Mirta Rodriguez of Wilkes-Barre is seen shopping at the newly opened Bravo Supermarket at 319 S. Main St., for the first time on Tuesday. She raved about it.
Jerry Lynott | Times Leader
Bravo Supermarket lives up to name, customer says
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Wilkes-Barre’s newest grocery store, Bravo Supermarket at 319 S. Main St., seen here, opened July 1.
Jerry Lynott | Times Leader
The new Bravo Supermarket at 319 S. Main St. in Wilkes-Barre is stocked with fresh produce and meats, canned goods among other merchandise.
Jerry Lynott | Times Leader
WILKES-BARRE — Mirta Rodriguez’s first visit to the newly opened Bravo Supermarket won’t be her last.
The city resident raved about the store Tuesday after shopping at it with her husband, Umbery Santos.
Rodriguez purchased goat in the meat department and found other items in the aisles and on the shelves to prepare meals from her native country, the Dominican Republic. Even outside, she checked out the stacked cardboard boxes filled with green bananas, yuca roots, avocados, limes, cantaloupes and papayas.
“I see everything so organized. I love it the way it is,” Rodriguez said. “I give it 100 %.”
The store, one of more than 70 independently owned Bravo brand neighborhood grocery stores catering to Hispanic customers, was first announced late last year.
John Marquez, who also owns a Bravo store in Lancaster, was attracted by the location and the area’s growing Hispanic population.
Marquez said the store at 319 S. Main St. opened July 1 and has been well received.
“We had a wide variety of people from different countries,” Marquez said. “They liked it.”
Customers will notice the emphasis on keeping everything “neat, clean and fresh,” Marquez said.
The store employs 20 people and five of them are butchers in the meat and deli department. “They cut whatever the person wants,” Marquez said.
In addition to the fresh meats, the market stocks fresh produce, frozen foods, dairy products and Krasdale Foods and other brand name products. It has off-street parking and is open seven days a week, from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday.
At approximately 6,000 square feet, “it’s probably a smaller store” compared to other supermarkets, Marquez said. “But we have all the variety.”
Reach Jerry Lynott at 570-991-6120 or on Twitter @TLJerryLynott.