Bi-Rite plans Richmond market, bringing local grocer to west side

Bi-Rite Market is moving toward the Richmond District, where its arrival could change more than the storefront at California Street and 22nd Avenue. The San Francisco grocer is targeting a 2027 opening at 6001 California St., a former corner market in an area where residents and city leaders have treated grocery access as a neighborhood issue, not just a retail one.

The company has engaged a lease for the site, though the deal is not yet finalized because contingencies remain. The building itself dates to 1917 and sat vacant for roughly two years. Permit filings have already pointed to about $380,000 in approved upgrades, including new toilets and accessibility work. If the project goes forward, Bi-Rite said it would create roughly 75 jobs and become the company’s fourth neighborhood market in San Francisco.

That makes the Richmond opening about more than adding another upscale grocery to the city’s west side. In a district where many households live farther from the kind of specialty, full-service market Bi-Rite has built its reputation on, the company is pitching the store as a walkable option for daily shopping. Co-CEO Patrick Mills said there is “a real need for a walkable grocery store in this part of Richmond.” Nearby shoppers could gain easier access to the produce, prepared foods and specialty items that have made Bi-Rite a destination in the Mission and, more recently, on Polk Street in Russian Hill.

The Richmond store would also arrive as San Francisco continues to grapple with grocery stability. The city passed a 2024 ordinance requiring large supermarkets to give six months’ notice before permanently closing, after recent disruptions including the Bayview Lucky closure. At the same time, the City and County of San Francisco backed a grant for The Richmond Neighborhood Center to provide free, high-quality, culturally tailored groceries in the Richmond District, underscoring how basic food access has become part of local policy.

For Bi-Rite, the move fits a larger expansion plan. The company says its 10-year growth strategy calls for two to three new markets by 2030, while also deepening support for San Francisco nonprofits focused on food, youth and education. The chain traces its roots to a Mission District market opened on 18th Street in 1940, later bought by Jack and Ned Mogannam in 1964 and reimagined by Sam Mogannam in 1998 with a central kitchen and farm-direct foods. Its Polk Street store, which opened in 2024, was described as its largest at about 4,000 square feet.

The Richmond location, with its old blade signage and neon remnants still marking the corner, would bring that history west, into a neighborhood where the question is not just who gets a new store first, but who benefits most from having one within walking distance.