African and Caribbean specialty grocery store in Oakland to close after 42 years

Specialty Foods Inc., an African Caribbean market in Oakland, will close after serving the area for 42 years. They started as a Filipino market in the 1970s before switching their focus to West African and Caribbean goods by the 1980s. In this undated photo, owner Nina Cruz is pictured with her mother. less Specialty Foods Inc., an African Caribbean market in Oakland, will close after serving the area for 42 years. They started as a Filipino market in the 1970s before switching their focus to West African and ... more Photo: Courtesy Of Specialty Foods Inc. Photo: Courtesy Of Specialty Foods Inc. Image 1 of / 49 Caption Close African and Caribbean specialty grocery store in Oakland to close after 42 years 1 / 49 Back to Gallery

For decades, grocery store Specialty Foods Inc. was known around Oakland as the go-to site for unique African Caribbean goods and ingredients. But after years of sourcing and selling the items, Specialty Foods will close this month.

In late August, a large green poster positioned over the main entrance informed customers that the store would close by the end of September, but that date has been pushed back until next week while products get sold. Owner Nina Cruz says she’s been getting offers from potential buyers, too.

“Our original plan was to close down, but we're getting interest from buyers and have continued the business. We're entertaining those offers,” Cruz said.

Cruz said that each buyer who has expressed interest in purchasing the store has said that they want to continue the same business model, but nothing is certain yet. Specialty Foods Inc. is located at 535 8th Street in Oakland.

The closure comes at a landmark moment for Cruz as she awaits the birth of her first child. She admits though that if she weren't pregnant, she would keep going.

“The business we have is a little bit complex than your standard grocery store, because it requires a lot of culture, knowledge training, like knowing the [different] names for one particular item. It was hard to find someone who would be dedicated to do all that stuff.

“I knew it was going to be hard to juggle both being self-employed and being a first-time mom. Family is more important at the end of the day, so that’s why we're putting family first," Cruz said.

In fact, family has always been at the core of the business. Cruz’s two sisters, Leilani and Marie, and her nephew, Kenneth Dimanlig, have helped her run the shop since she took ownership 10 years ago. Prior to her tenure, her parents were the original owners starting in the 1970s when the shop opened as a Filipino market.

Years later, when the Filipino population began to move away to other parts of the Bay Area, her parents shifted the business model around the 1980s. During that same time, immigrants from West African and the West Indies started to move into the Old Oakland neighborhood, and her parents decided to transform the store into the African Caribbean market it is today.

“We were the first West African Caribbean store in the Bay Area,” Cruz said. “My parents realized that there was no specific market that catered the community so [they] shifted the to cater to those demographics. We still have an edge in the market because we provide a variety, [good] customer service, and the reputation that the other competitors don't seem to offer.”

Cruz said that the community has been pleased that her family took on the challenge decades ago to provide goods like Jamaican patties, similar to empanadas, fufu, a dish similar to mashed potatoes but stickier and made out of yams or plantains, to dried Stockfish from Norway. It wasn't always that way.

When they first made the switch, there was some pushback.

“We always got the question of what are Filipinos doing running a business that caters to cultures other than their own, and the short answer we gave people is that when it comes to food and culture, the world becomes smaller place no matter where you come from.”

Cruz said one of the things she’s going to miss the most is when customers would scream with delight after finding a product they hadn't seen since their childhood.

As Cruz looks forward, she says she wants to spend time with her family, her baby and has plans to travel to Hawaii with her mother.

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Susana Guerrero is an SFGATE digital reporter. Email: Susana.Guerrero@sfgate.com | Twitter: @SusyGuerrero3