Three Markets to Rule them All

Certain places give you a good idea of the the character of a neighbourhood: schools; restaurants; libraries (or the absence of libraries). Funnily enough, around here, it's the grocery stores that really tell the story. The grittier grocery stores stick to the grittier neighbourhoods, while the posher ones stick to the gentrified ones.

The proof is in the branding.

Let's start with my neighbourhood, Hintonburg - the roughest 'hood of the western Ottawa triumvirate of Wellington West, Hintonburg and Westboro. So what grocery store blesses my corner of town? Giant Tiger.

Having grown up in the suburbs, I had never even heard of Giant Tiger until I moved to Ottawa, which is a much larger and more diverse urban area than where I'm from. Most store locations seem to be in urban or poorer areas. The stuff here is cheap, like really cheap. It's not bad quality (although I wouldn't buy fresh produce here*) but they seem to put very little effort into making the store look nice and make up for it by making stuff available for less (or perhaps it's the reverse). The clientele of my Giant Tiger reflects the changing demographic of the neighbourhood: think hipsters, retirees and blue collar workers.

A few blocks west, in the gentrified neighbourhood of Wellington West, you find a.... Metro.

Metro stores generally look nice inside and this one is no exception. I think it's going for a modern-green-grocer-feel. The store isn't too big and has a decent variety of healthy food albeit at generally higher prices. I think the look is the key though. I suspect the urban professionals who live in this part of town consciously or subconsciously feel better when they shop here over the bigger box stores. Good job guys :)

Even further west is a Loblaws Superstore.

Ahhh Loblaws. If you visit eastern Canada you'll find one of these massive behemoths in almost every major suburb. They sell everything from organic food to mittens** and over-the-counter drugs. This is what I grew up with. So how did one sneak into Westboro, which is within Ottawa's greenbelt? Probably because Westboro is a sortof quasi-urban Ottawa neighbourhood. Yes there is some character here but the lots and houses here are generally bigger than Wellington West and Hintonburg and because of that you can't quite get away from car culture (and the car culture grocery store).

So that's it. A tale of three grocery stores! If you're wondering which one I shop at the answer is...all of them! What does that say about me? Hmmmmm......

* except lemons, says Jen
** and belts, says Jen