Gelson’s Market in Pacific Palisades was a favorite with many shoppers. After it burned in January 2025, residents want it to come back.
Nextdoor, the adult version of the children’s game “telephone” has printed numerous assumptions from different people about whether the Gelson’s store at the intersection of Antioch, Via de la Paz and off Sunset Boulevard was coming back. One person wrote “I heard from secret sources that Gelson’s will become a dollar store/laundromat.”
Another person wrote, [I hope tongue-in-cheek], “It will be a check cashing place and a marijuana dispensary.”
A reasonable person wrote, “Everyone needs to stand down on rumors and innuendos. All due respect the majority of this is based on zero facts and incorrect information, such as ‘I was told this from a box person who is working at a different Gelson’s location.’
He added, “STOP! This kind of guessing doesn’t help anyone and it certainly doesn’t help the neighborhood. Pacific Palisades has over 28,000 thousand residents and markets and retail will come back to serve the community and make money. The best thing we can all do is get back as quickly as possible, so we can achieve the density levels needed for markets to come back. Until then, unless you have factual information don’t post hearsay and falsehoods. It doesn’t do any good at all.”
Last year, this editor reached out to sources for Ralphs and Gelson’s and was told both planned to return. Since only about a fourth of the town’s population is back, both stores felt there was not a market, yet, to rush back to.
This editor called Gelson’s corporate office on January 22, 2026, and spoke to a person who said the store is coming back. That person told me to email someone higher up on the corporate ladder about a timeline. This editor did.
This editor received a call on January 27. “Yes,” Gelson’s is coming back. Their spokesperson Myra said, no timeline yet, but they are now working through logistics, including insurance.
Its great to se donations to Palisades fire victims. I wnder how people get chosen or notified. We lost our home, cars and all personal belonging bu never got word of the events that you reported on. We sign up whenever we get notice.
Thank you for the effort you put into clarifying many Palisadians’ interest in Gelson’s return. So perhaps now it’s no longer a chicken-or-egg situation. Build the Palisades back up, and they will come…
Thank you, Sue. I love your analogy of NextDoor being the adult version of telephone.
I am relocated to Beverly Grove and my regular market is Gelsons on Santa Monica Blvd in West Hollywood. It is a smaller market with the same products and the same environment but a much different demographic of shoppers. The first time I went there right after the fire, and I saw familiar checkers who has been relocated there, I got emotional! These days, it is so good to see them regularly, and they are so happy to see me, and all the other Palisadians who shop there now. All of our hearts are still in PP.
Thanks so much for this, Sue! We are back in the Palisades and have been eating at Spruzzo and Prima Cantina, wishing more restaurants would open up. Do you have any intel about any new restaurants coming to town to occupy the existing unused restaurant spaces (I’m thinking about the three restaurant spaces in the center on the corner of Sunset and Monument, as well as Pearl Dragon’s space and Noah’s space)?
Eve,
I have not heard any more information about possible restaurants opening–but I think the town could support a Bagel place in the mornings–especially with high school back – and it would be nice if Pearl Dragon or a space opened in Caruso’s Village prior to his August reopening–I think enough people have moved back or in the process that an additional restaurant would be great.
And don’t forget there are a few great restaurants in the Canyon–Golden Bull has a great happy hour.
Sue