Buy Low Expands Into Utah

ELLIOT ZWIEBACH

Buy Low Markets is on the move.

After opening three stores spread across Southern California — in El Monte, Inglewood and Long Beach — over the last five years, the company opened its fourth location, in Las Vegas, last summer and held the grand opening of its fifth and largest store in Provo, Utah, last week.

The first Buy Low in Utah, the fifth in the chain, measures 65,000 square feet and includes an expanded meat section.

“We look for good places to operate,” Moe Vazin, co-owner, told SN. “My brother liked Las Vegas, and I liked the Salt Lake City area.”

His brother, Paul Vazin, is his partner at the Buy Low stores; Paul Vazin is also involved in a separate partnership with Darioush Khaledi, his brother-in-law, as owner of 22 Top Valu stores in Southern California.

Buy Low's three California stores range from 20,000 to 45,000 square feet; the Las Vegas unit is 50,000 square feet; and the store here is 65,000 square feet, with each store geared to catering to the neighborhood, Vazin said.

All are priced to drive traffic, with the slogan, “Always Buy Low,” including weekly one-day sales events that feature meat or produce items at close to cost.

The stores also have scratch bakeries and extensive fresh food offerings, including food courts called The Grill, whose menus are geared to local demographics: Asian at one store, African American or Hispanic at others, Vazin said.

The new store in Provo caters to an affluent clientele, plus students from Brigham Young University, he noted.

The Grill at the newest store offers entrees priced below $10, including halibut, salmon and mahi-mahi; rotisserie chicken and beef; and chicken kabobs; plus salads and various varieties of rice priced below $3; and hamburgers, fries and a soft drink — geared to the BYU crowd — for less than $5.

Vazin said he anticipates the store will generate an annual volume of about $20 million-plus, with 40% of sales coming from produce and meat.

Given the differences in their sizes, all five stores are different, Vazin said, though all feature aggressive produce pricing one day a week and aggressive meat pricing one day a week.

Buy Low buys from Unified Grocers, Los Angeles, at four locations, and from Associated Food Stores, Salt Lake City, at the Provo location.