# Mi Pueblo Food Center

Mi Pueblo was a Northern California neighborhood grocery chain based in San Jose, California. Mi Pueblo had a total of 21 store locations throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, Central Valley and Monterey Bay Peninsula. It attempted to emulate the fresh-food markets of Mexico and Latin America while also carrying all the grocery items generally available in mainstream supermarkets.
Mi Pueblo was established in 1991. In 2016, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts purchased Mi Pueblo along with Ontario, California–based Cardenas. The two chains merged in July 2017, and the Mi Pueblo brand was phased out the following year.

## History

Mi Pueblo was founded by Juvenal Chavez, who emigrated from Mexico in 1984. Speaking no English at the time, Chavez took odd jobs while attending night school to learn English. At one point he worked as a janitor at Stanford University. In 1986, he went into business with his brother running Chavez Meat Market. In 1991, deciding to go off on his own, he purchased County Time Meats in San Jose, California, starting his mercantile chain. In 1998, he changed the name to "Mi Pueblo Food Center", and over time expanded into produce, bakery and deli, then grocery.
While expanding into Fruitvale, the local merchants association protested the opening of a Mi Pueblo location, on the grounds that it would take business away from local small businesses.

### Bankruptcy

On July 22, 2013, Mi Pueblo filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Less than a year later, on June 4, 2014, Mi Pueblo announced that they formally emerged from Chapter 11 reorganization after receiving $56 million in financing from Chicago- based investment firm Victory Park Capital (VPC) As part of the restructuring, Javier Ramirez was appointed as president and CEO, succeeding Juvenal Chavez who was named chairman of the board.

### Acquisition

The chain was purchased in 2016 by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and merged with Cardenas. The Mi Pueblo brand was phased out in 2017.

## Products and services

Mi Pueblo has seven different departments in the store, including meat, produce, bakery, taqueria, Tortilleria, deli, and seafood.
In October 2014, Mi Pueblo started offering Western Union services throughout all its stores in the Bay Area, Monterey Peninsula and Central Valley to enhance existing customer needs such as check cashing, utility payments, money transfers and money orders.

## Community involvement

In 2011, Mi Pueblo launched a scholarship program to "help students prepare for a brighter future". In 2014, Mi Pueblo, in collaboration with partners including the Mexican Heritage Corporation and Consul General of Mexico, raised over $100,000 to provide legal representation to unaccompanied minors at the US-Mexico border through its month- long campaign Unidos por los Niños.

## Controversy over immigration checks

In September 2012, Mi Pueblo was criticized by labor organizations for enrolling in E-verify, a Department of Homeland Security program which screens employees for irregularities in their immigration status. As an owner, Juvenal Chavez was accused of hypocrisy, since he started out in business as an illegal immigrant. A spokesperson for the business said that Chavez supported fixing the "broken" immigration system.