Where the Grocery Is Greener

Someday, if Armando Peña Jr. fulfills his dream of passing on the family grocery store, the legend might go something like this:

One day Peña Jr. was driving home to Roma from McAllen when he spotted a sign advertising a new Family Dollar store in a tiny Starr County town. Alto Bonito, then a town of 569, boasted a school, a gas station and the El Alto Country Store.

After working for his father’s supermarkets in Roma for more than two decades, Peña Jr. had long wanted his own venture. He suspected that among this overlooked and picturesque stretch of the Rio Grande Valley, the small rural towns of La Grulla to the south and La Victoria to the north could support a supermarket — the closest one was at least a 15-minute drive.

So just off the expressway along Farm-to-Market 2360, Peña built a 12,400-square-foot store and named it Border Town Foods.

“My expectations were small. I just hoped to make it,” he said recently.

While Rio Grande City to the west and La Joya and Peñitas to the east have experienced some of the Valley’s economic boom, Alto Bonito and the cities in the middle have often been overlooked.

“It might be that people are not willing to invest,” said Joel Zarate, a La Grulla city commissioner. “Some people have tried but they’ve gone broke or something — but that’s a whole different ball game.”

Construction on the building finished that fall. Peña, along with his wife, Dalinda, and three children, finished the flooring and built and stocked the shelves, his daughter-in-law Norma Peña recalled as she walked through the store’s aisles.

When Norma married Armando Peña III, she had no idea that eventually the family would band together to run the grocery store, but it wasn’t that surprising. At the time, her husband was finishing college at the University of Texas-Pan American and was not involved in the daily operations.

He had worked at his grandfather’s True Valley Hardware in Roma from the time he was 16 until he left for college.

The senior Armando Peña got his start at a Gulf gas station, Peña Jr. recalled. From there he opened Riverview Family Center in Roma. They now have three locations that Peña Jr.’s mother owns in addition to the hardware store.

Peña Jr. and his wife Dalinda also own a self serve car wash and vending machine business in Roma.

“We all work together, it’s kind of crazy,” Peña Jr. said. “The truth is I’m growing the business for (my children) … I want to get out of business and leave it to them.”

Peña Jr. already has an exit plan. In a year he’ll finish training and be ordained as a deacon in the Catholic Church. He said that he “heard the call” to serve God about 20 years ago. He plans to serve at Our Lady of Refuge in Roma.

Four years ago, his instincts proved sage-like among secular matters. Sales at the grocery store far exceeded expectations.

“It happened so fast,” Norma Peña said. “It’s hard work. You have to be here all the time.”

Peña Jr. is already expanding again, building a hardware store in a separate space in the same building as the grocery. The store, which in keeping with the theme will be called Border Hardware, will add eight jobs — a welcomed development in Starr County where the unemployment rate in August was 17.8 percent.

Expectations for the store, which is set to open in early October, are high among everyone in the family.

“There’s no hardware store in town,” Peña Jr. said. “In these small rural towns, people repair their own home problems. They’re do-it-yourselfers.”

Sean Gaffney covers business, the economy and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4434.