A multitude of shovels  sometime after 10 a.m. this morning will be tossing Manteca’s trademark sandy loam in a groundbreaking ceremony.

It will mark the start of physical work for the city’s latest retail center on the southwest corner of South Main Street and Atherton Drive.

The hype for what will open by the end of 2027 isn’t about what will be Manteca’s second Chipotle, third Quick Quack car wash, sixth McDonald’s or its eighth Starbucks.

Before continuing, cue up the moans and groans on social media.

The buzz is about Manteca’s third Save Mart, and likely its first grocery store south of the 120 Bypass assuming it beats Food-4-Less to the punch.

Food-4-Less is breaking ground next month for its second Manteca store just over two miles to the west on Atherton Drive near Airport Way.

If someone else opened a grocery store in Manteca two miles away from where Mike Piccinini did in the 1940s, it would have had to have been north of Lathrop Road, near Sedan Road to the south, east of Austin Road, or west of Airport Way.

Manteca had less than 4,000 people at the time.

The grocery store Piccinini opened with his brother in the 100 block of North Main Street where Accent Carpets is located today, was light years away from what Save Mart has planned for what will be the 195th store the regional chain will operate.

Besides being able to fit around 30 or so Mike’s Markets within the 52,000 square-foot space being built for Save Mart at Atherton and Main, what the new store will offer makes what Piccinini had in in his store seem basic and primitive by comparison.

The same could be said of the first Save Mart store in Manteca that  Piccinini opened with his partner Nick Tocco in 1965 in space that is today home to Hafer’s Furniture in Lincoln Center on West Yosemite Avenue.

Thirteen years prior in 1952, the partners opened their first Save Mart store in Modesto.

One little tidbit that some might appreciate is that Piccinini opened Mike’s Market just around the corner from ACE Hardware in the 100 block of East Yosemite Avenue that ended a 51-year run in 2000. Among the owners were Aldo and Mabel Brocchini.

The land where the new Save Mart is going  is owned by the Brocchini Partnership that is teaming with California Gold Development in bringing the Marketplace @ Manteca to fruition.

Tuck that kernel into the “it’s a small world” file.

As for the naysayers behind the “we don’t need another Save Mart” rant, they need to get out more.

The two Manteca Save Mart stores in Manteca are entirely different than what Save Mart built in Ripon, Tracy, Lathrop, and recently in Modesto.

And what they are bringing to Manteca is an evolved concept of those stores.

The late Bob Piccinini, who served as Save Mart CEO for years after taking over ownership of the grocery chain from his father Mike, in 2002 noted in an interview that the two Manteca locations on West Yosemite and North Main were “small for grocery stores” at the time.

Piccinini, a Manteca High grad, noted they were still viable. That meant they were profitable.

It is because Save Mart’s model is not that of a discounter or specialty store.

Save Mart operates somewhere in between and is a true neighborhood supermarket, numerous notches above a convenience store. Each subsequent generation of Save Marts have added specialty store touches.

And back in 2002, people were asking when was Piccinini going to build a third Save Mart in Manteca.

The answer ended up being 25 years down the road.

That’s because the likes of Amazon, Costco, Walmart, and Target turned the high volume, low margin grocery business on its head.

Save Mart clearly knows how to survive and thrive as times change.

It is why their two Manteca stores, even with their limited square footage, have evolved since they initially opened.

It’s a safe bet the new Save Mart will be a different shopping experience.

The grocery business has come a long way since Goodale Cash & Carry opened the first such store in Manteca in 1896.

It was the third the size of a typical modern Manteca tract home.

The parking lot was dirt with the prerequisite hitching posts.

Shoplifting probably occurred but it was limited at best.

Most of the staples where stocked on shelves behind the counter.

A clerk filled your order.

Not that much different than the trend to lock high theft items today behind glass doors such as Food-4-Less in Manteca was forced to do with Spam.

There were no shopping carts, no self-checkout, and no deli.

There were also other non-food dry goods, similar to the current Target and Walmart business models.

Things eventually evolved in Manteca and elsewhere where there was a proliferation of grocery only stores.

And long before Amazon, people were using phones to place grocery orders packed in boxes that were typically delivered by an older high school kids driving an old pickup.

They waited until someone answered the door.

Usually, they knew the customer on a first name basis.

They also would carry the groceries into the kitchen.

And there was no expectation of a tip.

Emerging chain stores such as Purity Markets and Safeway joined the grocery fray in Manteca.

They didn’t offer home delivery, but they had larger selections and often lower prices.

Post World War II in Manteca saw the advent of shopping centers and a surge in automobile use.

Local “modern” grocers such as New Deal, El Rancho, and Big Boy Market popped up with even bigger stores.

Nationally and locally, grocery stores started carrying sundries such as toiletries and office supplies, irking businesses’ whose retail turf they were invading.

That led to instances where independents supplied by distributors such as Rexall Drugs started carrying canned and packaged food items.

It also triggered the stamp wars — S&H versus Blue Chip.

The line has since been forever blurred for grocery stores.

To keep competitive, they’ve evolved into places where you can secure fresh prepared food and even smoothies.

It is why when Save Mart, or even Food 4 Less, indicated their new stores won’t be the same old that you can take them at their word.

You’ve got to wonder, though, when Mike Piccinini some 80 or so years ago, flipped over the open sign for the first time on the door at Mike’s Market that in his wildest dreams thought the first customer to walk through the door that day would start a journey that would lead to a grocery store 30 times his size opening a mile south of Manteca in the middle of what was then farmland.

This column is the opinion of editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com