Home Bargain, exactly as the name suggests, is selling home bargains on Mission Street. After only a little over a week in business, it’s already full of shoppers.
The new discount store opened on April 7, filling the vacant space at 2664 Mission St., near 23rd Street, last occupied by Falla’s, a warehouse-like emporium that closed in July 2022.
Now, Home Bargain is taking over with a different owner and with deals galore: Most items, like food containers, air fresheners and work gloves, sell at $1.50 apiece.
Before the shop opened on Sunday, Nabi Aziz, 30, the owner and manager of the business, was worried. The store hadn’t received its final touches, and he had not even registered the business on Google Maps. Aziz feared two outcomes: Either no one would show up, or too many people would show up at once.
“We opened at 10, and we are just kind of standing there, dead silence, waiting for something to happen,” Aziz recalled. “Come 11, it was packed. It was like a dream come true.”
Since the age of 12, Aziz has been helping out his family running the discount stores they own in Daly City on the weekends, putting on price tags or working behind the register. It was his parents’ way of teaching him a strong work ethic and discipline — and, for Aziz, a way to earn some extra allowance.
This Tuesday, workers were still spraying Windex on the windows and scraping off the graffiti that accumulated during its vacant months.
But that didn’t stop curious shoppers from flowing in and out: A family of three picked out a tiara for their daughter from the toy aisle, an older lady contemplated which color of the towels to choose, and another woman took her time in the bedding section while Facetiming a friend.
“We have received such a good response,” Aziz said. “There are no stores that are bargains in this area. We really fill that void.”
Even a bargain store needs bargains, too. During construction, Aziz said, “I was spending a lot of money in all these stores. I’m like, ‘I wish there was a dollar store to shop at.’”
And, for a time, there was not. The owner of Falla’s, the vast outlet known previously as Factory 2-U, filed for bankruptcy in 2018, leading to the closure of 184 Falla’s and Factory 2-U locations across the county. Lisa Ruth, manager of Falla’s, said in July 2022 that the owner planned to reopen the store following its liquidation process. Yet that reopening never came.
Natalia Pinto, visiting the new store for the first time, was glad to see someone step in. When Falla’s was open, “I buy everything there,” she said. After Falla’s shut down, she has been shopping at a dollar store on 16th Street. There, however, items marked as $1 would sometimes end up being $3, she complained.
“The price is good here,” Pinto said, before going back to choosing towels.
Lin, who saw the new store’s bright-red signage on her bus ride down Mission Street, came over to check it out. As an immigrant who works hard for her savings, Lin said, she is savvy about where she spends her money.
She remembered the old store here, with the basement filled with children’s clothing, and seemed disappointed to learn that the basement is no longer open. Nonetheless, it’s close enough.
“It looks similar to what it was,” Lin said in Mandarin. “I will come back again.”
Home Bargain, located at 2664 Mission St., is open from 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. every day.