Gabriela Curiel of San Ysidro will be celebrating the opening today of the new Vallarta Supermarket in National City.
The mood will be festive at the 9 a.m. Wednesday grand opening of the 40,000-square-foot supermarket, the family-owned chain's 36th store. The event will feature mariachis and prizes to the first 300 customers.
Curiel, 36, will be among the more than 150 employees working at the Mexican-themed supermarket, which has a 5,000-square-foot kitchen along with a bakery and tortillería.
She's particularly thankful for the opportunity because she had been out of work for two years. She was laid off from her job as an office manager and will now be working as a general merchandise handler at the market.
"As soon as I filled out an application they called me," Curiel said. "It's a big opportunity. It's opening doors for me."
More than 3,500 people applied for positions at the supermarket on Euclid Avenue, near East Plaza Boulevard and the I-805 freeway, a sign of hard economic times in the region.
Unemployment in the county is about 10 percent, according to statistics. It is about 18 percent in National City, said Jacqueline Reynoso, chief executive officer of the National City Chamber of Commerce.
Latinos make up more than 60 percent of the city's population.
More than 70 percent of the people who were hired by the supermarket live in National City, according to the chamber. The high percentage was due largely to a tax break offered to businesses that hire locally. The store is in a state-designated enterprise zone, which are set up to boost employment in low-income areas.
Gov. Brown has proposed ending enterprise zones along with redevelopment agencies as part of an effort to raise revenue for the ailing state coffers. Brown said the state loses hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue from enterprise zones.
Reynoso said the program works and without it "it would hinder our ability to attract quality businesses into our community."
"This program has employed people who have been out of work and were receiving public assistance," she said. "It provides jobs and on the other side it helps the state save money because these people no longer need public assistance."
Vallarta Supermarket caters to Latinos and has a bakery that offers traditional Mexican sweet breads as well as a tortillería and a cremería with wide range of Latin-style cheeses and salsas.
The Vallarta chain was founded by the González family from Jalostotitlán, Jalisco.
The family immigrated to the United States in the 1960s and members worked in restaurants cooking and busing tables, according to the Los Angeles-based chain's website.
The family opened its first store, a 1,000-square food market, in Van Nuys in 1985. The store is National City is the chain's second in San Diego County; the first opened in Escondido.
Leonel.sanchez@sandiegored.com
