Like many young children in Mexico, Eli Madrigal helped out after school at her family's small business. And like many children everywhere, she wanted to go into that family business when she grew up.
But even Madrigal did not realize back then that working at a small-town market in Baja, Mexico, would lead her to found a growing chain of Hispanic-centered supermarkets in Utah.
Rancho Markets, Madrigal's company, operates stores in West Valley City, Kearns, Provo, Magna and Salt Lake, with a goal of opening at least five more Utah stores in coming years.
But the company's roots extend back to that little store in Mexico and, after Madrigal's family emigrated to California in the 1980s, to her night and weekend jobs at local grocers while she attended high school.
Madrigal felt that, if she was to succeed in the grocery business, she had to know that business inside and out. So she worked long hours even as a teenager, eventually getting promoted from a cashier position to store management.
Madrigal worked for more than a decade for a grocery chain in Las Vegas and then began to investigate possibilities for opening her own store. That search led her to the Salt Lake Valley, and she fell in love with the area.
Madrigal started Rancho Markets with the goal of helping Latino customers feel as if they were shopping at a local market in their home country. However, the company markets widely, with advertising in both English and Spanish, and carries a variety of products.
In the competitive grocery business, Madrigal has found success in bringing that small-grocer, personal touch to a larger business — understanding the culture and the customers' needs, and leveraging that understanding to build a successful company.