About - Vancouver FreshMart 98

About Vancouver Freshmart

“We spend locally both with services and by carrying local products,” Houser explains. “We have local ownership, and the profits from our business stay in our community.”

FreshMart also supports a range of community initiatives, including East Van Men’s Soccer, Kids Futsal programs, Indigenous Canoe Paddlers, and Athletics for Kids.

New name, same quality service: Beloved local East Vancouver supermarket celebrates 25 wonderful years

Supermarket owners Darcey Houser and Garnet Vickers have been through all this and more as their independently owned store celebrates its impressive milestone 25th anniversary in East Vancouver. The store, formerly a SuperValu, has rebranded as FreshMart at its Il Mercato Mall location on Commercial Drive.

When asked what it takes to stay in business for this long, Houser made one thing very clear – community is key.

“We are the only full-service supermarket in the greater Vancouver area that is always open, and we have had that continuity for over 25 years,” he reveals. “At our store, we pride ourselves in being engaged with our community and are here to serve them.”

The Government of Canada estimates only 26.4% of small businesses in Canada survive up to 18 years, which makes long-standing fixtures of the community like FreshMart particularly rare. As the cost of rent continues to rise, many local businesses are finding themselves caught between a rock and a hard place, forced to choose to sell or fold their business or look for ways to decrease their expenses, which often comes in the form of cutting jobs.

As a 24-hour supermarket with a 50-member staff, FreshMart, fortunately, is still looking to put its people first.

Customer service that never goes out of style.

“While many of our competitors have gone to self-checkout, we have not, and we will continue to be full service for our customers,” says Houser. “We have been here for over 25 years and have had this philosophy the whole time”.

FreshMart also employs six full-time meat cutters trained by Vickers, while many supermarket chains have gone to centralized services to reduce their costs.
Of course, you can’t simply keep staff and hope for the best. Sometimes you have to get creative. That’s why FreshMart provides dockside grub delivery for over 100 tugboat vessels from their store. This added business contributes to their ordering volume, thus increasing their buying power and keeping their inventory turning over and fresh.

Speaking of fresh, in addition to the expected supermarket offerings, FreshMart also offers its clientele a deli and a large selection of ready-to-serve options made from scratch in-store. Their extensive produce selections are procured from several suppliers, many local, making FreshMart an ideal destination for shoppers of all varieties.

Whether you’re stocking up on nutritious local produce for your family or are simply looking for a place to enjoy a sandwich, some coffee, and the daily paper, you’re sure to find everything you need and more.

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