Taiwanese grocery store 168 Market opens 2nd Bay Area location

Taiwanese grocery store 168 Market opened its doors to hundreds of waiting community members on Saturday.

Shoppers arrived at 765 Sereno Drive ahead of the store’s 9 a.m. opening by more than an hour. The store’s opening was preceded by a ribbon-cutting ceremony and a traditional Chinese lion dance by LionDanceME.

Vallejo’s 168 Market marks the second Bay Area location the chain has opened since being founded in 2006, with its first one in Fremont having opened in 2020. The grocery store is largely known for its Asian and international selections of produce, snacks and frozen items.

That variety of foods is what matches the demographics of Central Vallejo, where the store is located, 99 Ranch Market Chairman Jonson Chen said. 99 Ranch Market, the largest Asian supermarket chain in the United States, is owned by parent company Tawa Supermarket Inc., which also owns 168 Market.

Jonson’s father, Rodger, opened the first 99 Ranch in 1984 after emigrating from Taiwan. The now-closed shop was located in a predominantly Vietnamese community in the Southern California city of Westminster. Alice, Jonson’s sister, is the chief executive for the company.

“It’s such a diverse community here,” Jonson told the Times-Herald. “Obviously a strong Filipino base, but as well as Vietnamese, as well as some Japanese and Cambodian. It matches us so well.”

Fairfield resident CJ Polaris attended the store’s grand opening with her husband and father-in-law to buy teas for the colder weather and to purchase dim sum, small Cantonese dumplings and snack dishes typically eaten with tea. Polaris, who works in Vallejo, said the nearest Asian markets she travels to are Asian Mart in Fairfield and 3J’s Asian Market in Sassoon.

168 Market is based where the former In-Shape gym lay, an area Jonson described as having been run-down and in need of revitalization. The market submitted an application to Vallejo’s planning department in the fall of 2022, and Jonson said he is familiar with the land owners — Kin properties — from other market locations.

The Vallejo location for 168 Market is one of at least 10 food retailers in Central Vallejo, a stark contrast with South Vallejo’s Island Pacific Seafood Market on Springs Road. The U.S. Department of Agriculture deemed in 2011 three South Vallejo neighborhoods as food deserts — areas with low access to healthy food retail outlets.

Planning & Development Services Director Christina Ratcliffe told the Times-Herald the city’s Economic Development Department is actively engaging with food retail outlets to bring to South Vallejo. That department, she said, is in negotiations to establish a contract with a grocery chain — Ratcliffe declined to comment on what chain the city is corresponding with.