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Stong’s settling back home in Seymour area

Stong’s came home to the Seymour area last spring because operating grocery stores is in Cori Bonina’s blood.

Stong’s came home to the Seymour area last spring because operating grocery stores is in Cori Bonina’s blood. 

Bonina’s great-grandfather, Carson Stong, started Stong’s Markets in Toronto in the 1890s and went on to open one of the earliest open-air markets in Vancouver in 1931. The independent grocery store expanded to the North Shore, laying down roots in 1973 at Dollarton Village.

As a youngster, Bonina’s family vacations involved visiting grocery stores in other towns and cities to check out the different floor layouts and product offerings. At age 10, she cleaned the Stong’s offices. At age 12 she moved on to counting coupons. When she turned 16, she started her first official job in the meat department and she’s stayed on staff with the family-run food business ever since.

Today Bonina, a longtime Blueridge resident, is the president of Stong’s, which branched out from its sole Dunbar location and celebrated the grand opening of its Northwoods Village store on May 28 last year.

“We especially loved the vision for the local area,” says Bonina, of why Northwoods made sense for Stong’s.  “We wanted to contribute and grow as the new community grew.”

Stong’s sets itself apart from other grocers by maintaining a strong community focus, according to Bonina.

“That’s where our forte is. We listen to our community, we listen to local people, we support local,” she says.

Stong’s makes a point of sponsoring youth sports teams and raising funds for local schools. And if Bonina wants to stock a new product, perhaps at a customer’s request, she can get it on the shelf the very next day – no need to wait six to eight weeks for a board of directors to approve her proposal.

Plenty of North Shore-made food items have made it to Stong’s shelves, including Savary Island pies, FreeYumm cookies and Jumpin’ Johnny’s hot sauce.

The new 20,000-square-foot Northwoods market employs about 120 people, one of them being Bonina’s 22-year-old son, Carson (named after his great-great-grandfather), who represents the fifth generation of the Stong family as the new store manager.

Bonina’s dad, Bill Rossum, recalls opening the Dollarton Village location in the early ‘70s, after Shop Easy closed. 

The landlord of the centre offered him any lot he wanted adjacent to the Seymour golf course for $20,000. Bill turned him down as he knew the landlord had only paid $14,000 for it.

When chicken salad was introduced in the Deep Cove Stong’s deli department it became a real hit, says Bill, adding the same recipe exists today and is popular as ever. Rossum also recalls an embarrassing moment from his grocer days.

“When tofu first became available a very nice lady asked one of our produce clerks (no longer with us) if we had some. His reply was, ‘No ma’am, only weird people eat that.’ Of course I got the phone call.”

Having Stong’s close to home again is exciting for Bonina and her family, as they reconnect with the community.

“Everyone remembers Stong’s. They all have a story, whether their mother worked there, their grandmother worked there, they worked there,” she says.