After Town’s persistence for new store, Mammoth Carniceria opens
By John Hernandez | San Manuel Miner
Mammoth has a new meat market and grocery store specializing in Hispanic foods. Carniceria Rancheros Meat Market is now open and doing business. “It took longer than we expected but we’re here and still working on it,” said owner Luis Lopez. Luis’ partner is his uncle Marco Lopez who owns a meat packing plant in Tucson, “Beef Masters” on 29th Street and the freeway. The Lopez family comes from a long line of ranchers and meat market owners.
Luis says he has been cutting meat since he was 13 years old. He is originally from Hermosillo, Sonora Mexico. He has lived in Tucson for 20 years where he has worked for a number of grocery stores. The last three years he has been the general manager for El Herradero Supermarket at Prince and Flowing Wells Road. A number of the customers he now has in Mammoth used to patronize El Herradero and recognized him from the store.
The Town of Mammoth approached him about opening the store. Luis had been considering opening his own store and had been looking around Tucson. Former Mayor Al Barcelo showed him some buildings in Mammoth but none of them were acceptable and Luis would have had to invest a lot of money to get started. Luis looked at recent census numbers for the Tri-Community, Kearny and Hayden-Winkelman. He visited all the towns and walked around the businesses. Luis met a lot of people and talked to them. They told him the area needed a store like his.
