Grocery Outlet Coming to Cathedral City

Grocery Outlet Bargain Market sells brand-name food at extremely low prices

CATHEDRAL CITY — A new grocery store is coming to this community, according to banners hung on the former ACE Hardware Store. Grocery Outlet Bargain Market will soon occupy the 300-25 Date Palm Drive location, next to Walgreens.

Grocery Outlet, a discount supermarket, has existed for more than seven decades and has long had its eye on opening stores in the Coachella Valley to expand its footprint in Southern California. It opened a store in Palm Springs in August 2019. Grocery Outlet also opened a store in Yucca Valley that same year.

It will be the fourth store planned in the Valley. The others are in Desert Hot Springs and La Quinta, In October 2020,, a commercial brokerage sale company. announced that Grocery Outlet will help resurrect the La Quinta Village Center, which has been 80% vacant and struggled since the anchor tenant –  Ralph’s grocery store – closed more than seven years ago.

Grocery Outlet has been in business since 1946, and now has 300+ stores  , across the nation. Carrying well-known brands reasonably priced for reasons such as packaging changes, surplus inventory or product overruns, Grocery Outlet also features fresh meat and produce as well as natural and organic items. There is a little under 20,000 sq. ft. remaining in the former Ralph’s space that is available for a co-anchor.

According to Grocery Dive, the independently owned Grocery Outlet specializes in offering name brand foods at prices 40%-70% less than traditional retailers as they purchase overstock items and foods that go through a packaging change from its manufacturers. Their stores are generally smaller than traditional grocery stores, in this case about 15,000 square feet, and they do not charge a membership fee, such as Costco.

Grocery Outlet Holding Corp. is a chain of discount supermarkets that offer discounted, overstocked and closeout products from name brand and private label suppliers. The company has stores in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Nevada and Pennsylvania.

The majority of Grocery Outlet’s stores are independently operated by locally based, married couples. Each store has flexibility in its product offerings to serve local tastes and demand. The Read family founded the company in 1946. The formal name is Grocery Outlet Bargain Market.

An official opening date has not yet been announced, but work continues to open the location “soon,” according to Chris Parman, communications manager for the city of Cathedral City.

The new store in Cathedral City will be housed in the same location that was one home to an ACE Hardware and a Fresh & Easy grocery store.