By Ian Thompson | DAILY REPUBLIC | January 19, 2008
A new County Square Market is being built on Peabody Road in Vacaville. Photo by Brad Zweerink
VACAVILLE - Vacaville will welcome its first Asian supermarket in mid-March when County Square Market opens its doors in what was once Chandler's Home Furnishings on Peabody Road.
The store is part of a major expansion by the Pleasant Hill-based specialty market, which is also in the process of opening a store in Antioch at about the same time as the Vacaville store.
Ann Lewald, who owns the chain along with her family, said the family is confident the growing Asian and Pacific Islander populations in the area can support the Vacaville store.
'We did a demographic study and we feel Vacaville is central to the whole Highway 80 corridor area,' Lewald said. 'A big population in Fairfield and Suisun (City), and enough population in Vacaville.'
County Square approached Vacaville a year ago after Chandler's closed its doors.
While upper Solano County has a good number of small Asian food stores, County Square will be the first major one with enough space to offer a wide variety of foods from across the Pacific Rim.
'We will have a full line of meat and seafood, our famous Chinese barbecue, whole roast ducks and pig, lots of fresh produce,' Lewald said. 'There will also be some household products that you don't find in most other grocery stores such as chinaware.'
Lewald and her family opened their first market in the early 1990s in San Francisco. They also had owned Jade Villa, a Chinese restaurant in Oakland's Chinatown.
County Square Market has been in Pleasant Hill since 1991. Lewald and her family took over ownership in 2001.
The Vacaville location is now in the later stages of being remodeled. The Antioch location is expected to open this spring, 'but not far off from the Vacaville opening,' Lewald said.
Reach Ian Thompson at 427-6976 or at ithompson@dailyrepublic.net.
