Fiesta Supermarket made from scratch

Around the corner from F Street on Poso Drive, Fiesta Supermarket sits within walking distance from seniors at the Poso Senior Apartments.

The store is filled with food items familiar to the Hispanic community. It offers its own bakery, meat market and a large selection of items often not found in regular supermarkets, such as fresh garbanzo beans. "We have foods from South America and Mexico," said store manager Attas Obaid.

The meat market offers a fresh selection of meat as well as a section of packaged meats. "Some people prefer to purchase their meat packaged," Obaid said.

All their baked goods are made from scratch, and their display is filled with colorfully decorated desserts.

"Our most popular item is our cornbread," Obaid said. "We grind our own corn and use no flour in our cornbread. The same goes for our homemade tortillas."

Obaid was born in South Yemen and arrived in California with his family in 1992.

"My father came to this country when he was just 17 years old," Obaid said. "He worked in the fields and moved to the Great Lakes and worked around the Panama Canal in the Merchant Marines."

"Our father started Fiesta Supermarket on 7th Street as Fiesta Latina Market," Obaid said. "When we decided to open a bigger store, we looked all over for a building we could use; however, we ended up building our own from the ground up."

The decorations on the walls imitate Spanish-style homes overlooking a street market. "Our artist created street scenes out of Styrofoam and painted them to look like real homes overlooking a market along the walls," Obaid said.

According to Obaid, Fiesta Supermarket and other small, family-owned stores were able to succeed during quarantine largely because they carried essential items that big-box stores ran out of. "I would say the first item we ran out of when the quarantine began was Lysol and disinfectants."

One of the advantages Fiesta Supermarket has had during this time is owning their own semi truck that travels to Los Angles and Mexico for products.

However, Obaid admitted that at times they were scrambling to get essential items for their customers like every other store.

In its current location for six years, Fiesta Supermarket is well lit, clean and offers a variety of foods enjoyed within the community.

Beyond groceries, Fiesta Supermarket wants to offer other basic services for its customers. The store is working on an agreement with the city to allow residents to pay utility bills at the market.