Monterey Fish Market

What Monterey Fish Market does

Monterey Fish Market, Inc. is a privately held, founder-owned seafood business founded in 1979 by Paul Johnson and Joan Steele and domiciled in California. It operates a hybrid retail-and-wholesale model with three physical sites: a Berkeley retail storefront at 1582 Hopkins St. (open since 1979), a wholesale distribution warehouse at Pier 33 in San Francisco serving Bay Area restaurants and businesses via same-day air delivery, and a corporate office at 350 Bay St. in San Francisco. The company sells fresh finfish (salmon, cod, tuna, mackerel, sole and others) and shellfish (clams, oysters, mussels, crabs, lobsters, shrimp, octopus, squid) to individual consumers at retail and to restaurants, hotels, and foodservice operators at wholesale, with an online curbside pickup channel added through a Square-hosted storefront for the Berkeley location.

The business has no proprietary technology platform. Its digital surface is limited to a Squarespace-hosted marketing website and a Square-hosted e-commerce storefront; the core operating stack is a HACCP-compliant seafood handling and cold-chain operation supported by a stack of federal and California state licenses (HACCP, ICSSL Interstate Shellfish Sanitation, CA Food Processing, CA Fish and Game Commercial/Receiver/Processor/Wholesaler/Retailer/Importer, and Weigh Masters). All shellfish is sourced from certified waters tested weekly by state and local health agencies, and suppliers must be HACCP compliant with plans on record.

Monterey Fish Market makes money through retail markup on seafood sold at the Berkeley storefront, wholesale margins on volume purchases direct from local fishing boats and nationwide producers, and negotiated B2B contracts with foodservice customers (pricing and credit terms are not publicly disclosed). Its go-to-market is content-led: an extensive library of educational resources covering sustainability, seafood handling, mercury and selenium, nutrients, finfish and shellfish indices, and curated links to environmental organizations, supplemented by a Facebook page, an Instagram account, and direct email contacts segmented by wholesale, retail, and general inquiries. The market served is the San Francisco Bay Area, with wholesale deliveries extending "beyond" the Bay Area via air freight.

Name

Monterey Fish Market

Legal name

Monterey Fish Market, Inc.

Website

https://montereyfish.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1979

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Monterey Fish Market is a privately held, founder-owned seafood retailer and wholesaler founded in 1979, operating a Berkeley retail storefront, a Pier 33 wholesale distribution facility serving Bay Area restaurants, and a Square-based curbside pickup channel, with an extensive sustainability and seafood education content library.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Seafood Retail and Wholesale

NAICS

Fish and Seafood Retailers (445250), Fish and Seafood Merchant Wholesalers (424460)

SIC

Retail-Food Stores (5400), Wholesale-Groceries & Related Products (5140)

akta.pro primary industry

Seafood Markets & Fishmongers (CRAHAHAC)

akta.pro secondary industries

Seafood Wholesale (Fresh & Frozen) (AFAIADAD), Shellfish Wholesale (Crustaceans & Mollusks) (AFAIADAF)

Keywords

• Fresh seafood retail
• Wholesale seafood distribution
• Sustainable seafood sourcing
• Finfish and shellfish
• Foodservice supplier

Headquarters

HQ city

Berkeley

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Supply Chain, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Monterey Fish Market sells fresh, sustainably-sourced seafood — including finfish (salmon, cod, tuna, mackerel, sole) and shellfish (clams, oysters, mussels, crabs, lobsters, shrimp, octopus, squid) — through a Berkeley retail storefront and a Pier 33 (San Francisco) wholesale distribution operation serving Bay Area restaurants and foodservice businesses. The business supplements physical retail with online curbside pickup ordering via Square.

Product overview

Monterey Fish Market operates as a traditional seafood retailer and wholesaler founded in 1979, consisting of two core offerings: a retail store in Berkeley, California and a wholesale operation at Pier 33, San Francisco serving restaurants and businesses. The company also offers online curbside pickup ordering through a Square-powered platform. Their product portfolio encompasses both finfish and shellfish varieties, with detailed seafood indexing covering dozens of species including salmon, cod, tuna, clams, oysters, crabs, and shrimp. The business emphasizes sustainable sourcing, HACCP compliance, and direct relationships with local fishermen and producers.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Berkeley Retail Store Traditional retail seafood market offering fresh, seasonal catch and pantry staples to individual consumers in Berkeley, California. Open Tuesday-Saturday 10:00 AM-6:00 PM; Sunday-Monday 10:00 AM-5:00 PM.
• Wholesale Seafood Distribution Wholesale seafood distribution service serving restaurants, hotels, and foodservice businesses in the Bay Area and beyond, with same-day air deliveries from Pier 33, San Francisco. Operating hours 3:00 AM-11:00 AM, Monday-Saturday; includes credit application process for business accounts.
• Online Curbside Pickup Ordering

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Emerging players

• Wild Alaskan Company: Subscription-based DTC seafood company shipping wild-caught seafood nationwide, including into the Bay Area. Represents the digital-first competition Monterey Fish Market faces with its limited curbside-pickup-only e-commerce presence.
• Seatopia: DTC online seafood retailer focused on sustainable, traceable aquaculture and wild seafood shipped nationwide. Comparable to Monterey Fish Market's sustainability-led positioning but with a fundamentally different digital-first delivery model.

Broad incumbents

• Whole Foods Market: Nationwide premium grocer with strong fresh seafood counters and growing sustainable sourcing standards. Competes with Monterey Fish Market for sustainability-conscious premium seafood shoppers, particularly in the Bay Area where it has dense store coverage.
• Fortune Fish & Gourmet: Midwest-based broad-line specialty seafood and gourmet foods distributor serving foodservice and retail. Comparable to Monterey Fish Market's wholesale arm in scale of operation and customer mix, though national in scope rather than regional.

Regional players

• Berkeley Bowl: Iconic Bay Area independent grocery store with a renowned fresh seafood and fish counter, located just blocks from Monterey Fish Market's Berkeley retail store. Direct regional competitor for the same Berkeley fresh-seafood shopper.

Direct peers

• Pike Place Fish Market: Iconic Seattle-based fresh seafood retailer with both retail counter and nationwide shipping. Comparable to Monterey Fish Market's specialty seafood retail positioning and strong regional brand identity, though in a different geography.
• Ocean Seafood Depot: Independent California-based fresh seafood retailer and wholesaler serving both walk-in customers and restaurants. Directly comparable to Monterey Fish Market's hybrid retail + wholesale seafood business model in the same West Coast market.
• The Fish Market (San Diego): Long-running Southern California seafood retailer and restaurant operator with hybrid retail counter and restaurant concept. Comparable to Monterey Fish Market's combination of fresh seafood retail and B2B wholesale foodservice supply.
• Santa Monica Seafood: One of the largest specialty seafood distributors on the West Coast, operating both wholesale to restaurants and a direct-to-consumer retail store in Southern California. Directly comparable to Monterey Fish Market's hybrid retail + wholesale seafood model and Bay-Area-equivalent Southern California customer base.
• Hog Island Oyster Co: Bay Area shellfish-focused seafood company operating oyster farms in Tomales Bay plus retail seafood markets, restaurants, and wholesale distribution. Highly comparable to Monterey Fish Market's Bay Area consumer + wholesale seafood footprint with overlapping focus on sustainably-sourced shellfish.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/montereyfishmarket
• Instagraminstagram.com/montereyfishmarket
• Xx.com/MontereyFishMkt
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/monterey-fish

Compliance6 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Monterey Fish Market