Seafood City just opened in Chandler. Arizona lined up overnight for a grocery store.
Seafood City opened its first Arizona store at Chandler Fashion Center on July 30, a nearly 66,000-square-foot Filipino supermarket and food hall that drew overnight lines and more than 100 local jobs.
The Goldscene Desk
Arizona just got a Filipino supermarket flagship, and people slept outside for it. Seafood City, the nation’s largest Filipino grocery chain, opened its first Arizona location on July 30 at Chandler Fashion Center (3111 W. Chandler Blvd.), filling the former Sears with nearly 66,000 square feet of aisles, seafood, and a food hall. Doors opened at 9 a.m. Hundreds were already in line. Some had camped overnight. One Mesa family told KJZZ they arrived at 4 a.m.
The store is the pitch in built form. Seafood City started in San Diego in 1989 and now runs about two dozen California locations plus more than a dozen elsewhere in the U.S. and Canada. Chandler is store No. 39 and one of the chain’s largest: an roughly 11,000-square-foot food hall with seating for about 300, seven dining concepts at opening (Grill City, Bakers Avenue, Slurp Alley, Crispy Town, and more), a bookable Social Hall, and a crab market still weeks away. The company says the opening brings more than 100 jobs. President Matthew Go framed the stop as serving a community that already drove to California and Nevada for the brand.
The East Valley already has Asian grocery density. 99 Ranch and Lee Lee sit within a short drive; H Mart has been in Mesa since 2020. Shoppers still lined up for a Filipino-first supermarket with turo-turo barbecue, bakery cases, and pantry depth they could not get in one trip before. Congressman Greg Stanton, Chandler Mayor Kevin Hartke, and the Honorary Consul of the Philippines in Arizona showed up for the ribbon cutting. Patricia Francisco, Seafood City’s director of digital growth and events, said the store plans events multiple nights a week and late hours during the opening stretch.
Our read: This is diaspora infrastructure news. Soft power here is not a chart week. It is the end of the out-of-state grocery haul for Valley Filipino households, and a food hall big enough that the rest of metro Phoenix will treat it as a destination. Mark the address, check the crab market opening later, and watch whether Chandler stays a one-store foothold or the first Arizona node.
