Thousands of Filipinos from Calgary and beyond are celebrating the arrival of a new grocery chain in the city that’s making tastes, treats and grocery staples from back home way more accessible.
Seafood City is the latest international grocery store to open on Sunridge Way, joining the Lucky Supermarket across the road and other nearby stores providing Asian-sourced groceries for the city’s Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Filipino, Thai and Korean populations.
This is only the third Seafood City to open in Canada, after stores opened in Toronto and Winnipeg (and many others in the U.S.)
Hundreds of excited customers waited outside in the dark for the doors to open for the first time last Thursday.
Some had travelled from as far away as Saskatchewan to shop, while others rented a bus to make the trip from Edmonton.
Customers packed the aisles, many lining up by the hundred outside and even travelling from another province to attend Seafood City’s opening day last Thursday. (Dan McGarvey/CBC)
“They drove six to eight hours and they were here outside at 6 a.m.,” said Mildred Smith, VP of marketing with Seafood City of the customers from Saskatchewan.
“We did a livestream inside the store before it opened and it reached 78,000 people. I’m amazed because there are only about 75,000 Filipinos in Calgary,” Smith said.
Smith says the buzz around the store opening has been huge and excitement has been building for days and even weeks.
“We have strong connections, sources and ingredients and cooked food that migrants miss from home.”
Mildred Smith, VP of marketing for Seafood City, said the company did a livestream inside the store before it opened and it reached 78,000 people. ‘I’m amazed because there are only about 75,000 Filipinos in Calgary,’ she said. (Dan McGarvey/CBC)
That list includes fresh seafood like milkfish, big eye scad, octopus, Manila clams and and dry goods like snacks and soups, alongside popular Canadian brands. In the vegetable section there are fresh chayote, upo, patola and milk fruit.
‘Nothing compares to home but this is the next best thing’
The store has also teamed up with local Filipino businesses, like the popular Pacific Hut restaurant and bakery in Forest Lawn, offering some of their Calgary-made products on its shelves; in their case Filipino breads and other baked goods.
“It’s crazy. It feels like home,” said Maria Collao, one of hundreds of excited shoppers browsing the packed aisles on opening day, which felt more like a party than a shopping trip.
“I went around looking for hard to find stuff here in Calgary that tastes like the Philippines. It’s really good,” she said.
“It’s so hard to go back to the Philippines, it’s so busy and you have to fly for a long time so having this kind of connection within the city is really good. Nothing compares to home but this is the next best thing.”
Filipino-style shopping, in-house restaurants
Another big draw for customers are three in-house restaurants: Grill City, Crispy Town and Noodle Street, all selling authentic Filipino food, with hundreds patiently waiting in long lines to get a taste of some Filipino BBQ chicken and pork.
Shopper Xandy Collao Collao said he expects Seafood City’s unique offerings will bring in Calgarians who may have never experienced Filipino-style shopping, with open fish markets and different cuts of meat on display, including whole pig heads and pork belly. (Dan McGarvey/CBC)
“This place reminds me of my home. Coming from the Philippines and emigrating to Canada it’s like a second home,” said Xandy Collao.
“It reminds of being a kid and going grocery shopping with my mom. You have all these treats right here like the chips and candies, all that stuff.”
Collao said he expects the unique offerings will bring in curious Calgarians who may have never experienced Filipino-style shopping, with open fish markets and different cuts of meat on display, including whole pig heads and pork belly.
“It’s not just the Filipino people, this is one of a kind and every time one of these stores comes, a lot of people go with it. I bought BBQ pork, pork chop, entrails and shrimp. All the crispy stuff, all the good stuff” said Collao.
Xandy Collao said he expected Seafood City’s unique offerings would bring in Calgarians who may have never experienced Filipino-style shopping, with open fish markets and different cuts of meat on display, including whole pig heads and pork belly. (Dan McGarvey/CBC)
The way the store is laid out is different than other Canadian grocery stores too. It features a open wet market with dozens of types of uncut fish and seafood laid out on beds of chipped ice for shoppers to see and touch up close, instead of being hidden behind glass.
“We like looking, we like seeing the fish whole and being able to touch. That’s how we like shopping,” said Smith.
“Customers, they walk in and say it’s like home, like they travelled back home. I still get goosebumps by how warm the welcome is and by how happy they are. The culture is represented,” said Smith.
Seafood City has opened its first Calgary location in Sunridge. (Dan McGarvey/CBC)
As well as all the new groceries the store has brought around 200 jobs to the northeast of the city.
Smith said Seafood City plans to open more locations next in Edmonton and Scarborough, Ont.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
