Two neighborhood stores in Seaside sell groceries – and also help build a sense of community.

On Sonoma Avenue just west of Yosemite Street in Seaside, a faded yellow and cracked sign is illuminated in the late afternoon sun: “Have A Pepsi.”

Underneath that old-school marker, another sign identifies the store as Nation’s Market. It’s just across the street from Capra Park, where kids play on the paint-chipped swing set and adults talk on picnic benches perched on patchy grass.

Nation’s is tiny, but its inventory is not.

Inside the store, three rows of cramped shelves are stacked to the ceiling, packed with chips, cookies and dry goods – rice, black beans and various canned salsa – and home goods ranging from laundry detergent and toilet paper to cleaning supplies, perfumes and prayer candles. Against the back wall, a fridge keeps things cold, including various sodas and standard domestic beer selections – along with jugs of Carlo Rossi white Zinfandel, tall cans of Hurricane and 40-ounce bottles of King Cobra.

Nation’s owner Ikram Kahn stands behind a cramped counter. In front of him a display of folded T-shirts. Behind, baseball caps are stuffed on a shelf. Flats of energy drinks, Arizona ice teas and unopened cases of chips are stacked haphazardly on the faded brown floor.

“Everybody comes here and everybody knows me!” Kahn says. “The store has been here forever and everybody knows it.”

Kahn, a Monterey Peninsula resident for some 40 years, bought Nation’s three years ago. That happened after he felt his three-decades-long tenure of owning two Quik Stops in Monterey and Seaside was lacking the feeling of community.

“Nation’s is a meeting place,” he says. “People run into each other here. I’ll see some of the regulars a few times a day.”

Kahn also owns Mediterranean Halal Market on Hamilton Street in Seaside. Many customers at both arrive on foot. “Sometimes people don’t have the transportation to get to a full grocery store, but they can just walk here,” Kahn says.

One customer rolls up in her wheelchair. Kahn gathers her items and brings a receipt for her to sign.

He helps out other folks in less-than-ideal situations by running tabs. “Most of the people will come back and pay, but a few haven’t,” he says. “But it evens out.”

Throughout the early evening hours, four parking spots out front ebb and flow with a steady stream of cars. Nearby residents wander down the street for cold drinks.

“This is the spot, man! You can come in and talk to Khan and no one’s ever got any problems,” one customer says as he walked out of Nation’s with a brown-bagged beer. “The camaraderie is what makes it special.”

Fletta Cough agrees. She lives two blocks up at the Del Monte Manor apartment complex and has been coming here for drinks for 20 years.

“We’re grateful to have this store,” she says, “Everybody comes to Nation’s. There is a warmth here.”

Mahdi Washington, now 45, says she has been going to Nation’s since she was 5. She sells T-shirts at the counter with logos for Solid Nation apparel.

“Kahn is a neighbor,” she says, waiting in line with a 40-ounce of Miller High Life. “It’s just always been part of the neighborhood.”

Down the street, on Noche Buena and Wanda Avenue, a plastic folding signs boasts “The Best Sandwiches in Town!” outside of Mal’s Market, which has a floor plan about eight times the size of Nation’s, with a meat market, case of cakes and a full deli, which serves up sandwich favorites like the Mal’s notoriously meaty “Bomber” and Philly cheesesteak.

Dennis Volk has owned Mal’s for 42 years, and worked for the original owner, Mal, for 13 years before taking over.

One change over the years is staples: “People don’t do grocery shopping here anymore,” Volk says. “But we provide basic needs like milk and eggs.”

“These little stores have done a good job in taking care of the neighborhood,” Volk says. “If someone is down and out, I’ll help them out and run them a tab.”

In the mornings, elderly regulars get coffee, sit at tables inside and play the Lottery while watching a TV mounted on the wall.

For Volk, the neighborhood market is about fostering community.

“I want people to be able to get something they need,” he says.

Nation’s Market is at 1546 Sonoma Ave., Seaside; 9am-9pm daily; 392-1855. Mal’s Market is at 1264 Noche Buena St., Seaside; 7am-8pm daily; 394-1881