Barons Marketplace Opens to “Delicious” Reviews
After much buzz surrounding the opening of Barons Marketplace in Wildomar’s new Renaissance Plaza, the specialty and natural food market opened its doors to an eager crowd on February 11th and received terrific reviews. It features fresh local produce, everyday groceries that are all-natural, specialty cheeses, antipasto and hot soup bars, a bulk foods section, and an excellent wine and beer selection, all at competitive prices. Barons Marketplace is a welcome addition to Wildomar’s growing community.
So what has all the buzz been about? Well, it’s the food, of course. Barons Marketplace carries items that you won’t typically find in supermarkets. From specialty cheeses to artisan bread, fresh grab n’ go meals to organic frozen meals, they carry products that you would find in upscale markets on the east coast like Zabar’s in New York and Dean & Deluca in Washington, DC. The difference, however, is value. The buyers at Barons Marketplace negotiate fiercely to sell their specialty products for usually 25% to 35% less than those other markets. Joe Shemirani, President and founder of Barons Marketplace, believes that great food that is good for you shouldn’t cost a lot. “Our philosophy is simple,” explains Joe. “We carry quality products at rock-bottom prices every day. We don’t have hot specials, sales or reward cards. The only time our prices change, up or down, is if our costs change.”
A lot of work goes into choosing each and every product they carry. In fact, every Thursday at 2:00 PM, their tasting panel, made up of managers, assistant managers, supervisors, buyers, demo staff, Joe, and sometimes a customer or two, gets together to taste and evaluate each product that comes their way. “Out of about 100 items, we may choose about five to bring onto our shelves. If it’s great and meets our high standards of taste and quality, then we talk about price,” explains buyer, Bijan Moossazadeh (he is called ‘BJ’). “If we can bring it in at a competitive price, then it’s on its way to our shelves in a couple of weeks.” Joe adds, “No other market that we know of, does this.”
But perhaps the story behind Barons Marketplace is as interesting as the products they carry. In 1978, Joe left his job as a civil engineer in Maryland with hopes of starting his own business and bringing his brothers and other family members to San Diego from the east coast. He and his brothers opened a successful chain of discount wine stores throughout San Diego. With a desire to change the focus of the stores from wine to natural and specialty food, the family’s true passion, Joe and his brothers opened Barons Marketplace in 1990.
Joe says, “Our family has a passion for great food. Every Sunday evening, we gather the brothers, their wives and all the kids at the dinner table to eat, talk, and laugh. We believe that great food brings people together and we have a passion to bring great food to our community.” He says that his family shares their love of food and their love of family with their employees and customers. He insists that no matter how large the company grows, he will always treat his employees as part of his extended family. “Our employees love to work here because they feel that Barons Marketplace is their home,” said Joe. “Our motto is to work hard and have fun doing it because we believe that happy employees make for happy customers.” Exciting employees, exciting products creates exciting and fun experience for the customer.
After receiving over 300 job applications for the Wildomar market, store manager Sergio Guzman had the difficult task of narrowing down the pool of applicants to choose only 24 people. “The caliber of the people who applied was unlike anything we’ve ever seen. It was really tough to choose only 24 because the applicants were the best of the best,” said Sergio. “Training is going great. We’ve got this incredible team who are so excited to be working with us.”
Sergio knows a lot about the training process because he’s been with Barons Marketplace since he was 16 years old. He started out in the Point Loma market as a cashier and then worked his way up to assistant manager and then manager of the store. He and his family moved to the area when Barons Marketplace in Temecula opened in 2006. “I am so happy we made the move to this area. It’s a great place to be raising my family and the sense of community is amazing.”
The Shemirani family has been in the San Diego community for over 30 years. “Our children have grown up here, attending neighborhood schools, joining community centers, and have been involved in sports and other activities,” said Joe. Because they are a neighborhood market, they believe it’s important to sponsor local events such as school fun runs, humane society pet adoptions, and hospital foundations. It is also important to Barons Marketplace to support the local farming community by bringing the freshest produce to their customers from within the San Diego and Temecula areas. “When we work with local farms, not only do we know that we’re getting the freshest produce available but the shipping costs are incredibly low and we can then pass the savings on to the customer,” said produce manager, Justin Fennema. They work with local farms such as Be Wise Organic Ranch, Stehly Farms Organics, Taylor Ranch and Delfino’s Farm.
Here’s just a few of the comments and remarks we have heard from friends and neighbors in Bear Creek and LaCresta……. “Finally a high quality market in our neighborhood.” “What a wonderful selection of hot soups….” “Everything in Barons is beautiful and well laid out, it will be a pleasure to go grocery shopping.” “I know where the family’s having dinner tonight….in our home straight from Barons.” “Did you see the selection of wines and beers?” “The staff is so friendly, happy and accommodating.” “There are so many new and different products, it is an adventure strolling through the Marketplace.”
Even though Barons Marketplace is “unofficially” open, they are set to hold their grand opening celebration in March ― maybe. “We’ve had to postpone our grand opening twice due to bad weather,” said Debi Tauber, Marketing Manager for Barons Marketplace who’s coordinating the event. “We’ve got a terrific celebration planned, and if we have to huddle under tents during the party, we promise we’ll serve hot drinks!” Local musicians of the John Laskin band will be performing both Saturday and Sunday and chefs from Ravioli’s Italian Bistro and D’Canters restaurant will be offering samples of their favorite dishes. There will be balloons, face painting for the kids and lots of great food. Rachel Shemirani, Marketing Manager for Barons Marketplace adds, “We want this to be a community event where everyone will have a great time.”
In the meantime, before the grand opening celebration is announced, the entire Barons Marketplace family and staff welcome you to stop by their Wildomar location, which is now open, and check out their market. They’re sure you’ll have a delicious experience too. The store is located at 32310 Clinton Keith Road, one block west of Interstate 15.