
Canyon Market’s owners had heard buyout offers from several parties for some years but none seemed right. The business wasn’t in financial trouble, said Janet Tarlov, and a rat infestation, which led the business to briefly close, was not a factor in the decision to sell.
The Tarlovs met Gus’s coowners and brothers Dimitri and Bobby Vardakastanis earlier this year. The siblings eventually made the right offer at the right time for the Tarlovs, Dimitri Vardakastanis and Janet Tarlov told The Chronicle.
“Our intention was always for the store to continue operating, and obviously we are not going to be able to do it forever,” Janet Tarlov said. “Having another independent, familyowned business take over was a natural fit.”
Konstantinos “Gus” Vardakastanis opened his first S.F. grocery store, what’s now Haight Street Market, in 1981 after emigrating from Greece. Some of the market’s prepared Greek foods, such as spanikopita, are adapted from his wife Georgia Vardakastanis’ recipes.
Gus Vardakastanis was killed by a hit-and-run driver in 2017; in 2018, his sons opened their first Gus’s Community Market, in Mission Bay, without him.
Gus’s acquisition of Canyon Market is the latest in several local market mergers. In October, Bi-Rite, another familyowned market, took over Russian Hill’s Real Food Co., which touted itself as one of the first natural food stores in San Francisco.
Janet Tarlov sees these mergers as indicative of the business environment for small, independent grocers. “Now, more than ever, stores need economies of scale to make the whole operation work,” she said.
During the ownership transition period, Richard Tarlov will continue working at Canyon Market, while Janet Tarlov will continue to hold her post at the Glen Park Merchants Association. They have yet to decide what’s next after that.
“There are trips that we’d like to make and people we’d like to visit,” Janet Tarlov said.