Seafood City Supermarket, a chain catering to Filipino Americans, to open in Oxnard

Seafood City Supermarket that caters to Filipino Americans will open a location in Oxnard on Thursday off Rose Avenue near Highway 101.

The store is known for selling a wide-range of seafood, Asian food and ingredients and ready-to-eat dishes. Seafood City has more than 30 locations across the country and in Canada. The nearest store is in Santa Clarita, and the Oxnard site is the chain's first in Ventura County.

The supermarket will be filling a five-year vacancy at the Shopping at the Rose center.

Customers can start shopping at 9 a.m. Thursday, and the store will be open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.

"When people enter this store, they will be surprised,” said Red Smith, Seafood City vice president of marketing.

Regular shipments from the Philippines and Hawaii will stock the Oxnard store with fresh fish and ingredients, Smith said. Local farmers will provide the produce.

Customers can also buy marinated meats and seafood, precooked recipe kits, fresh bread and nonfood-related products from the Philippines.

In the coming months, popular Filipino restaurants like Jollibee, Chowking and Valerio’s Tropical Bake Shop will open in the store, Smith said.

The supermarket is moving into the former Babies R Us, which went out of business in 2018. The building was constructed in the late 1990s, Oxnard city staff said in a report.

The Oxnard Police Department said in a report to the Planning Commission 62 crimes were committed within 1,000 feet of the building in 2021. In commercial areas throughout the city, the average number of crimes committed in commercial areas was 113, the report says.

Smith said she believes crime will continue to drop in the area as activity increases from customers seeking the store's seafood, groceries and specialty items.

In 2019, FGH Retail Services' purchased a building in the same shopping center to open a cannabis dispensary. The company, which has a dispensary in Port Hueneme, has been working with law enforcement to address the area’s crime rate. The dispensary has yet to open.

Brian J. Varela covers Oxnard, Port Hueneme and Camarillo. He can be reached at brian.varela@vcstar.com or 805-477-8014. You can also find him on Twitter @BrianVarela805.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Seafood City Supermarket to open in Oxnard, California