Walking into the Mercado González store in Costa Mesa, customers are met with the aroma of freshly made flour tortillas and the sounds of a variety of Mexican dishes being cooked to order.
The 70,000-square-foot marketplace is Northgate González Market’s largest store format among the 46 currently open, and it includes the company’s first indoor food hall with 21 vendors serving Mexican food alongside specialty Mexican products and traditional grocery offerings.
The Mercado opened in 2023, more than 40 years after founder Don Miguel González Jiménez opened the first Northgate grocery store, with his son Miguel González Jr., in Anaheim.
The family-owned business is now approaching $1.7 billion in annual revenue, driven by six new stores in the last few years including the Mercado and the rise of new customer segments discovering the Hispanic grocer. Northgate reported sales of $1.6 billion for 2025.
When planning for future locations, co-Chief Executive Oscar González said the Mercado store was a sign of what the company can do next.
“It was a platform that allowed us to start taking elements of the Mercado and put them into stores with smaller footprints that don’t have the same customer makeup,” González told the Business Journal.
Northgate’s newest stores in Lynwood, Chino and La Mirada each include some elements of the Mercado’s culinary format, from food stalls to a fresh ceviche program.
González added that a second Mercado concept was finally in the works. Northgate aims to open the next location in Los Angeles over the next 14 months – next to a football stadium.
“Our core competency is our focus to continue to build culinary standards around delivering an authentic Mexican food experience,” Oscar González said.
Northgate González Market ranks No. 18 among Orange County’s largest privately owned companies (see page 20). The González family was previously selected as the Business Journal’s 2024 Businesspeople of the Year, in the retail sector, and won the longevity award at the Family-Owned Business Awards event later that year.
Building Culinary Standards
Northgate’s strategy when opening new stores is to make sure each one is an improvement from the one before, according to former co-executive Miguel González.
Miguel González previously worked in the co-CEO role with Oscar for several years before retiring in 2024. Their brother Jesus González stepped into the shared role soon after, continuing with the family’s goal to build a multi-generational company that can last 100 years.
Each time Northgate builds a new store, the company aims to improve the culinary standards surrounding its grocery offerings and freshly prepared goods. González noted that most Hispanic customers shop for ingredients, and while the business aimed to raise the quality of those products, Northgate also turned to opening a prepared food program.
“It has enabled us to not only continue to serve our core shopper, but it’s opened up new segments of customers,” Oscar González said.
The Mercado was designed to attract a plethora of customers, from the first-generation immigrant to a “food explorer” who enjoys authentic Mexican food, Oscar González said. More than half of its current shoppers are non-Hispanic.
“A lot of our growth has been in doubling down on making high-quality, fresh, authentic Mexican food,” he added.
Northgate has invested in its food commissary and transitioned from cooks to chefs to elevate meal preparation. Several Northgate employees now have culinary degrees, including Oscar’s nephew Manuel González.
The company counts 3,405 employees in OC and over 8,000 in total. Oscar González is passionate about adding young talent to that workforce, evident in his role as board chair at Cristo Rey Orange County High School and participation in its corporate work study program.
A few products that Northgate began producing were salsa, tamales and, more recently, birria products. Northgate produces 100% of the tamales in stores at the commissary and sells fresh-cut fruit, such as cactus pears, which are peeled every day.
“We want to make sure that the salsa we produce today is sold tomorrow in our store,” González said.
More Mercados are in the works, though Oscar Gonzalez declined to provide specifics saying only that future stores will build on the original marketplace concept and may feature a different mix of food stalls than the Costa Mesa store.
“What we have learned is that experiences are what customers are really seeking,” he said.
