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Gigante's move into Anaheim was no fluke. While the company continues to open stores in heavily Latino areas, it believes that as Latinos move out of the barrio, the biggest growth potential will be in fifty-fifty suburbs--middle-class areas divided almost equally between Latinos and others. (Think of the rapidly growing Riverside and San Bernardino counties farther east of L.A.) Thirty percent of the customers at the Santa Fe Springs Gigante are non-Latino, and the hope is that diverse offerings and clean, wide-aisle comfort will bring that number up. Gigante also plans moves into Northern California, Nevada and Arizona, first in Latino areas and then elsewhere.
Meanwhile, Gigante's U.S. stores will keep giving plenty of shelf space to popular Mexican brands like Gamesa cookies and will stack them right alongside American standbys like Oreos. As Frias, striding down a Gigante beverage aisle, puts it, "Our clientele drinks Jarritos soda but also buys Frappuccinos. We're about giving people a little bit of both."