By Beatrice Farb

A few blocks north of Golden Gate Park, on Arguello Boulevard – the west side’s former First Avenue – sits one of the Inner Richmond’s favorite stores.

On a typical weekday morning at Arguello Market, you might find a few people meandering the well-stocked grocery aisles or someone buying a sandwich wrapped in deli paper that says “Home of the world-famous turkey sandwich.” You also might spot a regular of more than 30 years, Joan Meehan, sitting near the window.

“Oh, I have my breakfast here every morning,” Meehan said, smiling.

She credited her loyalty to the store’s owner, Sal Qaqundah. “Sal knows everybody and talks to everybody. I’m very well treated,” she said.

Sal moved from Ramallah to Southern California in 1969 for college, where he paid his way through school by taking various grocery and restaurant jobs. Working as a busboy at a 24-hour diner called Spires, Sal noticed the success of their Monday night $1.49 fried chicken special.

“On Monday nights, the line would be out the door from 3 p.m. until 10 p.m. Which, if you look at the life of a restaurant, Monday night is the slowest night,” Qaqundah said. “I figured that if you want to differentiate yourself from anybody else, you gotta have something special.”

Sal took this lesson with him when he moved to San Francisco in 1975. He purchased Arguello Market nine years later. The store, which had seen two owners since opening in the 1950s, was falling apart.

“Refrigeration was not working. They had a coffin freezer in the center. They had extension cords with light bulbs hanging from the ceiling,” Sal said.

After a major remodel, Sal bought a rotisserie for the deli. Inspired by the Monday night chicken special at Spires, he began roasting one turkey a day and sold it to customers in various forms.

“It developed into two turkeys a day, then three turkeys a day. Now we serve over 10 turkeys a day – 25 pounders,” Sal said.

While the market still sells whole turkeys and sliced turkey by the pound, its top seller by far is the turkey sandwich.

“The signature sandwich is your traditional turkey with everything on it – we added the cranberry. And we added the cheese. And we added the avocado.”

The result? A simple sandwich that is a mainstay on lists of top sandwiches in San Francisco, including this past month in The San Francisco Standard.

Beyond the sandwiches at the deli counter, Arguello Market is a full-service grocery store. The shelves are lined with a variety of goods, ranging from traditional to specialty. Most of the produce is organic, and Sal says they have high standards in what they sell.

“The produce companies we use, we work very closely with,” he said. “They know us as a business. They know our standards. They know the quality that we’ll accept and what we won’t accept. Many things will come in here and we will reject it.”

Merchandise bearing the Arguello Market logo has become a top seller at the store in recent years. The simple but punchy logo reflects the low-key but community-oriented nature of the neighborhood.

“I ran into someone wearing one in the Dominican Republic,” said Sal’s son, Peter Qaqundah.

Peter grew up in the ’90s working in the market, stocking shelves and greeting customers. In 2018, Peter returned to Arguello Market to work in partnership with his father. Peter reflected on what it means to have a family business.

“Three, four, five times a week when I’m here, my wife and daughter will come here and hang out. She’s growing up the same kind of way as me.”

Peter and Sal said they keep up with the neighborhood’s evolving needs by focusing on community values.

“When people come in here and they see the market, they come back for the product, they come back for the service that we give, and they come back because they feel like this is a community,” Sal said. “Every walk in, everybody’s happy to come. That makes me happy.”

Arguello Market is at 782 Arguello Blvd. It is open 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday to Saturday and 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday.