Local Vendors Bring You the Absolute Best Unique and Gourmet Products

Made in Redwood City. Handcrafted in Palo Alto. Baked in Menlo Park. These aren’t phrases you see on many products at large retail stores, but as longtime Sigona’s shoppers know, many of our specialty grocery items are made by local artisans and vendors right in our backyard.

John Nava (who we refer to as Nava the Passionate) is the Stanford store manager and specialty foods buyer for Sigona’s. He has worked vigorously for more than 14 years to build up our local vendor program. On any given day you will most certainly find one of our local vendors sampling their products our stores. Yes, yes, you can sample products at the Costcos and Safeways of the world, but when you sample something from Sigona’s, there is a 95 percent possibility you’re sampling from the very person who created the product.

“I love working with local vendors because they are all incredibly passionate about their products,” said Nava. “They care about what they put in their products, how their products are used and they live to see how a customer reacts when they like what they taste.”

Nava strives to find local products with the highest quality that we can offer our customers at the best price. What we bring under the Sigona’s umbrella has to be different and unique to the market place, and when a vendor is just getting started, we do everything to assist the vendor in getting their product into the hands of our base of loyal, discerning customers who support and shop local.

“Some of our vendors are living out a lifelong dream by selling a creation they’ve made,” said Nava. “Some had other jobs or professions, but always knew they made a killer cookie or a fantastic salsa, and once they decided to see where they could take it, we gave them a shot.”

At Sigona’s we treat our vendors like family. We provide our vendors a great place to grow, offer guidance along the way and watch with a sense of pride as they step out on their own. We all work as a team and any of our vendors can vouch for that.

Moving forward we’ll profile local vendors in our e-newsletters and on our blog, so look for the first one on July 29, 2009!