San Diego stores: Curacao opens, 99 Cents Only stores to close, ice cream arrives

Big store opens doors in Chula Vista

San Diegans have a new megastore for all their electronics, furniture, baby gear and appliance needs: Curacao opened its first San Diego County location last weekend in Chula Vista.

Curacao is a Hispanic focused grocery store with locations in California, Nevada and Arizona. Last fall it announced it was entering the San Diego market.

Its website describes it as not “just a place to shop but also a starting point for adventure.”

This brand expansion comes at a difficult time for department stores, whose ranks have been thinning out, along with other legacy brick and mortar brands, such as Rite Aid and CVS. Curacao, though, is not a newcomer: It was founded in 1978.

One unusual feature of this department store is that outside of retail, it also serves as a financial institution, extending financing to people with no credit history.

It also offers travel, money transfer and export shipping services.

Its current weekly ad features a Microsoft Surface laptop — 14.4 inch screen, 16GB RAM and 512GB of storage — discounted from around $2,100 to around $1,800. Monthly payments are listed at $73 a month or higher through the company’s financing.

The San Diego store is in the Chula Vista Center mall, at 555 Broadway.

Jobs lost, going out of business sale

Earlier this month, 99 Cents Only Stores filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Now it has filed layoff notices with the state, in preparation to close three San Diego County stores.

• 121 Louisiana Ave. in San Ysidro
• 265 Marketplace Ave. in San Diego
• 1030 3rd Ave. in Chula Vista

About 150 people at these stores are losing jobs.

The company is advertising its going-out-of-business sale with up to 30 percent off the lowest marked prices.

This is part of a larger round of store closures for the company, with 15 locations listed in the state layoff notices.

At this point, not all locations appear to be impacted by the bankruptcy. Stores in Clairemont, Imperial Beach and Rolando, among others, were not listed.

Ice cream season is nigh

Our cloudy skies may have other ideas, but officially, summer is not that far away. And in that spirit, the seasonal ice cream window run by the Trust Restaurant Group is back at it.

Formerly a soft serve joint called Mr. Trustee Creamery, it’s been rebranded as Wild Child — and has ice cream and a groovy new look.

April’s flavors include lemon meringue, robin eggs and malted chocolate brownie.

The shop is on the corner of Goldfinch Street and Fort Stockton Drive, in Mission Hills. Note that it is closed mornings and all day Monday.

Bargain prices, for now

As some discount stores close, Big Lots is stepping up to fill the gap in the dollar bargain shopping tier.

Until May 16.

From now to then, the store is selling some 99 cent items including beauty, first aid and cleaning products, pet goods and some groceries.

It also announced other low prices, around the dollar mark, that are not ending in May.

The company “remains committed to delivering extreme value to their customers when they need it most, now offering an array of pantry staples with an opening price point of just $1.19,” a brand representative wrote in an email.

Do you know any stores or eateries that are opening or closing? Do you have a tip about San Diego shopping deals or news? Send me the scoop: roxana.popescu@sduniontribune.com