Inventive Piña Brothers to Upscale When?

Piedras Quality Food Mart on September 26, 2011. Compare with picture posted on September 30, 2009.

According to Rep. Susie Byrd, grocer Mike Piña indicated that it was his company's intent to really spruce up the Quality Food Mart on Piedras and Porter as they had done to other stores they had purchased. He made the same claim over two years ago!

Compare the picture above taken today to one taken from the same street corner in September 2009! See the September 30, 2009 Newman Park blog post. See any differences? Anything spruced up? There's a new tortilla factory inside but that's about it. Meat selection is poor and the produce must be what's left over from the Vista stores.

Byrd recently inquired what Piña and his brothers intended to do with the other Quality Food Mart on Wheeling and Alabama. It has been closed for several months now. Owners of the Vista Markets, the Piñas have decided to close it because of low volume sales and that they had it under contract for a Dollar Store. A Dollar Store!

I might add that, while I was taking the picture above, I was briefly approached by a woman who seemed to me to be a hooker. She left me alone (and didn't solicit me) as she could probably tell I was more focused on the photography. I saw her later working the ticky-tacky bars a block up and across the street from the non-spruced up Quality Food Mart.

These places border our Newman Park neighborhood where great things are happening. But it is time to do better with our businesses on Piedras and Alabama. Time to do a lot better.

Inventive Piña Brothers to Upscale Piedras Quality Food Mart

It was announced this past July that El Paso's Piña brothers (Mike, Oscar and Armando) had bought the five Quality Food Marts in El Paso including the one at 3116 N. Piedras. The brothers have already opened successful upscale Hispanic grocery stores including Vista Central Market on East El Paso's Zaragosa Road.

Officials from nearby Price's Dairy say that the new ownership will be good for the neighborhood. "These brothers are really inventive and interesting."

Tortillerias, bakeries, meat markets and Mexican delicatessens are part of the signature design that the Piñas bring to their stores.

Reporting about her first visit to the Zaragosa store, Newspaper Tree reporter, Elizabeth Ruiz wrote:

". . . standout aspects of the family-run supermarkets . . . include its panaderia, tortilleria, a build-your-own-burrito stand and aguas frescas sold in-store. The prodcuts include standard grocery store fare, some Mexican products, and locally made products, such as asadero cheese from the local Lincon Dairy. After I made a go-around in the Ikea-like maze of colorific shopping, I got a glass of horchata and a burrito with papas con chile verde. The tortillas used for the burritos are made several feet away in the tortilleria."

Plans are to remodel one store at a time and rename each Vista Quality Market. A wider-open look at the Piedras store has already replaced the once dark and crowded shelves.