Northgate González Market — Attraction in San Diego

Some rude racist staff at Mercado Gonzalez. I was just there this morning, March 20, 2025. I bought some potato wedges and asked the young female staff who served the potatoes for jalapenos. Normally you get 2 jalapenos free. She gave me one. I asked her for a second one and she said you only get one. She was very hostile. I explained that I have been there several times and that you get two jalapenos.

She then sealed the bag- which she'd opened to add the one jalapeno- and gave it to me. I opened the bag and there was only one jalapeno in it.

I explained that the other jalapeno wasn't added. She then added a second jalapeno to the bag, weighed it again which increased the price. I reminded her that the jalapenos are supposed to be free. Then she took the jalapenos out of the bag and put them directly on the counter, leaving them there. This is unsanitary as well as rude. Then she gave me the bag of potatoes at a higher price with no jalapenos! I opened the bag again and or course there were zero jalapenos in the bag! I showed this to her and she said the jalapenos were in the bag. Where? In the bottom of the bag she said. They weren't. They were on the counter where she left them.

Luckily at this point a tall male staff member came and I asked him for jalapenos explaining that she didn't want to give them to me. He then tried to explain to her that I want jalapenos. I explained to him that she understands, that she was just being hostile. He then gave me the jalapenos in a different bag.

On top of all this when I go to pay the staff at the register - which was around the corner- said that the potatoes didn't have a price on them! I pointed to the sticker which was still on and showed the price even though I didn't see the bar code. She then went elsewhere and weighed it again and came back and now the price had increased for the third time! At this point I decided I didn't want them. A combination of being given 3 different prices for the exact same potatoes and not being comfortable with staff going to where I couldn't see them to weigh the potatoes again.

She then called a shortish older lady who I assume is a manager. I explained that I do not want the potatoes anymore and got a small pineapple drink for $5. I heard the shortish lady who had been pretending to be polite to me say to the staff in Spanish that I ate the potatoes and don't want to pay! I never touched the potatoes. Luckily at this point a guy comes in line and explains to the shortish lady in Spanish that he saw what happened with the initial staff and that it was as I described.

I have experienced hostile rude service from some of the staff here on at least 2 other occasions. My experience is that some of the staff appear not to like non-hispanic people. Last week I asked for jalapenos and onions along with the food a friend and I were getting. We spent 70 something dollars on hot food alone. I pointed to a mixture of jalapenos and onions. A young female staff member gave me just jalapenos. 2 jalapenos. I then asked for some onions- I'm talking 1/6th of a peel or something. She was so angry, she grabbed the kitchen utensil from some meat angrily and threw a couple of pieces of onions in the bag. I am always polite to the staff, I don't understand how some people can have so much hate!

I am never coming back here, there are other places I can spend my money. If you want to be abused as a customer you...

After a doctors appointment around the corner, I stopped by this market again and was reminded just how great it was. The fresh tortillas, the guacamole, and the tamales just to name a few. I got a steaming roasted hatch chili /cheese tamale, and went outside to eat it before I went back into shop. It was fantastic. I was drooling -so good. Worth the $3! I always love exploring the store. I haven’t been in a while but it’s always impressed me. I bought some shrimp really low price- giant shrimp for 5.99 a pound. And a bag of my first ever raw garbanzo beans in pods in the produce department- boy are they good fresh! They have daily specials meals to eat there. I’ve never tried them yet, but they smell divine. I had never seen fresh made tortillas in such variety, blue corn and one with cactus Nopal! They even had sweet tamales. I took a picture of the extensive extensive spice rack to show my friend. So many chilies!!! The meats and cheeses filled another entire area of wonders. The melting Oaxacan cheese is the new mozzarella as far as I’m concerned -I’ve been using it for a couple three weeks now and it’s delicious on anything. I got it before coming to this store, but I saw it here homemade on premises in these fantastic kind of curled slices. I’ll definitely get that next when I run out. I haven’t had a chance to try the meats, and I wasn’t doing a big shop, but I could’ve gone for any of those extensive Beautiful cuts. Amazing store. I was walking so I was limited in what I could carry, but I did buy jalapeños, raw garbanzo’s called guazanas for 2.89 per pound, a bag was $1.27 .44 lb, ancho chili Pasilla 1.29/lb, A sweet? Lime (I haven’t tasted yet) .39. 2 extremely fresh Mexican squash .99/lb 2 were 74 c! And I mentioned shrimp above. Oh and green olives 1.99 and Knorr chick broth..giant for 6.49.. you get the idea… very fun exploring shop while waiting for my prescriptions around corner..I highly...

Their produce is garbage and overpriced and they always sell rotting or moldy produce. I get $100 free food credit when I spend $25 on EBT (its a program ran through UCSD and EBT). I can't even use the credit most of the time because the produce is garbage and double the price of other markets and I end up throwing away half the produce regularly because its so poor in quality. A couple of days ago I bought lemons which I buy all the time and they moved the lemons (the yellow ones) from where they always have been for years and put a bunch of dried tamarind there instead. I thought it was weird, the lemons were completely moldy (I usually buy about 25 lemons at a time because I have lemon water all the time), I got really sick off them. So these scum bags know they have rotten moldy lemons and instead of disposing of them and writing them off in their taxes as a loss, they would rather KNOWINGLY POISON their patrons with putrid moldy rotten lemons and move them to where they won't smell as much and put tamarind next to them so they won't smell. This is how greedy and disgusting this Northgate market is, their prices are double and their produce is the worst, its trash. I will report them to the county health department, this...