A Fresh Start for Daly City’s Top of the Hill

Buses on several Muni and SamTrans routes stop at the corner of Mission and Goethe streets. For most of the last two decades, riders who got off there could step straight into a Walgreens. KRON4 reported that the pharmacy at 6100 Mission St. opened in the 2000s, was a neighborhood staple for more than twenty years, and closed in 2024.

Since Sept. 10, 2026, the building has been a Grocery Outlet. This store is independently owned and operated by David and Carla Gates. The biggest box at the north end of Top of the Hill now follows the same model as the family-owned cafe across the street, the locally owned shops up the block, and the family-run restaurant a few doors farther on.

The Corner That Sat Empty

A national pharmacy chain had held this address for so long that the corner became known by the store's name. When it closed in 2024, the bus stop stayed but the reason to stop there went away. SFGATE put the space at 13,905 square feet, which is a big footprint for a stretch of Mission Street made up mostly of narrow, single-storefront businesses.

The City of Daly City put the grand opening on its calendar for Sept. 10, with a 10 a.m. ribbon cutting and a donation ceremony. The Daly City-Colma Chamber of Commerce described the store as a new source of affordable groceries for local families. The opening-week promotions are over. They included mystery gift cards for the first 100 customers, free reusable bags, and a $1,000 grocery giveaway that ran from Sept. 10 to Oct. 9. Seven weeks in, the store is simply part of the street.

A Retrenching Chain Still Chose This Corner

The timing makes this opening stand out. Earlier in 2026, Grocery Outlet announced that it would close 36 stores it called underperforming. SFGATE reported that most of the nine California closures were in Southern California. The same SFGATE story notes that the company reported a net loss of $225 million for fiscal 2025, compared with net income of $39.5 million in 2024. It also cites the Los Angeles Times account of the CEO, Jason Potter, saying on a March earnings call that overexpansion was part of the reason.

A chain cutting stores across the country still signed for Mission and Goethe. The company also opened elsewhere in the Bay Area the same summer. KRON4 reported a 30,000-square-foot store in San Francisco's North Beach that opened about a month before Daly City's.

The two stores show the difference in scale. The North Beach store is more than twice the size of the Daly City one. At just under 14,000 square feet, the Top of the Hill store is a neighborhood grocer sized to its building, a converted pharmacy beside a bus stop. Grocery Outlet was founded in the Bay Area in 1946 and is based in Emeryville.

The Neighbors Are Owner-Run Too

Independent ownership is how this stretch of Mission Street has always worked. In May 2025, during Small Business Week, Mayor Rod Raña Daus-Magbual and the Daly City-Colma Chamber held a Mayoral Walk at Top of the Hill. The businesses they recognized were all in the 6200 block, within a short walk of the new grocery.

Here is the block in address order, starting at the bus stop:

Everything on that list fits within about two hundred street numbers. The new anchor sits at the low end and the bar and boutique at the high end, with a gym and a print shop between them. A grocery run, a coffee, an errand for a uniform, and a drink can all be done on one stretch of sidewalk.

The Shops Worth Knowing by Name

Fog City Cafe. Palo Alto Online profiled it in June 2024 as a family-owned cafe and one of the few coffee shops in the neighborhood. Along with espresso drinks, it serves a baleada, a Honduran dish of warm folded tortilla filled with beans, cheese and eggs. Proyecto Diaz Coffee still lists the cafe at 6185 Mission as a place to find its coffee. The 2024 hours are two years old, so check the cafe's Instagram, @fogcity.cafe, before you walk over.

13 Gallons. This is the shop the Chamber singled out as having grown. Palo Alto Online described it as a traditional hand-pulled screen printing shop that works with businesses and also prints its own merchandise for in-store pickup. One sweater carried the phrase "Daly City: Where the sun doesn't shine." Its current site lists screen printing, embroidery and DTF transfers, all made in Daly City.

Nick & Nora Bar. The bar is named for the stemmed glass used for stirred cocktails. Its own site gives its address as 6282 Mission St. and says it seats walk-ins first come, first served. It does not take individual reservations but does host private parties and full buyouts. Palo Alto Online's 2024 guide said its cocktail list includes seasonal specials alongside margaritas, espresso martinis and Negronis.

Riann Fashion. Medical uniforms and scrubs sell next to handmade goods here. The Chamber cited the shop as an example of the city's creative economy and of support for local medical professionals.

A Saturday Run, in Address Order

The block is short enough to cover on foot, and it starts at a bus stop, so there's no need to drive:

1. Get off at Mission and Goethe, or park once, and start at Grocery Outlet, 6100 Mission St.
2. Cross to Fog City Cafe at 6185 for coffee or a baleada.
3. Continue up the 6200 block past La Costa Café & Restaurant at 6233 if you're staying for a sit-down meal.
4. Stop at 13 Gallons, 6261, for a printed shirt or to ask about a custom run.
5. Finish at Riann Fashion, 6283, and Nick & Nora Bar, 6282, which face each other across the same stretch of numbers. Check the bar's posted hours before planning an afternoon stop.

Do the grocery shopping last if the bags are heavy. The bus stop is back at the start.

Halloween Week Away From Mission Street

The post goes up on a Thursday, and the city's Halloween calendar starts that evening. The library events are on the east side of town at Bayshore Library, and the mall events are at Serramonte:

• Family Night: Halloween Bash, Thursday, Oct. 29, 6 to 7:30 p.m., Bayshore Library, 460 Martin St. Stories, crafts, treats and a costume parade, per the Daly City calendar.
• Tricks F'or Teens: Halloween Eve Shin-dig, Friday, Oct. 30, 2 to 4 p.m., also at Bayshore Library, listed here.
• Serramonte Center Halloween Celebration, Oct. 31, noon to 2 p.m. Serramonte's events page lists a trick-or-treat trail, face painting, balloon art, crafts, and a 1 p.m. costume contest in Grand Court. The page doesn't show a year, so confirm with the center before you go.

Mission and Goethe will look much the same next week as it did the week the grocery opened: a bus stop, a big storefront with its lights back on, and a 6200 block of owner-run shops a short walk up the hill.

If you're thinking about what the changes along Top of the Hill mean for your own plans, Rick Lei is glad to go over it with you. Let's Connect.