Welcome to Woodlands Market.

The Santa Family opened the store nearly 23 years ago with simple goals in mind: we wanted to be more than a grocery store; we wanted to be an integral part of the fabric of the Ross Valley.

Now, in 2009, we — Don, Sue and Joanne — have rededicated ourselves to the day-to-day operations of Woodlands Market. At the same time, we have exciting plans for the store which we will share with you on our website and in the store over the coming months.

One of our first endeavors will be the reopening of the Woodlands Market Cafe. We are currently obtaining the licenses and undertaking a remodeling of the area. Our goal is to have the Cafe open by November 27, 2009.

We will also be employing our website to provide you with information about other activities at the Market as well as the products that we sell. During the year, we will be introducing newsletters and other websites features designed to enhance your shopping experience with us. We encourage your feedback: to us personally, to our staff when you are visiting the Market or via email (on the Feedback page). Tell us what you think, what you’d like to see in the store and how well we’re providing the services and products that you need and want.

We’d also like to take a moment to talk a little about our philosophy and how we strive to recapture what a community market once stood for in a community. Markets like ours played a vital role in the commercial landscape of this country. Now, with ever-expanding national and regional chains and warehouse-type stores, businesses like Woodlands Market are increasingly rare.

But we had a vision when he opened in 1986. We've held to it to develop a unique and successful niche. How? Well, we never take our customers for granted. Every day we ask ourselves, how can we, as a locally-owned business in a community with ever-increasing shopping choices, earn your business?

One important aspect of how we operate is our active involvement in public education. Ever since Woodlands opened as family-owned market, we have contributed more than $2.2 million to local nonprofit organizations. The Kentfield and Ross school foundations have been the primary recipients of these “investments” over the years. In addition in 2008, we made in-kind donations to dozens of community organizations and were involved in fundraisers that raised more than $1 million.

How do we do it?

Primarily because we don't do much conventional advertising. Typically, grocery stores spend about 2% of sales by creating expensive print, television or radio ads designed to lure you on the basis of a few lowered prices; membership cards or "loss leader" promises are also a come-on. But we believe that investing in the community brings far greater returns in customer loyalty and word-of-mouth benefits than traditional advertising. So, in a sense, our customers do our advertising for us. That means that we had better go the proverbial extra mile to earn your business.

We respect the fact that we are not always perfect. But, as a local family business, we always are working to be both your good neighbor and the place where you “decide” to shop.

It would be sad if one day people wondered about what happened to unique, family-owned, local businesses like ours. But one of the characteristics of the Santa Family is not dwell on the past. Instead, our choice is to build on it. We want to be better tomorrow than we were today and we want you to feel that we respect you, that we care about our community and that we are an integral part of it.

Sincerely,

The Santa Family