Hopland to have a new grocery store
July 7, 2022 \u2014 After seven years of standing vacant, the Hopland Superette is under new ownership, set to reopen as Geiger's Hopland Market, possibly as early as Labor Day.\nKen Molinaro, a Sonoma County developer who purchased Geiger's Market in Laytonville three years ago, says he expects the Hopland store to have a full-time staff of about ten people serving local grocery shoppers as well as tourists slowing down along the highway, which passes right through town. \u201cThis was a perfect opportunity for us, being right on 101, just like our other market is,\u201d said Molinaro. In Laytonville, he added, \u201cwe really serve two masters. We serve the local market\u2026but more and more, the tourist market is getting to be our other master. And it\u2019ll be the same here in Hopland. We\u2019re really opening it to serve the needs of the local community, but there\u2019s 14,000 cars a day go by here, and whole bunches of them, especially this time of year, are tourists.\u201d\nAt about three o\u2019clock on Wednesday afternoon, traffic was steady, and so was business at two of the medium-to-high-end restaurants within sight of the store. Now that the hotel is here, \u201cI would guess that as time goes by, Hopland will become bigger and continue to be more popular,\u201d Molinaro predicted.\nThe brown-papered windows are plastered with a \u201cComing Soon\u201d sign and flyers advising people on how to apply for a job at the future Geiger's Hopland Market or take a survey on what they\u2019d like it to carry.The store is about 6,500 square feet, approximately 6,000 of it what Molinaro calls sale space. \u201cIf I had to compare this market to a local market in the area, I would say we\u2019re going to be obviously a very small, like Big John\u2019s in Healdsburg, Oliver\u2019s, those kinds of markets,\u201d Molinro anticipated. He said most or all of the produce will be organic, which was one of the things that showed up on the survey. \u201cWe got about 250 responses,\u201d he reported; \u201cwhich I thought was incredible\u2026the responses were all very specific: can we get fresh fish, we really want organic produce, can we get Annie\u2019s macaroni and cheese\u2026it really gave us a great idea of what this community is looking for, because it\u2019s far different from the community in Laytonville.\u201d\nWholesalers in the Bay Area, he noted, often won\u2019t travel to the north county, especially with rising fuel prices . But he expects to be able to get commodities like fresh fish at the Hopland store, and plans to ferry specialty items back and forth between the two markets. \nHe is also planning to have a few tables where people can wait for a to-go order or eat something from the deli. Standing in front of a 12-foot-long cold case, he outlined his plans for what he expects will be the business\u2019 centerpiece. \u201cThe highlight of the store is this deli,\u201d he declared, describing a full range of salads and hand-made sandwiches with organic produce, meat sliced to order, and fresh bread. \u201cHigh quality stuff, but not at San Francisco prices,\u201d he promised. \u201cReasonable prices for what reasonable means today, which is way different than what it used to mean,\u201d he acknowledged with a laugh.\nHe\u2019s not planning to just quietly open the doors one day and wait for people to notice the store is in business. After the soft opening, he concluded, \u201cwe\u2019ll definitely be having a soiree.\u201d