Santa Rosa grocery store Pacific Market has new owners

Grocery store Pacific Market has new owners.

The market, which has a location in Santa Rosa and another one in Sebastopol, was owned by Vasu Narayanan for about 10 years before being sold this week to Mar-Val Food Stores.

“I’m starting to feel like I want to slow down,” Narayanan said. “I have other stores in San Francisco and Pacifica, and I just want to slow down, to be honest.”

Narayanan wanted to make sure the market’s new owners shared his mindset about being a part of the community and being customer-forward.

He reached out to Mar-Val Food Stores because he wanted Pacific Market to continue being run by a family, and he felt that Mar-Val had a strong commitment to the business of grocery stores and the community.

“We have similar mindsets,” he said. “We are lucky enough to enter a very smooth transaction.”

Both Pacific Market locations will be run by Tyler Kidd and Casey Rodacker. Both represent the third generation at Mar-Val Food Stores. Their fathers -- Mark Kidd and Steve Rodacker -- are the current owners of Mar-Val based in Lodi.

“It’s our first venture on our own,” Casey said. “Not that we’re leaving the other stores. It’s all one big happy family, but it’s more of the third generation coming and taking over the second generation.”

Mar-Val Food Stores already has a footprint in Sonoma County as it acquired Glen Ellen Village Market back in 2018 and Gene’s Fine Foods in Pleasanton in 2012. Casey said acquiring both Pacific Market locations just expands that footprint.

Casey and Narayanan emphasized that while Pacific Market has new owners, everything will remain the same. Narayanan said staffing and managers are staying on during the transition, and any changes that do happen were plans that he was already looking to implement.

The first change, Casey said, was to add 1,200 square feet to the Santa Rosa location with renovations starting in March 2023.

“We’re starting to build off of what Vasu has created since he’s owned the stores,” Casey said. “He’s built a solid foundation, and we’re going to see if we can just grow it.”

Sara Edwards is the business reporter for The Press Democrat. You can reach her at 707-521-5487 or sara.edwards@pressdemocrat.com. Follow her on Twitter @sedwards380.