Nestled in the hills of a quaint Californian town lies a grocery store that seems to have defied the passage of time, catering to some of the nation’s wealthiest individuals.

Eschewing modern conveniences like self-checkouts, this establishment offers a classic shopping experience with human cashiers attending to everyone, from billionaires to local residents and Hollywood celebrities.

Roberts Market, a family-run business, stands as the only grocery store in Woodside, a small community with just over 5,000 residents, many of whom are billionaires.

Despite the technological advances and opulence ushered in by Silicon Valley’s boom, Roberts Market remains unchanged, retaining its nostalgic allure.

The notion of installing self-checkouts was never entertained. “Oh my God, my customers would revolt,” confessed Christine Roberts, the fourth-generation owner, to the Daily Mail. “That wasn’t even a consideration.”

Mike Kerr, the store’s general manager, told Daily Mail customers seem to agree on one thing no matter how deep their pockets are – they ‘don’t like change.’

Customers look forward to chatting with their checkers, staff enjoy seeing familiar faces, and many watch the children of local families grow up, work in the store, and eventually start families of their own.

‘They like the fact that Roberts will be open no matter what,’ Kerr explained, even during periods of frequent power outages in town. 

Roberts Market, located around 30 miles south of San Francisco, was always meant to be a spot where the community could ‘come and meet, gather, and see their neighbors.’

‘It’s really important to me and to the town that we preserve that,’ Christine said. ‘It’s such a big part of what makes it so charming.’ 

Rubbing shoulders with celebrities and billionaires has been everyday life at Roberts for decades, according to Kerr, who has worked there 40 years. 

‘There’s this guy that comes in, head of a law firm that handles the legal parts for companies and venture capitalists,’ he said. ‘You wouldn’t know, but he’s one of the most powerful people in Silicon Valley.’ 

Singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman, physicist John Baez, NFL legend Bill Walsh, quarterback Joe Montana and the fourth-richest person in the world Larry Ellison – who boasts a $243 billion fortune – have all swung by for shopping. 

‘I remember once, I came back from lunch and walked past this guy in the wine department and thought, “God, this guy looks familiar,”‘ Kerr told Daily Mail. 

‘Then, I turned the corner and there’s The Edge, from U2,’ he added. ‘It snapped in my head – that was Bono, you know, the whole band.’ 

And while all customers are treated with the same Roberts’ friendly service whether they are famous or not, Kerr admits there was one star who left him floored – Michelle Pfeiffer. 

She strolled through the doors at 7am, hair tied back in a ponytail, wearing a baseball cap and no makeup – just like a regular mother doing her shopping, he explained. 

And, luckily for Kerr, she came up to him and asked where she could find the matches. 

‘I looked at her and said, “Oh yeah, we got all kinds of matches – free matches with our name on it, wooden matches,”‘ he said. 

‘She stood there looking at me, calmly waiting, and one part of my brain was gone. I thought, “Dude, you’re rambling. She just asked where they were.”‘ 

For Christine, Neil Young was the ultimate celeb shopper. 

‘I was pretty starstruck by him,’ she said. ‘I listened to his music and eventually he would give me tickets to his concerts. That was big.’ 

When big tech started moving in the 1990s – 2000s, the rich and famous were still just regular neighbors to the Woodside natives. No autographs, no drama and most of the time, no one even knew who they were.

‘Big tech isn’t like Hollywood,’ Christine explained. ‘You don’t necessarily know who these people are just by looking at them.’ 

Charles Schwab, with a net worth of $13.9 billion, Gordon Getty at $5.5 billion and Thomas Siebel at $4.1 billion are just a few of the billionaires who might be strolling the aisles of the 8,000sq ft market – unnoticed by most.

Around the time of 9/11, Kerr read an article about Reed Slatkin – the EarthLink co-founder, Scientology minister and ringleader of one of the biggest Ponzi schemes in US history. 

For 15 years, Slatkin tricked clients into thinking they were beating the late-’90s stock market, all while using their money to fund planes, luxury cars, real estate, artwork and gold – entirely for his own gain, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The scheme stole a staggering $240 million from investors. Yet as Kerr read through the names, one stood out: John Poitras. 

