It’s the last place you’d expect to run into the world’s richest people. But wander down the aisles of Woodside’s tiny, 137-year-old Roberts Market long enough and you’re almost guaranteed to bump into a billionaire trying to buy a loaf of sourdough.

In a California town of one grocery store and just over 5,000 people, there are more than a dozen known multibillionaires who’ve called it home. The list includes the fourth-richest man in the world as of Jan. 5, according to Forbes, Larry Ellison (currently worth a modest $243 billion), plus Charles Schwab ($13.9 billion), Gordon Getty ($5.5 billion) and Thomas Siebel ($4.1 billion). It also includes the CEO of Softbank, Intuit’s co-founder, the first president of eBay and an unending number of venture capitalists (headlined by the world’s 123rd-richest man, Kleiner Perkins chairman John Doerr, worth $20.3 billion).

The next-closest grocery store is 5 miles out of town, so they all shop at the same 8,000-square-foot family market. That’s according to a man who should know: Roberts Market’s gregarious general manager, Mike Kerr, who has seen the richest of the rich pop in and out of the store for almost 40 years.

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“Let’s just say there are a lot of people here who don’t want me to write a book,” he says with a laugh. “Larry Ellison came in one time and wanted to buy a giant loaf of cheese. Sitting in front of it are a bunch of pieces of cheese that are cut and priced, and he goes, ‘No, I’ll just take the whole thing.’”

General manager Mike Kerr helps bag groceries as Jaan Sigel works the cash register at Roberts Market in Woodside, Calif., on Dec. 10, 2025.

Located at the dead center of the wealthy, rural enclave 25 miles south of San Francisco, Roberts Market — now run by fourth-generation owner Christine Roberts — is as much a grocery store as it is a gossip mill. It’s where you’ll find delicious San Giacomo Heritage charcuterie from Golden Gate Meat Company and also hear rumors of the Rolling Stones playing a birthday show in the Getty family’s backyard.

In an age of inequality, where the wealth of the top 1% of Americans ($52 trillion in 2025) is more than 10 times the wealth of the country’s bottom 50%, grocery stores are one of the last, great societal equalizers — where people of every economic class still stand right alongside each other buying the same bags of chips.

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Roberts just might be the most extreme example of it by virtue of being in a town where the local public elementary school’s annual fundraiser allegedly includes auction items like a weekend on a parent’s yacht.

“It’s not all rich people,” Kerr explains.

It’s also a lot of the folks who work for the rich people.

“That guy I was just bagging for was a professional chef. He’s cooking for a family in the area,” Kerr says. “Fully a third of our customers walking in the door are maids, construction workers, whatever. We have, you know, caviar, but I’ve got Spam, too.”

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A customer browses the shelves at Roberts Market in Woodside, Calif., on Dec. 10, 2025.

The lights on top of cashier stands at Roberts Market in Woodside, Calif., on Dec. 10, 2025.

Black pepper skirt steak is one of the specialty seasoned meats at........

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