In 1978, Eligio Peña, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic, opened his first family-owned grocery store in Queens, New York: Compare Foods.
The chain grew quickly, expanding to neighboring boroughs in New York, and by the early 2000s, it was operating in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and North Carolina.
Compare Stores now has nine stores in the Charlotte, North Carolina area — growth that blossomed due to changing demographics in the area, with 45% growth in the state’s Latino population between 2010 and 2022…