Yesterday morning, the CPMA 2024 Retail Tour was held bright and early at 8 a.m. with the promise of a four-hour tour of three of Vancouver's many retail locations–Save-on-Foods, T&T Supermarket, and Loblaws. The idea? To give attendees a look at three different retail presentations of produce.
Following a short ferry ride, attendees climbed aboard a bus to the first stop–Save-on-Foods in North Vancouver. While parts of the store were still under renovation, the produce department was very clearly finished with produce bagged and stacked ready for consumers to purchase. This included corn on the cob, on ice welcoming shoppers into the produce department, beautifully stacked heads of lettuce, zucchinis and more. Also citrus. Lots and lots of citrus including a separate display of bagged seedless lemons from California which caught the eyes of those walking by, but also a specialty citrus display of Meyer Lemons, navel oranges, limes and Pomelos. Also spotted in the frozen section were 3 kg. boxes of Western Family (Save-on-Foods brand) cultivated blueberries–not something that can be found at every grocery store.
Click here for the photo report of the retail tour.
Save-on-Foods in North Vancouver.
From there, attendees climbed back aboard the bus for the trip across town to Osaka Supermarket (T&T Supermarket's Park Royal store). Found inside a mall, this location was a busy one with shoppers fanning out amongst tour attendees. The lengthy display of mushrooms indicated the popularity of this produce item at this supermarket and included white, jumbo, brown, King Oyster, and many more varieties. Prettily packaged produce also proved to be a popular item here from packaged Fuji apples to gift boxes of mandarins to wrapped melons. Attendees also took in the many unique produce items not found at other grocery stores including packaged jackfruit, granadilla, Long hot pepper, Chinese eggplant, and more.
Ready-to-drink coconut at Osaka Supermarket.
The third and final stop for the trip was the unique Loblaws City Market location which recently opened in downtown Vancouver's "The Post" building–it occupies the space Canada Post once did. Given the downtown location, the store is also designed to appeal to office workers located nearby rather than the residential crowd per se.
This was somewhat reflected in the displays–think packaged tomatoes (many varieties), packaged hot peppers, and bagged citrus that shoppers could grab as they went down the aisle. However bulk was still available and for those shoppers with some muscle, big bags of potatoes and apples were available and for more money-minded shoppers, bags of Naturally Imperfect produce were also there for the taking.
The session seemed to resonate with participants as well. "Big thanks to the CPMA and their exceptional team for coordinating an unforgettable retail tour, highlighting the diverse and distinctive offerings of each retailer featuring their own captivating and signature styles," said Gopal K. Gupta of City Wide Produce.
Click here for the photo report of the retail tour.
For more information:
Canadian Produce Marketing Association
Tel.: +1 (613) 226-4187
https://cpma.ca/