Why Sunshine Foods Was Sold to Stay the Same

"I'm past my expiration date as far as working," Jay Smith told the St. Helena Star last fall, when he let it be known that Sunshine Foods was for sale. In September, the store at 1115 Main Street found its buyer. Mollie Stone's Markets is a family-owned Bay Area grocer founded by the Stone family in 1986.

When a hometown grocery changes hands, people worry that the place they know is about to disappear. Smith's own account shows a store that was getting harder to run as a single store, and selling it to a small chain was how the family chose to keep it going. The buyer has already run this play once this year, in Marin County, and its first step there was to change almost nothing.

Half a percent, if they were lucky

Smith's interview with the Star works like a balance sheet. He said Sunshine cleared half a percent of profit "if we're lucky." At that margin, every dollar the store took in left half a cent to cover anything unexpected, before any investment in the building or the shelves.

The costs on the other side of that half cent came from four directions.

• Paperwork. Smith pointed to one refrigeration unit that he said five government agencies oversee, each asking for "basically the same information but in different formats."
• Back office. Human resources, bookkeeping and payroll had once been handled in-house and had moved to outside contractors.
• Utilities. He said the cost of water and other utilities kept rising, and "there's not one expense we have that hasn't gone up."
• Staffing. Sunshine had 85 employees, most of them full time. Some commuted from as far as Lake County, Petaluma and Ukiah, and the store always had job openings.

Smith also listed the things he wanted the next owner to keep. The store matched employees' 401(k) contributions and offered up to five weeks of paid vacation to longtime staff. It once covered all health insurance costs for workers and their families, and it cut that share to 80% when premiums climbed. When a local school asked him to chip in toward $4,000 of robotics equipment, he paid for all of it.

The costs that were squeezing Sunshine, like compliance, payroll administration and purchasing, get cheaper when they are spread across several stores. The things Smith wanted to protect, like the staff, the giving and the product mix, live inside one building on Main Street. He said he would "rather liquidate, pay everybody and walk away with nothing" than run a Sunshine that could no longer be "a meaningful part of the community." A buyer that could take on the first list and leave the second alone was the path that avoided liquidation.

The same buyer, the same problem, three months apart

Sunshine is the second family-run independent grocer Mollie Stone's has agreed to buy in 2026. In June, the company announced it was acquiring United Markets, a 70-year-old grocer with stores in San Rafael and San Anselmo. Kelly Smith, United's owner and no relation to the St. Helena family, described her reasons in the Marin Independent Journal, and they sound a lot like Sunshine's:

"There was a time, in the 1980s and 1990s, when it was much easier to run two stores. We just don't have the buying power to get the same pricing that somebody with more stores is able to get and make different deals."

Side by side, the two deals look like this:

The St. Helena announcement used language that tracks the Marin one closely. Jay and Mike Smith said in a joint statement that it was "extremely important to us to find another family-owned company that shares our values and understands the importance of employees, customers, quality and community." Elliott Stone, owner of Mollie Stone's, told the Star, "We don't view this simply as acquiring a grocery store. We view it as being entrusted with a 50-year family legacy."

What the Marin playbook says about pace

The most useful line for a Sunshine regular came from the Marin deal, not the St. Helena one. Mike Stone, the company's founder and CEO, told the Independent Journal that his team would "ask the customers what they would like to see; what products they want in the stores or services." He added, "each store is different, so we have to satisfy the palates of the neighborhood. It will be gradual. It all won't occur overnight."

Four months after that announcement, United Markets still looked like United Markets. In October, its website was still built around the United name, with weekly specials, senior savings and newsletter coupons. The company has also said where it wants to go. In a July 2026 interview with The Shelby Report, Mike Stone said the next generation of the family wants to grow the business selectively and choose its opportunities carefully.

Two other details explain why the Smiths found this buyer a natural fit. Mollie Stone's describes itself as a union employer that partners with local unions. Kelly Smith named that as one reason selling to the Stones was her first choice, along with their reputation for being community-minded and taking care of employees. Before Sunshine, Mollie Stone's ran eight stores around the Bay Area, including in San Francisco, Palo Alto, Sausalito and Greenbrae. Sunshine brings a Napa Valley store into a group that now buys groceries for several locations.

Smith's plan from last fall suggests the handoff itself was meant to be slow. If he found a buyer, he said, he expected to stay on for six months to a year to help with the transition. The lease had a similar horizon. At that point it had one year left, with an option for five more.

What is on Main Street this month

For now, Sunshine's website still carries the Sunshine Foods name and lists daily hours of 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. The deli and meat counters run until 8 p.m. and the grill until 3 p.m. The Star has written about the store's longer role in town, from stocking local produce, breads and wines to supporting youth activities and local donations. Under Mike Stone's Marin approach, that history is the starting point for any change. The company says it builds its changes from what each neighborhood asks for.

The town's other full-service grocer is Safeway at 1026 Hunt Avenue, less than a quarter mile away. It is open daily from 5 a.m. to midnight. For most of the last 50 years, the gap between the two stores came down to ownership: one was part of a national chain and the other belonged to a local family. Sunshine is now part of a small family chain, so what sets it apart will rest more on what it stocks and who works the counters than on who owns it.

The two stores sit on either side of this season's busiest corner. On Wednesday, November 25, the Wine Barrel Tree Lighting runs from 5 to 7 p.m. at Hunt Avenue and Main Street, with Santa, a winter market, lighted holiday cars, food, live music by Vybe Society and a Kids Zone. The 38-foot Beringer Wine Barrel Tree will stay up at that corner into early January. It will be Sunshine's first holiday season under new owners.

When a family business with 50 years behind it changes hands, the choice of buyer and the terms of the deal shape what survives as much as the price does. Mark Stornetta works with families selling multi-generation ranches, vineyards and estates, where the same questions about stewardship come up. If you are thinking about how to hand a property like that to the right next owner, Request a Confidential Consultation.