The story is local at one North Shore food retailer.
Save-On-Foods North Vancouver has been carving out a at Park and Tilford in consistent reputation for introducing its shoppers to a wide variety of local, artisanal manufacturers and their products.
For the past two years the 89,000-square-foot store has been hosting quarterly tasting fairs - billed as "A Taste of Park and Tilford" - that provide smaller vendors a platform to roll out their offerings to a wider audience. Past events have featured such homespun companies as North Vancouver's Granola Girl and Artisan Bakery and West Vancouver's Gone Crackers, Monkey Toast and Vinegar Lady.
Store manager Ron Ballendine (above) and merchandising manager Lisa Bodaly sensed that their customers' lifestyle choices and personal values were shifting, and quickly moved to embrace that new focus.
"When you take a look at national brands and how they compete against local vendors and supporting your local economy, it doesn't align very well," says Ballendine. "We decided to focus hard on entrepreneurs that had good values and wanted to bring more of a wholesome product to the customer.
"We wanted to bring their stories to our customers, but we can't tell their stories nearly as well as the originators or the entrepreneurs themselves."
The renewed emphasis on supporting regional businesses at the Park and Tilford store has even commanded the attention of higher-ups at the corporate level - who are now encouraging other stores in the B.C.-based chain to follow suit.
"It really originated with us, and now they're growing it into a corporate (strategy)," says Bodaly. "It's worked so well here that they want to give the other stores the ability to seek out local vendors." Adds Ballendine: "I'm not sure how much credit we get, but we sure feel good about what we're doing."
The Park and Tilford store also dovetails its quarterly tasting sessions with charity fundraising drives, drawing even more donations for - and awareness of - community non-profits like The Harvest Project.
Both Ballendine and Bodaly say they have been overwhelmed by the amount of interest and support the tasting events have drawn - so much so that they now also hold mini-tasting functions to bridge the gap and meet demand between holding their larger events four times a year.
The next Taste of Park and Tilford is slated for March 31 from noon to 5 p.m.
