Sleepy little Loreto (pop. about 15,000, give or take a few souls) has many charms. A beautiful plaza; lovely ficus-lined streets; an historic old mission; a spiffy new malecon (an esplanade along the waterfront) that's nearing completion; many great restaurants; and warm, friendly people. There's little the town lacks, but number one on the wish list for a lot of us is a bigger supermarket. The largest market in town - El Pescador - has improved a lot over the years and even carries more gringo-oriented items now. But it's still pretty small and shopping for groceries usually means a trip to three or four different small markets in order to get everything on our list. It's called hunting and gathering here in Loreto Bay (I call it a full-blown Excedrin headache), but it looks like all that could change soon.
A new Soriana market may be headed our way and we've got our fingers crossed that this isn't just another unfounded rumor. The difference this time is that we heard the news from a reliable source and not just the usual rumor mill, which churns out all kinds of crazy talk. My personal favorite was one repeated endlessly two or three years ago stating that City Club (a Soriana warehouse store similar to Costco) was coming to town. Uh, huh. Still waitin' on that one. We're also still waiting on the Costco that everyone insists will be built in La Paz, but so far it's a no show.
I couldn't confirm the news online, but I did find a Reuter's story that said Soriana is planning to open 63 new stores in Mexico this year. And why shouldn't Loreto be on that list?!
Soriana has a chain of supermarkets throughout Mexico and they're nice. Wide aisles and a good selection of products. Clean and well-lit. We've shopped at Soriana in La Paz and Ensenada and we were impressed. I checked out the Soriana Web site and learned the chain has five types of stores, ranging from City Club to the mega-type like a WalMart Superstore to the smaller neighborhood market, which is what we heard is coming our way.
Soriana has a chain of supermarkets throughout Mexico and they're nice. Wide aisles and a good selection of products. Clean and well-lit. We've shopped at Soriana in La Paz and Ensenada and we were impressed. I checked out the Soriana Web site and learned the chain has five types of stores, ranging from City Club to the mega-type like a WalMart Superstore to the smaller neighborhood market, which is what we heard is coming our way.
This is exciting news, but as much as I love the idea of one-stop shopping coming to Loreto, I'm also a little worried that a chain store will change the town. Does this mean a second traffic light is in our future? Can a cineplex be far behind!? Only time will tell...
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