Last week’s E-ticket was the Gelson’s La Cañada grand opening in Plaza de La Cañada. By 9 a.m. there was a line around the store. The crowds continued throughout the day, with shopper parking as far as one block away.
You could almost feel the spirit of Bernie Gelson. In an 2005 interview with the Daily News, Jack Brown, then chair of the Stater Brothers groceries, explained that Bernie Gelson was a people person. “Bernie saw the customers as guests in his home. It was his way of life.”
In that spirit, the La Cañada store was well-staffed for the opening day crowds. A clerk named Sara cheerfully took me on a tour of the store’s kosher products. Gelson’s will be the second store in town to stock kosher poultry. The first, of course, is our beloved Trader Joe’s, which sells kosher poultry and beef.
Corporate management was omnipresent and equally cheerful. Tim Redmond, senior director of Store Operations, drove out from Simi Valley. “Gelson’s is very happy to be in La Cañada,” he told me.