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A Smart & Final Extra! store opened May 4 in the Five Points Shopping Center on Upper State Street.
The Extra! represents the chain’s larger, reformatted line of stores that the company says “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.”
Other Smart & Final Extra! stores are located in Goleta’s Hollister Village Plaza and on South Broadway in Santa Maria. In March, another opened on Linden Avenue in Carpinteria.
The Five Points location is representative of the chain’s effort to increase its presence from one to two stores in places Smart & Final already serves, store manager Nadine Flores told Noozhawk.
Another traditional Smart & Final is already on 217 E. Gutierrez St. Other California cities like Oxnard are in the process of opening a second store.
After the Bellingham, Wash.-based Haggen grocery chain was forced to close scores of stores as it navigated Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year, Albertsons, Sprouts Farmers Market, Vons, and Smart & Final rushed to fill the gaps in the Santa Barbara County.
Haggen filed a $1 billion lawsuit against Albertsons, which it accused of sabotaging its entrance into the Pacific Southwest market, and ultimately settled for less than 1 percent of that amount.
The specially punctuated Extra! stores were first established in 2008, but the company traces its lineage back to 19th-century Los Angeles and in 1914 rebranded with the “Smart & Final” moniker. Between its regular and Extra! banners and its Cash&Carry Smart Foodservice, Smart & Final operates 250 grocery and foodservice stores in California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Nevada, Idaho and Northern Mexico.
The Santa Barbara store, at 3943 State St., is open every day from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Goleta Gains Another U-Haul Dealer
Giffin Rental, one of the oldest companies in Goleta, has agreed to be a neighborhood dealer for the moving-equipment and storage-rental giant U-Haul.
Giffin — which buys, sells and rents construction equipment — and its welding supply store Western Welding will have U-Haul trucks, trailers, towing equipment, and other towing items and services available at its 285 Rutherford St. location.
Giffin employee Ash Ryan told Noozhawk that people would routinely request U-Haul-type vehicles from the company even though they didn’t carry them, which made the partnership a natural fit.
Being located near UC Santa Barbara was another incentive for partnering, Ryan said, with students requiring moving vehicles and equipment to move their belongings between back home and their campus or Isla Vista residences.
U-Haul has its own location at 4417 Hollister Ave. and two other neighborhood dealers in Casey’s Garage and Discount Smog at 6398 Hollister Ave. and Goleta Motors at 5720 Hollister Ave.
Giffin Rentals’ hours are 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday.
UCSB to Open Starbucks on Campus
Starbucks has finally found a home at UCSB.
The coffee shop is expected to open in the University Center in November, and will be owned and operated by the university, according the campus’ Daily Nexus. It will employ students.
The Daily Nexus cited “UCen” governing board meeting minutes that revealed that the building has been running a nearly $750,000 deficit for almost a year. To meet that deficit, the UCen decided to replace Nicoletti’s, the campus’ only proper coffee shop, with a more profitable national brand.
Starbucks is expected to bring in more foot traffic than Nicoletti’s, which has been in the UCen for more than a quarter-century. The Seattle-based company beat out Peet’s Coffee and The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf for the spot.
Starbucks also has a location in Isla Vista at 888 Embarcadero del Norte.
Community West Bank Expands Along the Coast
Goleta-based Community West Bank is planning to open a branch in Oxnard by the end of the year. The bank’s latest approved branch, to be at 300 East Esplanade Drive in the Topa Financial Plaza tower, will be Ventura County’s third location, with others in Ventura and Westlake Village.
Community West Bank is owned by bank holding company Community West Bancshares, which is headquartered at 445 Pine Ave. in Goleta, and has locations on Hollister Avenue in Goleta, State Street in Santa Barbara and South Miller Street in Santa Maria.
The bank, which has been around since 1989, also plans to open a branch on Broad Street in San Luis Obispo, according to a statement by president and CEO Martin Plourd.
“We feel that there is real opportunity for growth in Ventura County, serving the financing and cash management needs of local businesses,” Bryan Easterly, senior vice president and regional market manager, said in a statement.
— Noozhawk staff writer Sam Goldman can be reached at sgoldman@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.