FOUR CORNERS, Mont. – El Mercadito, a new Four Corners grocery store specializing in Latino food and goods, celebrated its grand opening event on Saturday.
Everyone who attended from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. was given free tamales and atole as a way of getting people familiar with the new store.
El Mercadito began operation about three weeks ago, run by a Bozeman family who wanted to fill a void in the community when it came to Latino goods. Andrew Garcia said many of the products his family sells weren’t available to customers before.
“We have a lot of Latinos now here in Bozeman, and our community needed something like this,” said Garcia. “We figured we could get a lot of our stuff and products down from south, like Southern America, and just make life a little more comfortable for us out here too.”
Garcia said even though the store has been open for about 3 weeks, his family didn’t want to hold the grand opening until all of the items they wanted to sell arrived.
“For me, it is pretty important because it is part of my heritage. There is a lot of products here that I love and I grew up with, that I just enjoy to have and I think a lot of people look for the same things because when someone goes out of town we try to bring these same products back and its just nice to have them whenever you want to have them,” said Garcia.
Some of the goods El Mercadito sells include piñatas, candy, drinks, snacks, meat, prickly pears, aloe, manila mangoes, tamarind, and hibiscus.
The store is open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and on Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
