The Market Report

Today is the last post of May, and also the last post of Montreal. If you want to catch up on any of the previous posts you haven't read yet, you can see them by selecting Group: Montreal from the menu on the right. Today's Snapshot isn't a great photo, but I wanted to include it anyway. This store is a Super C discount supermarket at 147 Atwater Ave in Montreal, directly across from the Marché Atwater . It's owned by the Metro chain of supermarkets. What struck me is how ridiculously similar their logo was to our old friend C-Town ! Check out this picture from C-Town's website, then try and tell me they don't look almost identical. I don't know which big yellow C came first, but they're awfully close. And anyway, C-Town is a good transition back to New Jersey, where we'll see a former A&P on Friday! Plus, we're back to our normal schedule with a tour on Monday.

Happy Memorial Day! Montreal's supermarkets have been very, very different from what I'm used to. I guess that's to be expected, but even the Nova Scotia stores were closer to what I'm used to in the US. This store was not an exception, but it was also probably the coolest of all the stores I visited. Apologies for the finger in the photo. This store, known as Supermarché PA, is part of a three-store chain that seems to be a trendy, not-quite-discount grocery store. I just happened upon it, and I wish I had gone in knowing more about it. In fact, from the outside, I initially thought it was an Asian store (based on absolutely nothing). It is a great building. This is one of those stores that isn't wide but goes way back. And if you're worried that the ceiling looks pretty low on the first floor, you might be right. But you wouldn't know because they've opened up the whole store to two levels... Looking from the amazing (and amazingly ch...

Driving near Montreal, I grabbed a quick picture of this IGA. Can anyone identify it or give a location? This is much larger and nicer than the IGA on Wellington , yet it's not designated an "IGA Extra". Of course, their naming restrictions could be like Key Food--basically put up whatever sign you like.

Another ethnic market along Wellington is the Marché Jasmin. This particular store specializes in Halal meats. It also has a selection of groceries and produce and is just down the street from Marché Inter Asia . These two stores pretty well sum up the immigrant populations in Verdun; Eastern Asian and Middle Eastern.

Metro is another major, family-owned supermarket in the Verdun area, just about two blocks off of Wellington on Rue de l'Eglise--Street of the Church, or basically Church Street. I had hoped to return to this store to get a full tour, but unfortunately, I didn't. Metro is much larger than IGA as you can tell. Like IGA, it's franchised through a chain, so the sign for Bellemare represents the owner of this store. And apparently, the sign on the corner here (which, by the way, faces towards Wellington) has been missing its -tro for a while. Personally, I didn't like Metro very much. It does actually have decor , but it feels cheap and corny in person, and about 20 years outdated. As a matter of fact, there are plans ( English translation ) to replace this Metro with (surprise!) a multi-story residential building with a new Metro on the ground floor, which has (surprise!) sparked conflict in the neighborhood. However, more recently, Metro Bellemare posted on its Fa...

Heading directly across the street from Branche d'Olivier and Vert Pomme to this Asian food store, which is very similar to Asian food stores in New Jersey and the area, such as Xi House Market in Parsippany ( here's an interior photo). It's at 4335 Wellington. It appears there's a large Asian population in the Verdun area, as there are several Asian grocery stores. This store has a small selection of just about everything--produce, fish, meat, grocery, home goods! Although the store is small, the produce department is fairly substantial. And most of the signs are in Chinese and French. 0 for 2, for me! Le Boucher is more like le poissonnerie , again thanks to my friend Google Translate. These cases all held fresh fish on ice, and packaged meats were stocked in the case to my left here. The market really packs in the groceries! Even though the store is so small, there's a pretty comprehensive selection of foods. IGA doesn't even pretend to...

At the north end of the Wellington corridor in Verdun (3819 Wellington) is a small gourmet market called Chez Robin Marché Local. According to my French-speaking friend Google Translate, this roughly translates to At Robin's Local Market, like "Robin's Place" Local Market. I think. Anyone else speak French? It's a beautiful store with some really unusual and interesting products. Looks like it had just opened when I visited over the summer of 2017. And let's just say we can politely direct the bargain shoppers to IGA down the street. The glass storefront is really cool, letting in a lot of light. The store offers produce, a deli (I think) and grocery items, including HABA. Reminds me of one of those super-upscale places in Manhattan or Brooklyn or something. This photo isn't great, but it gives you an idea. If you want a better look inside, however, check out this Google Maps 360-degree view...

Because I have way too much free time, I'm proud to introduce The Market Report's first... MUSIC VIDEO! If you couldn't get enough of our Hudson County group, then you're in luck! Now, you can see random photos from the group in no particular order compiled in a music video for no reason other than... "why not?" Seriously, though -- I hope this is at least a little fun, because I think I might make some more going forward. Thoughts?

The one major supermarket along the Wellington corridor in Verdun is an IGA. US-based IGA operates many international locations --almost 5,000 stores worldwide--but in this area of Canada, they are run through Sobeys , a major supermarket chain. Sobeys then franchises the individual locations to independent operators. I guess it works or they wouldn't be doing it, but doesn't that seem like a convoluted way to run independent stores? What's wrong with a plain old cooperative? I'm surprised IGA even lets Sobeys run the stores under their corporate supervision. In the US, the IGA subgroups (such as Retail Marketing Group ) are not separately supermarket chains. The IGA's corporate-looking, kind of cheesy facade doesn't quite match the rest of the neighborhood. As you can see with this poster in the window, this IGA is run by the Champagne group. Like many urban supermarkets in this area, the store offers free delivery and I saw the Champagne IGA van drivin...

I did my food shopping this afternoon at SuperFresh Irvington . It's a really great store with a surprisingly wide selection of products (but no Sun Chips, for whatever reason!). Here's a few random cool things I found... Store-baked chocolate chip cookies. They look amazing - 2/$2.00. Roasted Korean seaweed snacks whose ingredients are seaweed, canola oil, sesame oil, and salt - $1.49. A ready-to-eat dinner for two--or so it says--of palak paneer (an Indian dish that includes cheese cubes in a spinach sauce) with no preservatives but that was actually made in India - $4.19. A jumbo yam (which is actually different from just a big regular yam, apparently) - $0.59/lb. Plus, the manager is fantastic. I'm not entirely sure if the guy I saw today is manager/owner James Lee, but he was a young Korean man -- extremely nice, to both customers and employees, and very actively involved in running the store. There was absolutely none of the usual tension between the primar...