Copyright San Diego Union-Tribune
A new Grocery Outlet supermarket is coming to Pacific Beach, according to a banner on a vacant building on Garnet Avenue. The discount grocer has roughly 20 stores in San Diego County, from San Ysidro to Fallbrook. This store, at Garnet Avenue and Everts Street, will open in a relatively grocery dense area of Pacific Beach, a few blocks from a Trader Joe’s and Vons, and across the street from Sprouts. The closest Grocery Outlets are in Point Loma and Mira Mesa, so this location plugs a gap for San Diego’s central coastal neighborhoods. The building itself once housed a Trader Joe’s, Grocery Outlook buys excess products “for pennies on the dollar, passing the savings on to you.” The local store owners choose what to stock, “personalizing each store’s selection to its local community,” the website says. A few blocks east also on Garnet Avenue in Pacific Beach, Wild Fork has plans to open a store. The building is still under scaffolding, and the coming soon sign has been in place for months. When it opens, shoppers will be able to browse and buy online, and items will be either delivered or available for in-store pickup. Wild Fork sells specialty meat and seafood with one common thread: everything is “blast frozen at peak freshness.” Blast freezing is a way to freeze goods very fast, which helps boost safety and quality. “We partner with the best farms and producers to carefully curate over 700 high-quality products, free from 100 unwanted ingredients,” its website says. The company’s other San Diego County store is in Encinitas. Online car buyers can get same-day delivery Carvana shook up the auto sales industry by offering digital-only showrooms. No parking lots packed with cars and trucks gleaming in the San Diego sunshine. Its inventory was accessible in the shopper’s neat, small computer or smartphone screen. Now Carvana is adding one more layer of convenience in San Diego: same-day delivery, pickup and drop-off. Delivery for people buying a car and pickup or drop-off for those selling. On its website’s vehicle listings, the words “Get it Today” appear in bold black. Clicking leads to an option for same day delivery or next day pick-up. From there, customers can have the delivered to their house or can pick it up at one of Carvana’s signature vehicle Vending Machines. Until now, the fastest delivery option was next-day. San Diego is one of around 20 markets with this new faster service. The company can offer same-day delivery because it has the local logistics and resources, including local inspection and reconditioning centers where used cars are prepared for resale, it said in a news release. “We’ve already introduced thousands of San Diego customers to a new way to buy or sell a car, and with this launch, we’re proud to make the Carvana experience even faster and more convenient,” Jacqueline Hearns, Carvana’s senior director of market operations and expansion, said in the news release. “Our powerful e-commerce platform and deep local infrastructure let us now offer San Diego-area buyers the opportunity to go from online checkout to driveway delivery in a matter of hours.” Decorative toy store coming to La Jolla Does your child need more toys? Is collecting cute small objects a passion or a hobby? Are you or someone you love a fan of purchasing opaque boxes or bags that hold mysterious contents and opening them to find out what you have acquired? Ebisu, a toy store that offers precisely that experience, will open in the La Jolla Village Square mall between Trader Joe’s and PetSmart. The store will sell “blind boxes” and “decorative toys,” according to signs on its future front doors. The space has long had a gifting and home object focus. It once was a Pier 1 Imports and most recently Sea Hive La Jolla, with booths that sold “all things vintage, handmade, local, unique, and more.” Sea Hive closed its La Jolla business in February, but still has two locations in San Diego and one in Oceanside. For anyone curious and with five minutes to spare, this video shows an “unboxing” ritual of several Ebisu products by two consumers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZU04TwDpCmQ. Creepy teas at a distinguished tearoom The Westgate Hotel is hosting several enchanting teas at its Le Fontainebleau room and hopes you will join. The first event is the Witches of the Westgate Tea, this Saturday and Sunday. Sunday is sold out, but bookings remain for Saturday. Guests are “invited to don their most bewitching attire” and enjoy pastries, sandwiches, tea and cocktails, a brand representative wrote in an email. Adults can enjoy a champagne toast, and children will bring home a gift. And just after Halloween, on Nov. 2, the Westgate is hosting its Hocus Pocus Tea, where the chilling Sanderson Sisters will “put a spell on you as you sip freshly brewed tea potions, creepy cocktails, and devour frightfully delicious sandwitches and sweet treats.” Here, too, champagne and a gift will be offered to guests according to their age.
