New North Sacramento store emphasizes fresh, affordable produce. Here’s where to find it
Carmen Cortez and her son filled their shopping baskets on Thursday morning with fresh jalapeño and serrano peppers, a sack of lemons, a bag of onions and a few packets of cucumbers.
“I can see that the vegetables and fruits are fresh,” Cortez said, as store staff restocked the cooler’s shelves at the recently opened Prime Time Nutrition in North Sacramento. “They’re changing them.”
The store opened just last month in the old Rent-A-Center on the corner of Northgate Boulevard and Cleveland Avenue. The chain of California grocery stores prioritizes bringing fresh produce to inner-city neighborhoods.
The new store provides residents of Sacramento’s Gardenland neighborhood with what community leaders say is a unique combination of quality, affordable and convenient produce, especially for people on food assistance programs like WIC, SNAP and EBT. Affordability and access to stores are two of the main barriers to healthy eating that disproportionately affect low-income people and neighborhoods. Studies have also shown that a lack of access to healthy food options is associated with poorer health outcomes.
“They’re located in the heart of Gardenland, and it’s very walkable for people in the neighborhood,” said Marbella Sala, president of the Gardenland Northgate Neighborhood Association. “It really gives them fresh food that’s very affordable, even more so than the big stores in our area.”
Prime Time Nutrition is located at 2400 Northgate Blvd. The store is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. and on weekends from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The company has seven other locations in Sacramento.
The store relocated to Gardenland from its old location near Del Paso Heights on Rio Linda Boulevard. The company’s mission is to provide a broad selection of high quality fruits and vegetables for affordable prices. A one-pound bag of Roma tomatoes costs only $2.50, and a quart of strawberries rings up for just $2.
Aside from Cortez, the store was empty and quiet on Thursday morning.
Cortez tries to go to stores that are tailored toward WIC customers like herself. She used to drive to the old Prime Time Nutrition location in Del Paso Heights, but the new location is much more convenient for her since it’s between her house and her mom’s home.
Store Manager Bezabet Diaz said traffic picks up more in the evenings after work, but since they changed locations, they’ve had fewer customers.
“We’re still trying to get the word out,” Diaz said of their new location.
The store offers online ordering and curbside pickup, an option tailored particularly toward parents with children who have limited time to shop. A customer can place their order on the Prime Time Nutrition app, select a 30-minute pick-up window, then drive up to their store and have a staff member bring the groceries directly to the car. They can pay with cash or card, as well as WIC, SNAP or EBT benefits.
Store leaders say they can keep their prices low because they operate on thinner profit margins than traditional stores and supermarkets.
“Our price points are extremely aggressive,” said Jon Giannini, general manager of parent company Nutricion Fundamental. He added that lower prices mean they tend to have less food sitting on the shelves going to waste. “I’d rather give it away than throw it away.”
Other nearby grocery stores include a Foods Co and a Smart & Final warehouse about a mile and a half north, a 99 Cents Only Store across the street and a Mexican market just a few blocks south. But Sala said the produce available at those stores are either low-quality and low-priced, or high-quality and high-priced. The new Prime Time Nutrition seems to thread the needle with high quality produce at an affordable price.
“We just need for people to know they exist,” Sala said.
