Grocery Outlet will open its eighth store in Orange County this week.
The store in Huntington Beach takes the place of a vacant Fresh & Easy, which exited Southern California after bankruptcy in 2015.
The grand opening gets started at 9 a.m. Thursday, March 29.
The Emeryville-based grocery discounter is often called the TJMaxx of supermarkets. The chain specializes in overstock inventory from other grocery stores. Its aisles often are chock full of deals on organic snacks, boxed food, cheeses and yogurt, frozen meals and more.
A Grocery Outlet in Orange, for example, recently was selling a quart of organic strawberries for $1.99. Other recent deals included a three-pack of Life cereal for $4.99. And Fiber One snack bars for 99 cents for five bars or $1.99 for 12. Wine, with plenty of Napa labels, also is considered a deep discount, with many varietals selling for under $5.
Expiration dates are often the main drivers of deals. In the Lake Forest store, full-size Apple Pie Oreos packages were deeply discounted: eight for $1. At the Orange store, a 10-pound bag of fresh chicken leg quarters was selling for $5.99.
In addition to national canned goods and pantry brands, Grocery Outlet sells beer and wine, produce, meat, health and beauty care items, over-the-counter drugs, household products, toys and gifts. Each store has a “NOSH” section, which is stocked with natural, organic, specialty and healthy foods.
At the Surf City grand opening, the first 200 shoppers in line will get a Bargain Bucks gift card that ranges from $5 to $200. Those gift cards have to be used March 29 and exclude any alcohol purchases.
Jennifer and Bashar Farah are the Huntington Beach store’s independent owner-operators. The store will employee some 35 people, the company said.
Address: 16672 Beach Boulevard, Suite 1, Huntington Beach.
Grocery Outlet has 28 stores in Southern California, soon to be 29 when it opens another store next month in La Mirada. The company told the Southern California News Group it’s planning to open 25 to 35 more stores this year nationwide.
In Orange County, other Grocery Outlets are in Costa Mesa, Irvine, Tustin, La Habra and Westminster. Another store will open soon in La Mirada, just across the county line.
Other Southern California stores that opened in 2017 included sites in Burbank, Paramount, Santa Barbara, City Heights in San Diego, Fallbrook, Imperial Beach (San Diego).