Vallarta Grand Opening – Behind the Scenes

How it all began

You may remember that we shared in an earlier blog written about the importance of tradeshows how we landed Vallarta Supermarkets in the first place. It all began with ConnectPoint events (StorePoint Fresh & BuildPoint) and truly four different channels coming together rather simultaneously!

Several years ago, Justin Pratt attended a few ConnectPoint events while working for ‘The Save Mart Companies’ and had been in our boardroom presentation on more than one occasion. In September 2022, Justin was hired by Vallarta Supermarkets (EG Side) as their Vice President of Construction and immediately started to witness humidity issues in some of their stores. He called me up and said, “you must’ve done a great job in your boardroom presentations, because you were the first person I thought of when I joined Vallarta and saw our humidity issues!”. He asked if I could do a StorePoint “replica” presentation for him and 2 gentlemen on his team, and of course I happily obliged.

Seeds were planted! Originally, we were going to look at their existing prototype to address their humidity issues and do a proper HVAC layout; however, they needed someone to truly revamp and stamp an entirely new store design. The plan became that we would reconnect after he hired an engineering firm. Once they got someone on board, we would be brought back in to review and propose our solution.

Not long after that, Carlos Gonzalez, part of the procurement & store group (on Vallarta’s GMC side), attended his first StorePoint Fresh event. Not only did he sit in our boardroom presentation where he got our Flo company overview, but we also had a 1-on-1 meeting where he shared his frustration over his current store situation. He said that dehumidification was never considered previously because his former family members didn’t think it was important in California. He felt the HVAC units were oversized, making the space too cold, which in turn would make his customers grab what they wanted and run out instead of enjoying the shopping experience. I told Carlos, “Carlos! That is the reason Flo exists!” Carlos left the event and went back to his boss, Sandie Nunez, and declared to her that he wanted to use our units on their upcoming stores. (According to Sandie, his exact words were, “Sandie, I met a girl, I love her, and I want to buy units from her”. Lol).

This is where our teamwork at Flo comes into play and where the two other channels connected us to both sides of the Vallarta business! Through Peter Reist’s growing relationship with the Hillphoenix team, he ended up getting connected with the Hillphoenix – Vallarta account owner, Paul Sylwanowicz. Paul was providing the CO2 refrigeration system for the Vallarta 57 Salinas store and had been advising them to get away from the large air handlers they had specified and to work with Flo to right-size and implement CO2 heat reclaim, which would also help them meet the California Title 24 requirements. Paul connected us with the store’s design engineering team, Pacific Engineering, who didn’t have experience in food retail, and Peter and I met with them to get our units understood and specified.

I also kept Carlos in the loop, and when the time came, Carlos gave us a PO for our very first Vallarta store! Shortly after came the order for Vallarta 58 Watsonville, before our units even shipped for the first store! Then 2 more orders followed that have yet to ship. We also have 2 more stores in design for the GMC side that are expected to turn around quickly.

Peter Reist had also been developing an amazing relationship with the guys at CoolSys Energy Design, namely the president, Ben Rosenweig. In many meetings, Peter successfully got Ben and his team excited about our technology and innovations — including that of boost reclaim. This was a home run when Justin Pratt hired CoolSys to do the new proto design on their upcoming fleet of stores, and we were specified and direct purchased (Vallarta 59 Clovis- with boosted reclaim) — our first store on the EG side! It also went on from there — we currently have 2 more stores in design on the EG side as well. Justin expects to have a store kick off every 90 days moving forward!

Behind the Scenes

Our first store was not without issues to say the least. Jen Shrout and Brooke Griesemer navigated the on-site trades lack of completing their tasks, the ever-changing schedules, along with urgent calls to jump in and get Start-up completed. Brett Shinn personally went to this site and spent much time troubleshooting, advising, training and getting the modems installed, for which we were super grateful!

Laura Semidey and Peter Reist were pulled into multiple meetings and email strings with me and the Vallarta team members regarding controls tie-ins. It seems that Pacific Engineering had accidentally left out the Emerson BMS originally — a giant OOPS — so Prime had to piece mill one on site.

A few weeks prior to the Grand Opening, we received two invitations from Vallarta; one for a “Vendor Appreciation Night” on the eve of Grand Opening and one for the actual Grand Opening. The vendor appreciation night is where Vallarta celebrates all their vendors, who in turn get a sneak peek at the new store, try their specialties, and essentially celebrate how all the hard work successfully came together. I had never experienced this before, and Alex and I RSVP’d that we would be honored to attend.

Alex and I showed up to walk the store and check on our units during the afternoon of November 14th, hours before the vendor appreciation party was to begin. The hustle and bustle happening was nothing I had ever been privy to see before; literally hundreds of workers assembling and stocking shelves, installing displays, putting up signage, pricing, painting, you name it! We immediately went up to the roof, but I truly had no idea how in just a few hours from then, there would be a party in the space!

