The “Scream” Grocery Store

I love a good grocery store locale (as evidenced here, here, here and here)!  My dad worked in markets throughout my childhood and I spent a lot of time with him at “the office,” which is where my affinity stems from.  So even though I had already blogged about Pacific Market, the Santa Rosa bodega that cameoed in horror favorite Scream (which my aunt and uncle, who live in the area, stalked on my behalf back in 2008), I still had to hit the place up when I traveled to Sonoma County in October 2016.  Going through my photos from that trip in preparation for this post made me a bit misty-eyed.  While in town, I dragged my mom, aunt, two uncles, longtime BFF, and her boyfriend to every.single.locale. featured in the 1996 flick.  Oh, how I wish I could do it all over again – especially the visit to Pacific Market, where my stalking resulted in a free bottle of champagne!  But more on that in a bit.

Per newspaper ads, the property that currently houses Pacific Market has been a grocery store since at least as far back as 1950, at which time it was known as Pohley’s Market.

It has gone through several different grocer iterations in the years since – as well as a few renovations, I’m sure.  When the Scream cast and crew descended upon the area in the spring of 1996, the shop was known as Town and Country Market.

The upscale store was known for its fine wines, gourmet foods, and other specialty items.  A former ad for the place I found on Newspapers.com touted Town and Country as a spot “Where old-fashioned courtesy and relaxed shopping are yours at supermarket prices.”

Town and Country became the third store in the Pacific Market chain when it was acquired by the Mohar family in 1997, a year after Scream was filmed on the premises.  Initially established in 1948 by Stan and Mary Mohar, the grocery company was light years ahead of its time as far as healthful eating was concerned, dedicating an entire section of each outpost to organic produce from the start!  Unfortunately, with the purchase came some renovations, which I’ll cover further down.

The Santa Rosa outpost was subsequently sold on two more occasions (first in 2012 and then again in 2016), each time retaining the Pacific Market name.  The latter sale occurred just prior to my visit, during which I had the good fortune of meeting the new owner, who could not have been nicer!  Turns out, he had no idea of his store’s cinematic history and was thrilled to learn about it!  As I filled him in on Pacific Market’s role in Scream and where filming had taken place, I couldn’t help but relish in his enthusiasm over the cameo and had to throw out a few suggestions to honor it, such as stationing a Ghostface mask in the freezer aisle so that its reflection could forever be visible in the glass doors.  I am unsure if he implemented the idea, but it’s genius, right?  As our chat wound down, he asked me what I like to drink.  I told him champagne (of course) and he promptly grabbed a very nice bottle off the shelf and gifted it to me – which was the first time any of my stalkings ever resulted in free bubbly!

In Scream, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and Tatum Riley (Rose McGowan) head to what was then Town and Country Market to buy party supplies for the soiree Stuart Macher (Matthew Lillard) is hosting to celebrate classes being canceled due to the murder of two fellow Woodsboro High students.  Sadly, the part of the store the girls walk by at the top of the scene was extensively remolded after filming took place, with the side window and wooden patio railing removed, as you can see below.

This was done to allow for a new entrance (pictured below) to be built at the corner of the market, one that would be more accessible to the surrounding wraparound parking lot.

As such, the southeast tip of the building was essentially blown out and diagonally-situated doors installed in its place.  (The support beam visible below marks exactly where the demolished corner used to come out to.)

The store’s original main entrance, which was situated on the south side of the market and which Sidney and Tatum walked through in Scream, is just a set of windows today.

Completely framed in, the windows are situated behind seasonal displays and grocery cart storage and semi-obscured from view.

The bulk of the Scream scene takes place inside Pacific Market, in aisle 5 to be precise – the freezer aisle (dun dun dun!) – which Tatum and Sidney walk the length of.

It, too, has been remodeled, unfortunately.  The freezer aisle used to be zigzag in shape.  It was in the shorter section, where the aisle zagged off toward the front of the store, that Sidney grabbed popsicles and ice cream and announced she was “sexually anorexic.”

Today, the freezer section is one straight line with an open refrigerated display case situated in the spot where Sidney and Tatum perused frozen desserts.  Though I don’t have a photo taken from the same angle shown in Scream, the area where the girls were positioned is pretty much right where the woman in blue is standing below.  Because the freezer aisle pretty much ends where the new front doors stand, I believe the alteration was made to accommodate for their construction.

It is as the girls leave the aisle that Ghostface’s reflection becomes visible in a freezer case door – as I said, dun dun dun!  (I accidentally took the photo below from the wrong angle, but as you can see the freezer doors have also since been swapped out for new ones.)

It is not at all hard to see why Wes Craven and the rest of the production team landed on the store as a location for Scream.  Pacific Market is the perfect little neighborhood grocer.  And while the segment shot there is short, it is significant as it not only encapsulates the idyllic small town nature of Woodsboro, but the naivete of the teens at the center of the story who are out buying ice cream and Tostitos for a party celebrating school being cancelled due to the murder spree ravaging their town!  Talk about a juxtaposition!  (The song that plays at the top of the scene is also perfection, btw.)

I really could not have timed my visit to Pacific Market better as the fall decorations adorning the store only added to its homey feel.  I mean, if that’s not the perfect slice of Americana pictured below, I don’t know what is!

And yeah, had to do it!

Even my aunt got in on the fun!

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Big THANK YOU to my aunt and uncle for originally stalking this location for me back in 2008, taking me to stalk it myself in 2016, and then re-stalking it for me again this past weekend.  When I sat down to edit my photos for this post, I realized I hadn’t taken any that matched what was shown in Scream, so I asked if they might head out there to snap better comparison shots.  They happily obliged and sent me all that appear in this post.  (For those counting, that’s their third stalk of the place – and no, they’re not fans of the movie in the slightest.)  I honestly can’t thank them enough! 

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Pacific Market, aka the former Town and Country Market from Scream, is located at 1465 Town and Country Drive in Santa Rosa.  You can visit the store’s official website here.

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