By Charles James

The parking lot at the newly renovated Smart & Final Extra! Store was full as eager shoppers looking for good prices on food and household goods flood into the store.

The store is over twice as large as the old store and carries many more products and choices. It will also employ about 40 employees. Always a good thing!

Inside the store has a completely new look with many more cashier lanes and a well-stocked produce section to the left as you enter the store. There is a large dairy and fresh meat section, and a greatly expanded liquor section. Next to the produce section is an extensive bulk foods department which nuts and other dry goods are sold from self-service bins.

Low prices have long made Smart & Final stores the store of choice for operators of small restaurants, catering companies, businesses, clubs and civic organizations looking to buy food products in bulk. There are also low prices on household goods such as cleaning products.

Smart and Final is headquartered in Los Angeles, where it was started 140 years ago says its website. Smart & Final Stores, Inc. operates approximately 276 grocery and foodservice stores under the “Smart & Final”, “Smart & Final Extra!” and “Cash&Carry Smart Foodservice” banners in California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Nevada, Idaho and Northern Mexico.

For household customers, Smart & Final stores provide a convenient, low-cost source for cooking and cleaning needs and are the preferred destination for stocking-up their kitchens and preparing for holidays, parties and events.

Smart & Final Extra!, one of the company’s newest store concepts. It is designed to enhance the household consumer’s shopping experience and includes changes to benefit business customers.

Smart & Final Extra! stores are much larger than a typical Smart & Final warehouse store and full of extra features. The stores carry a greatly expanded selection of products in key categories like produce, fresh meat, frozen foods, dairy, deli and grocery basics like cereal, yogurt, bread and snacks.

Smart & Final Extra! combines the high quality fresh produce of a farmer’s market, the low prices of a discount grocer and the large club size products of a traditional club store.

You don’t need to buy in bulk when you shop at Smart & Final Extra! It carries thousands of items in smaller, convenient sizes. They also accept special orders over the phone for pickup.

Current store hours are from 7am to 9pm daily, although there is talk that the hours may soon change and open earlier and stay open later to better serve customers.

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A grand re-opening is being held today at Smart & Final Extra! in Bishop.