The Save Mart Companies’ Madera, California, store got a facelift earlier this year as the company goes on a remodeling tear.
The extensive changes include the addition of an on-site florist, a refreshed bakery cake case and a larger selection of prepared produce items. The location also beefed up its ready-to-cook offerings as well as expanded its Hispanic food product assortment across departments.
“We’ve taken a good foundation of what we built over time with solid grocery store departments … and we’ve just enhanced them even more,” Bobby McDowell, vice president of store operations for the Save Mart banner, said in an interview. “And in some cases, [like] with this store, we took what was already a program, and we just showcased it better in this location.”
But Save Mart’s Madera location isn’t the first — nor the last — to receive a makeover.
Since August 2025, The Save Mart Companies has refreshed six stores: three Save Mart locations, including the Madera store; two FoodMaxx locations; and one Maxx Value store, the grocery company confirmed.
“We’re going to get through every single store in our company,” McDowell said. “We’ve actually undergone a process where we’ve drawn up what we want to do in every location.” He added that it will take the company approximately three years to renovate the entire store fleet.
These changes come as store remodels have taken on heightened importance among food retailers looking to elevate their store experiences, whether through unique store offerings or improved value messaging. Walmart, for example, plans to undertake more than 650 remodels across its supercenters and Neighborhood Market stores this year. Meanwhile, Ahold Delhaize noted improved financial performance from its Stop & Shop banner as the chain both remodels stores and rolls out sweeping price investments.
McDowell talked through the major changes made to the Madera location, using it as an example to show that efforts to revamp The Save Mart Companies’ entire fleet focus on elevating what’s already offered while adding community-specific needs.
Stop and smell the roses
Though not food-focused, the Madera floral department showcases one of the most notable before-and-after differences, according to McDowell. The department onboarded an in-house florist — a service not previously offered, he said.
The company also installed a new flower case to highlight the different arrangements in vases.
McDowell pointed to Mother’s Day, a known flower-buying holiday, to underscore the early success of the new department: Of The Save Mart Companies’ approximately 200-store footprint, the Madera location ranked sixth in floral sales for Mother’s Day week.
The icing on the cake
All of Save Mart’s stores have on-site cake decorators, and now the chain’s Madera location has a display worthy of those desserts.
The store now displays its cakes in a 12-foot-long glass case to better showcase Save Mart’s professionally decorated pastry, McDowell said.
“A lot of what we’re doing is some new programs, but a lot of it is just to really showcase what we have already [but] better,” he said, nodding to the cake department as a prime example of this approach.
More from fresh
Save Mart’s produce section features a new layout that offers more fresh-cut offerings to shoppers, McDowell said.
“You’re met with the impactful produce display. And then on the right side, you have what looks like about 16 feet of fresh-cut produce that we cut in store,” he said.
The grocer expanded offerings in this section of the store to include prepared items such as fruit parfaits, guacamole and salsa, per a press release.
But fresh doesn’t stop with produce, as the Save Mart store also made improvements to its butcher and seafood counters as well as grew its deli offerings, McDowell said.
Save Mart’s meat and seafood counter added a shelf to stock ready-to-cook cuts, while the store’s deli section is where customers can find ready-to-eat offerings.
Hispanic offerings
Rather than simply affixing Hispanic items to a broader “ethnic food aisle,” McDowell said the grocer added these items across departments as part of the revamp.
When determining what to introduce to its assortment, Save Mart took an analytical as well as a “boots on the ground” approach, McDowell said. For example, in the produce department, Save Mart added value pods — cases that showcase low-priced options — that offer a variety of goods, including some Hispanic food items. McDowell noted the Hispanic offerings in these pods are performing “extremely well.”
Each store renovation that The Save Mart Companies is carrying out centers on better meeting customer needs. For the Madera location, the banner learned that more Hispanic product offerings, as well as specialty departments like floral, were in demand.
“Customers are telling you what they’re looking for, and then you bring those things in, and you see if they actually sell in your store,” he said. “But we do a pretty extensive analytical, deep dive into the demographics, into what we call, ‘gapping on’ in that particular market area where we may be missing the boat.”
