Zanotto’s market signs on for Fruitdale development
New San Jose store will be the grocer’s fourth location
SAN JOSE >> Zanotto’s Family Markets plans a new store in San Jose that will feature a small-size format, a top company executive said.
The new store will be located near the corner of Southwest Expressway and Fruitdale Avenue. It will be part of a development known as Fruitdale Station that includes a 442-unit apartment complex, some small retail and a restaurant, said Troy Tibbils, president of Zanotto’s and co-owner of the family-owned chain’s three markets.
Zanotto’s currently has three stores, in San Jose’s Rose Garden area, San Jose’s Willow Glen district and one in Sunnyvale. The family market also operates a Zanotto’s sandwich express in downtown San Jose.
“Part of the reason we’re expanding is because of the good economy, and part of the reason is the developer, who is our landlord in Sunnyvale,” Tibbils said. “The developer wanted a market
at the Fruitdale site.” The development is near a light rail stop.
The largest of the Zanotto’s stores is the one in Sunnyvale, a 24,000-square-foot market that opened in 2015 in an old store.
The new Zanotto’s Fruitdale Station store will be 8,000 square feet.
“I like to think of it as a best-of version of Zanotto’s,” Tibbils said. “We always say about 25 percent of our stuff produces 75 percent of our sales. At the new Fruitdale market, we will carry about 50 percent to 60 percent of what we
have in the bigger format.”
San Jose-based Zanotto’s will use analytics to determine what to offer in the new store.
“We will have all the good stuff there,” Tibbils said.
The new store will have about 20 employees and should open by the summer or early fall. The three existing stores all have about 70 employees.
“Fruitdale is a little bit of a different market than the other stores — there are more apartments, cupboards are smaller,” Tibbils said. “The market is changing, and it will be nice to know if a smaller format like this works. We might have more of these.”
The small format looks like a good idea, said Josh
Gispan, a broker with Meacham Oppenheimer, a commercial realty firm that specializes in the retail sector.
“It makes a lot of sense for Zanotto’s to do that,” Gispan said. “If they can fine-tune it, maybe have a hot-meals-to-go section, they should do very well.”
Plus, the new Zanotto’s will be next to a big apartment complex and more high-density housing is being eyed for the area. And with the proximity to light rail, numerous residents near Southwest Expressway and Fruitdale Avenue might live in the area and work in places such as downtown San Jose or other parts of Silicon Valley. “There are really not a lot of good, high-quality grocery stores in that area,” Gispan said. “With the amount of residents who will have access to light rail, and with the potential of the Google development downtown, this part of San Jose could really be booming.”
For Zanotto’s, opening a new store is a welcome counterpoint to the grim time when it was forced to shut its doors in downtown San Jose.
“We probably should have given up; a lot of people said we should have given up,” Tibbils said. “But we got stronger from getting through the recession with three of our stores. We’re still here.”