After thinking for a bit, he recognized Poitras as one of his customers – a guy in jeans and a flannel, with his hands often streaked of grease from tinkering on his BMWs. 

‘He’s a real quiet guy and generally bags everything himself. He turned out to be this venture capitalist who invested like $15 million with him,’ Kerr told the Daily Mail. ‘He was the guy who originally blew the whistle on the whole scheme.’

‘There was a comment that made me laugh. He gave him $15 million and said, “Losing $15 million wasn’t that much to me, but it’s the principle,”‘ he added.

‘This was a guy who I’ve seen everyday and he told me he could afford to lose $15 million and not even sweat it.’

But with fortunes like theirs, it’s not surprising to know that many hire help to handle their daily chores around town.

Once, a billionaire was sent to Roberts by his wife for a few items before a trip – an after grabbing a cart and wandering into the produce section, he looked utterly lost. 

‘He’s standing there with this look on his face and said, “What’s the format here?”‘ Kerr said with a laugh.

‘I literally think it was the first time he’d ever been in a grocery store in his life,’ he added. ‘He did not know what to do.’ 

From private chefs to plumbers to construction workers, Roberts Market sees them all. Every so often, Kerr noted, a billionaire will be in the soap aisle, admitting, ‘I can’t screw this up. My maid will yell at me.’

‘There’s billionaires who don’t know how to shop and there’s electricians who don’t know how to shop,’ Kerr joked.

Money aside, Roberts is still one of California’s oldest grocery stores – and when it first opened, it had no intention of becoming a legendary community spot. 

‘I’m so appreciative of what my father created. He had a vision, and it’s so neat to see it – and see how appreciated it is by the community that developed around it because it just wasn’t there,’ Christine told the Daily Mail.

‘He had the wherewithal to meet their needs as it came along, and still retain our close-knit, country store feel,’ she added.

Roberts’ origins were far humbler. In 1889, English immigrant W.F. Roberts opened the market at 2847 California Street in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights, living above the storefront while running what was then largely a butcher shop. 

By the early 1890s, it had grown to span almost a full block, complete with its own creamery and a unique ice-making setup. 

In 1919, after rebranding as W.F. Roberts and Sons, the market had become one of San Francisco’s top grocery spots. Each day, four times over, its box trucks delivered fresh groceries straight to doorsteps across the city. 

W.F. Roberts’ three sons inherited the store in 1924 and ran it for decades before all retiring in the 1960s. William Jr.’s son, George, spent his teenage years driving the market’s delivery trucks. 

George went on to breathe new life into the market, setting the stage for what it is today. 

In 1960, on a San Francisco-to-Palo Alto drive to watch a football game, he discovered a general store for sale along a quiet Woodside street.

George bought the general store, put up a sign saying ‘Roberts of Woodside,’ and then picked up the small shopping center across the street for $280,000.

With that, he launched Roberts Hardware in the shopping center and started turning the general store into a second grocery store in the family’s name. 

Around that time, the rural enclave attracted Sargent Shriver – George McGovern’s vice-presidential running mate and founder of the Peace Corps – who would later marry John F Kennedy’s sister, Eunice.

Homes averaging millions meant George knew the Woodside store had to cater to the wealthy: two kinds of quail eggs, fresh caviar and in-house ‘Cambridge sausage’ from his grandfather’s old-world recipe. 

In 1980, the market debuted its crisp, simple new sign: Roberts Market. 

Now, beyond the grocery aisles, the deli ranks as the store’s second-largest department. 

‘I feel like it’s a big part of the reason people come to the store,’ Christine told the Daily Mail. ‘We’re known for our deli sandwiches. We make, I would say, 90 percent of the product by hand.’   

Christine took control in 2023 after George’s passing at 89, keeping the family legacy alive – and, as she puts it, ‘not much has changed since.’ 

‘It’s a big priority of the people that live here and own property to preserve the rustic charm of the town,’ she said. 

‘I still have a lot of long term employees and several families that work for me, like multiple members of their family,’ she added. ‘It’s great.’