They pulled it off! A few short hours later, we showed up for the Vendor Appreciation Event — and boy, was it an event! The store looked amazing (still some scuttling around with employees tagging shelves, etc.), but it looked ready somehow! We were met with a lovely spread of their famous tacos, appetizers, drinks, and desserts — also, with a DJ and some fun photo ops set up. The speeches were also heartwarming — not only did they honor their own Gonzalez family members and those who had gone before them, but they also did shout outs and big thank yous to many suppliers, contractors, and installers alike.

Early the next morning began the celebration of their Grand Opening. This included tents set up outside with free giveaways (tacos, drinks, snacks, and products) and a huge lineup of excited shoppers wrapped around the building. The shoppers started the line in the very early morning hours as Vallarta provides free groceries to the first few hundred shoppers. When the ceremony began, they had local dancers in traditional Mexican costume dance in different age groups — it was colorful and beautiful. This was followed by speeches made by various Vallarta staff and family members, donation cheques to local schools and charities, and then a ribbon cutting ceremony. The doors opened while a mariachi band played outdoors and eventually made its way into the produce area. To say this was the most impressive Grand Opening I’ve ever attended would be an understatement!

Alex and I made our way back to the roof, only to find many issues and alarms with our units. Fuses were popping and thankfully, Gabe from Prime Refrigeration was still on site getting things running on the refrigeration and controls side and was kind enough to spend hours with us on the roof. We troubleshooted remotely with Allen, Richard and Laura, who determined that along with a few settings that needed adjustment, AC-1 was blowing fuses due to an issue with the fire alarm wiring brought to our unit with a short-to-ground wire. Not only did Gabe ensure our unit was running before we left, he also purchased and paid for extra fuses, which are not cheap!

The Vallarta team was able to get the proper team there (the following day) and got the fire alarm wiring rectified. There were other minor issues that continued to creep up over the next few weeks, but Jen and team got them all taken care of. As for the Vallarta team, they felt things had gone smoothly and that they had been well supported and taken care of — our number one goal at Flo always!

More recently, June 11th & 12th, Chad and I attended our 2nd Vallarta “Vendor Appreciation Night” and Grand Opening for their Watsonville store. This time, I would say that the behind-the-scenes was extremely stressful on the Vallarta team. Our team (another shout out to Jen!) did a great job navigating start-up, as natural gas was not brought to the site until just before GO (don’t worry, we can still operate and use heat reclaim to heat the space — but more importantly, they need gas for kitchen equipment!), so we had to break it into two visits.

The day before the vendor appreciation party, the store failed safety inspection and grand opening was in question. Luckily, they got things fixed (not sure what happened there) and they passed inspection on June 11th- literally in the nick of time to proceed.

During the store walk on the 11th before the party, things looked even farther behind than they had at the previous store. Luckily this time as I went onto the roof, the start-up contractor Jen had scheduled had come back and we were able to discuss a few concerns, and he already had a handle on the remaining items.

Despite the major setbacks and total exhaustion of the Vallarta team, they again pulled it off. Although there was certainly a level of stress in the air, the vendor appreciation party was a lovely evening of food, drinks, photos, music, with only one speech. Chad and I were blown away by the sheer number of Gonzalez family members that came and thanked us for our partnership. What do you say back other than … it should be us thanking you!

Grand Opening began in the exact same way as previously, only this time, there were far more shoppers than Vallarta had expected or had even seen before. Not only that, but near the end of his speech, Cesar Gonzalez stated that people didn’t want to keep hearing them talk, they wanted to shop, so he would get to the celebration. What he meant was the ribbon cutting ceremony; however to the large crowd, it meant proceed to the entrance to shop! Chad captured an incredible video of this as shoppers began to stampede into the store, which rattled many of the Vallarta staff even though there was security, albeit not much.

We never expect that everything will run perfectly, however our experience with Vallarta proves that it is the way you deal with setbacks and issues that cement our relationship and status with our customers. Seeing how many issues they need to deal with, it makes our one piece feel rather small! On the other hand, having our piece run smoothly without them having to worry about it, takes a huge load off their shoulders.

What is truly amazing when Vallarta enters a community is the impact they have on it. Not only are they bringing jobs to locals, and amazing Hispanic food, but they bring in their own chefs and bakers who stay for a few weeks to train the local staff to ensure quality is upheld. In addition, they also have a store operations point person who also stays behind to ensure smooth store operation before leaving it to the local team.

It is really an honor to partner with Vallarta Supermarkets in their growth and exciting trajectory. What an amazing fit with their focus on honoring family and customers alike!