Smart & Final

About this location

A few stories people tell about this place

1. At night, when the store closed early, a regular noticed something odd: every week, a stray cat would appear from behind the shelves and follow him home. No one else saw it. Finally, the regular told his friends, who started noticing the cat too. Soon, everyone in town knew about Smart & Final’s secret feline mascot. One day, a delivery driver arrived with a sign reading ‘Welcome Home, Mr. Cat.’ The cat stopped visiting after that, leaving only purrs on everyone’s hearts.

2. At closing time one day, a Smart & Final employee overheard an announcement on the intercom: ‘Ladies and gentlemen, please be advised that our self-checkout aisle has been restocked with items from the lost-and-found.’ Curious, the worker decided to scan some of these mystery items. To his surprise, he found a bag containing a neighbor’s dog collar, a delivery driver’s forgotten lunchbox, and even a small child’s toy truck. At the end of the night, the store manager smiled knowingly as he announced: ‘Welcome back, everyone—we’ve got your lost belongings!’

3. One morning, a delivery driver asked himself: ‘Why does Smart & Final always seem so empty in the middle of the night?’ As he drove deeper into the silent aisles, he noticed an old shopping cart slowly rolling down the corridor. Following its path, he found a dimly lit room filled with boxes and crates. Inside, a regular was quietly stocking up on canned goods for his secret stash. The delivery driver chuckled, realizing that Smart & Final wasn’t empty—it just had its own midnight shopper.

4. In the dead of winter, when the sun set early and shadows crept across the parking lot, a delivery driver wondered aloud: why did Smart & Final’s neon sign flicker like that? Suddenly, an old neighbor popped out from behind the dumpster, waving a flashlight and laughing: ‘Hey, you forgot to turn off the motion sensor!’ The driver scratched his head, embarrassed but relieved—another urban legend debunked.