Save Mart is redefining the concept of a neighborhood market.

The home grown San Joaquin Valley grocer that has served customers for 73 years has broken ground on a 52,000 square-foot store — one of the biggest Save Marts ever — at Atherton Drive and South Main Street.

Besides offering everything from expanded organic foods and more robust shopping options, Save Mart is also working to make sure it dovetails into today’s lifestyle by evolving into the go-to place in the neighborhoods it will serve.

And it is doing so, in part, by making it a place for quick Amazon returns and even package pickups.

Self-serve kiosks will eliminate a need to travel across town to Amazon authorized drop offs or parcel service stores.

Instead of special trips and dealing with possible long lines, you can take care of Amazon return shipping as part of a trip to the grocery store.

And if the kiosk becomes too popular, and it generates wait time?

“We’ll add more kiosks,” Save Mart President Jim Perkins said after Tuesday’s ground breaking.

The new Manteca Save Mart will also be part of the Amazon Prime online grocery delivery service Northern California’s largest regional grocer entered into with Amazon.

Perhaps the highest profile add on when the third Save Mart debuts in 2026 will be the Tipping Point, an in-store casual dining counter service restaurant.

The concept is fairly new as it was included in a Redding location that opened in 2020 and is part of the Oakdale Road location in east Modesto.

Besides a fairly robust menu built around 36 tri-tip, chicken, and pulled pork options based on the Redding menu, it also offers craft beer and wine.

Plans call for indoor seating as well as an outdoor dining area.

The restaurant will also offer online delivery as well as pickup.

“Our plans are still in the conceptual stage,” Perkins noted as to other specifics.

That said, Perkins made it clear that Save Mart will work hard to be the neighborhood grocer of choice as it rethinks how it operates in the full-service market between discount and specialty grocers.

Adding the Amazon drop off and casual dining restaurant fits into the hectic daily lifestyle of many of South Manteca’s households.

It is where many of time-strapped supercommuters reside that have made the South San Joaquin County region the fastest growing area in the nation for workers that spend at least 90 minutes traveling one way to work.

It is also where young families are powering growth that saw the bulk of 1,130 housing starts in the 12 months ending June 30.

Some might call many of the households “soccer families” for the intense amount of time they devote to their children’s activities.

Mayor Gary Singh alluded to it when he predicted the sixth Manteca McDonald’s location — going on the southwest corner of Atherton and Main as part of the Marketplace @ Main that Save Mart will anchor — “will probably be the busiest in town.”

It’s not just a reference to the large area of southeast Manteca south of the 120 Bypass that has few dining and day-to-day needs retail options, but also it is four blocks or so to Woodward Park.

Not only is Woodward Pak where the bulk of local soccer play takes place, but it is also ground zero for many Northern California soccer tournaments.

Perkins noted the Save Mart strategy to stay atop of the neighborhood full-service market niche includes the company’s move to lower prices on 4,000 items in its stores.

Save Mart is also directing its neighborhood strategy into another area — hardware.

It has just opened an ACE Hardware in San Jose.

The company is exploring possibly adding hardware sections, a store within a store, or possibly an adjacent ACE Hardware store at various locations.

Perkins hinted broadly that the new ACE strategy may be worked into the new Save Mart.

At this point it is a big “if”, but with a junior anchor tenant space approaching the size of the new supermarket planned in the second phase of Marketplace @ Main just a door or two away, Save Mart  could bring the first hardware store to south of the 120 Bypass as well as the first supermarket.

The location could also work will for the new store to tap into the regional market instead of just the rapidly growing south Manteca neighborhoods.

That’s because of the high profile location essentially a block from the Main Street interchange on the 120 Bypass — the heaviest traveled  commuter artery in the Northern San Joaquin Valley outside of Interstate 205 in Tracy.

It means Save Mart could snag Bay Area commuters up and down the Highway 99 corridor — or who use East Highway 120 to head toward Escalon and beyond — to tackle grocery shopping, pick up a ready-to-eat dinner, and make Amazon returns on their way home.

The Marketplace @ Main first phase will not only include Save Mart and McDonald’s, but also a Chipolte digital kitchen, a Quick Quack car wash, and a Starbuck’s.

The center is a joint partnership of California Gold Development and the Brocchini Family Partnership.  

 To Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com