Farm Boy opens in Port Credit, Ont.
It’s a breezy Thursday morning in Port Credit, Ont.—a residential neighbourhood in south central Mississauga—and a days-long heat wave that has gripped parts of the Greater Toronto Area has finally broken. The cooler temperature is a welcome relief for the crowd outside waiting for Farm Boy’s newest, and 49th store in the province, to officially open its doors.
The 25,000-sq.-ft. space is anchor to the expansive 72-acre Brightwater community that offers green space and trails along the lakefront as well as 300,000 sq. ft. of retail, commercial and office space. The store neighbours a Rexall, LCBO and The Bone and Biscuit pet boutique.
Following remarks from president and general manager Shawn Linton and director of marketing and media relations Alessandra Bisaillon (and the ring of a cowbell, which has become custom at Farm Boy launches), the store was open for business.
Once through the sizeable foyer, which currently houses a display of whole seedless watermelons and buckets of sunflowers and gladioli, customers are met by an impressive selection of local and organic produce, a lot of which is sourced locally when and wherever possible.
During a media tour of the new location, Josh Drache, Farm Boy’s vice-president of private label and product development, cited corn and hot house tomatoes as examples of produce that had been sourced not far from the store.
“When we talk about produce we talk about freshness, the local factor … We are just into the local season and it’s getting more and more—melons are on, lettuces are on,” he said. “It’s the best time of year for our store because you’re coming out of the field and into the store and there’s something like a day in-between in most cases.”
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Just off the produce department is The Farm Boy Butcher which, in addition to selling 100% Canadian beef, pork and chicken, offers “value add” items including private-label flattened chicken. ( The butchers remove the breast and back bones making it easier and quicker for customers to prepare.)
“You take [the chicken] out of the package, we have eight or nine custom marinades, you put it on a grill, 28 minutes later you have a delicious, restaurant-quality experience but we’ve taken the work out of it for the customers,” he said.
The butcher also offers upwards of 18 varieties of fresh sausages including turkey, chicken, pork and lamb, that are free from preservatives, and fresh, handcrafted burgers and kebobs.
The emphasis on local extends to other departments throughout the store. The Empire Co. Ltd.-owned grocer’s ever-growing line of private-label products (1,600 SKUs and counting), for example, are produced in Mississauga including its frozen pizza, chips and popcorn. Drache said Farm Boy was in the process of onboarding four additional local manufacturers.
“When we start talking about local in grocery, we’re local in grocery,” he said. “We’re within driving distance to, I’d say, 25 manufacturers within 15 to 20 minutes from here.”
Other features of the store include a floral department—a first for a Farm Boy store—hot bar and salad bar with a wide variety of quality grab-and-go items including a $5 breakfast sandwich, an artisan cheese counter, sustainable seafood department, from-scratch items such as soups and dips and a large outdoor patio that Drache said gets “the evening sun.”
