ROYAL PALM BEACH — El Bodegón, a family-owned grocery chain based in Palm Beach County, has unveiled a new store in the village , making it the county’s first Hispanic supermarket west of Florida’s Turnpike.
The 38,000 square-feet store, located in the former Beall’s store space at the Village Shoppes on State Road 7, offers a wide range of Latin American and Caribbean products. It has meat and seafood butchers, and a bakery with a sit down restaurant.
Andrew Ortiz’s father, Carlos Mario Ortiz, founded the stores in 1998. He said they have seen the Hispanic population boom in the county’s western suburbs and are following the trend of more of them moving farther west. Six of the company’s seven stores are in the county, several between West Palm Beach and Greenacres.
The younger Ortiz, who was born and raised in Wellington, said the family wanted to bring the Latin American supermarket experience to all the residents of the western communities.
“There are simply more and more Latinos living here,” Ortiz said in Spanish. “And now comes my generation, the second generation of Latinos that grow up with both the American culture and their family’s culture.