-March 29,2019-
It’s got to be the worst kept secret in Morro Bay. Every shopper that walks into the Morro Bay Cookie Crock grocery store on Quintana this week asks the same question. Is it true you are going to close?The response from every employee this reporter observed is affirmative. Each employee says they has been told to expect the closure in a few months, likely by May, with a big sale coming in April.
Management in the Cambria corporate office will not comment nor confirm the closure.
But there is no doubt – the place is for lease.The Bakersfield office of Newmark Grubb lists the property at 490 Quintana for lease,with a flyer first published last August. The lease covers 1.16 acres and 19,500 square feet under roof. Brokers with the company say the property is available within 30 to 60 days and the current tenant will vacate.
No word on who might replace the modest size store.Some comments on the popular social media website Next Door where the news was shared widely in recent days – suggest they will miss the home town atmposhere.”Where will I buy bird seed” “says one. Some hope it could mean Trader Joe’s comes while other responders puff that TJ will never happen here.
Cookie Crock has a store Cambria that will remain open. But the Cookie Crock location in Arroyo Grande closed in 2014. In its place in Arroyo Grande, German owned Aldi signed a lease for the former space, just under 24,000 square feet at what was the renovated shopping center in 2018. Aldi is operating there now.
Could the discount chain Aldi come to Morro Bay? The town is dominated by its largest player Albertsons, just a half block down the street from Cookie Crock.The other grocer in town is Central Coast owned Spencer’s.
Cookie Crock says it is the longest continuously operated independent super market on the Central Coast. Locally owned and operated -they brag they still bag your groceries with a smile. “We are your hometown supermarket, serving the central coast for three generations.”
The place started as a bakery in 1965 in Cambria – so you can imagine how they came upon their name.