Back in the mid ’40s, Gerard Roy emigrated from Quebec to New Orleans, then on to Encinitas. After he got here, he figured that Leucadia needed its own market, so he rented a classic building that might look familiar – it now houses Bing Surf Shop and Duck Foot Brewery. He called it simply Roy’s Market, The Friendly Store, and painted the slogan “Sooner or later your favorite store” over the front doors.
Roy’s daughter Carolyn Roy (now Cope, president of the Encinitas Historical Society), was conscripted to work in the store and grew closer to her dad as she served as his star employee. His uncanny marketing ability motivated him to create the local Greyhound Bus depot – he got 10% of all fares, and Carolyn earned 10% of her dad’s 10%. Roy would grant customers credit, and even deliver groceries to shut-ins. Carolyn describes him as a smart, low-key fellow who liked to play guitar and sing in French.
Ever the entrepreneur, Roy cut a deal with the government a few years later to build the Leucadia Post Office at his own expense in exchange for a long-term lease (and a lucrative lure for additional customers). He raised the money to single-handedly build his own market with cinder blocks just south of the post office, the building where the Sota architectural supply store is today.
Roy’s Market was the “favorite store” of locals, surfers and beach campers, punctuated by the occasional robber. Once, Roy was pistol-whipped and hospitalized, and another time a scoundrel got into an argument with him and they began choking each other. Carolyn ended that skirmish by wailing the assailant with a baseball bat hidden under the counter.
When the Safeway and Buy & Save markets came to town, Roy saw the writing on the wall and leased the store to a new operator in the early ’70s, where it lasted for several more years. Roy’s ingenuity and hard work had paid off – he was able to retire at 55.