Grocery Outlet opens in Ephrata

EPHRATA — Jason Mitchell got in line at midnight.

Just so he could be one of the first people in the door when Ephrata’s new Grocery Outlet formally opened on Thursday morning.

“We waited since midnight,” Mitchell said. “This store is new and it’s closer, and we watched it being built.”

Mitchell may have gotten in line early, but he wasn’t the only person excited for the discount grocer to open. The line stretched through the parking lot, all the way out the sidewalk.

It may have helped that the first 200 customers got a gift card — and that one of those gift cards was worth $200.

“This is a big deal!” said Grocery Outlet Regional Marketing Manager Maria Marowski. “I love it when we have openings in towns like this, because the turnout is amazing!”

Grocery Outlet is a discount retailer headquartered in Emeryville, California, and manages to keep prices so low because the company’s independently owned and operated stores specialize in surplus, off-season and discontinued brands.

The 13,000-square-foot store located at 1460 SW Basin Street employs 27, is Ephrata’s first Grocery Outlet, and is only the second in Grant County.

“We started working grocery retail about five years ago and we fell in love with it,” said 27-year-old Laulea Gorbea, who with her 28-year-old husband Holden, owns and operates the new Ephrata Grocery Outlet. “I started as a cashier, he started as a stocker, we both fell in love with it, with customer service in general and with selling groceries.”

Both Gorbeas are natives of a small town on Maui, and like that “close-knit community feel,” she said. And that’s what made them want to come to work in Ephrata.

“When we first checked out this area, it was a such a charming place. In this little city, everyone was so welcoming. Even before we knew we were going to be the operators, we checked out different businesses in town, everyone was so nice,” she said.

“They only had good things to say about Ephrata,” Laulea added. “And since moving here, we see it with our own eyes.”

At the formal ribbon cutting Thursday morning, the Gorbeas handed a $1,500 check to the Columbia Basin Foundation to help with food programs across Grant and Adams counties. It’s only the beginning, Laulea said, of ways she and Holden hope to be involved in the community.

“They do amazing things,” she said of the foundation. “I love that they keep it in the Ephrata community,” she said.

Laulea said Grocery Outlet will work with the Ephrata Food Bank, donating much of what they cannot sell, and in July they are planning a month-long fundraising drive for the Ephrata Food Bank. In addition, she said they are also hoping to make their store available to school fundraising groups “as much as possible.”

Part of how she and Holden hope to do good while they do well.

“We’re excited to be a part of this community as much as possible,”Laulea said.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.