Tienda Don Poncho

Do you like Captain Poncho’s food truck? Well, the owner Alfonso Guzman has opened a Mexican-​style tienda in Chapel Hill. When I first heard about this store I was very curious and excited about it, since I missed the offerings from tiendas when I stayed in Mexico, Los Angeles, and New York, so from the beginning I had high hopes for this place as I have not been able to cook with hard-​to-​find ingredients that can typically be found in Mexican or major U.S. city tiendas.
I tried looking online for this place and only found a social media page for them where I found the address and since I was unfamiliar with that road I put it in my GPS. When I was less than a half mile from it, I was so certain that my GPS was incorrect because I was in a rural residential area. However it was not wrong and I spotted a large sign of La Virgen de Guadalupe, a symbol for all Catholic Mexicans. This store is located in the middle of nowhere — a very bad location for any business.
The building is a small cinderblock structure that was presumably a gas station in another life, and had a good amount of parking. For most Hispanics the size of this store would not be an issue, but typical locals used to their spacious Harris Teeter will find this cramped and claustrophobia-​inducing; however this is more or less the right size for a tienda.
The selection left much to be desired, even though what they did have was good, like the Mexican sodas that cost $ 1.50 (which cost $ 1.99 at the Fresh Market), the gelatinas (Mexican-​style «Jell-​O»), arroz con leche (rice pudding), la Moderna pastas, paletas (Mexican-​style popsicles), Jarritos sodas, and Jumex juice. However, the selection of these products is very limited compared with other tiendas. While it would typically be unfair to compare this store with Compare Foods, as that business is a regional supermarket chain. However, such comparisons are unavoidable in this case as Compare Foods carries at least 99% of the items sold here, for a better price, and in a location better-​suited for their clientele.
The biggest problem with this place is its identity crisis. It sells nothing that larger stores do not. This is abnormal when compared with any other tienda that I’ve visited. They’ve all either carried specialized food products that are not sold in supermarkets, services that are not common, such as a trained carnicero, or are just incredibly convenient to get to. This one has none of the above. It has nothing that I can’t find elsewhere in the area (this area is lacking overall in the authentic Hispanic food selection, which only makes this place even worse by comparison), and is in a bad location.
I really wanted to like this place, but it offers no reason to return.