Guess who's coming to Kensington Market?
Zimmerman's Freshmart, a grocery store that will stock the popular Loblaw's President's Choice and No Name brands, is set to open its first store in Toronto in mid-June on Augusta Street.
While Freshmart outlets dot Ontario's small-town landscape, the 5,000-square-foot store will be an unusual addition to the market's patchwork of independent specialty shops.
Martin Zimmerman, the man behind the new store, says his family is actually returning to its roots in the area. "My father started with a grocery store 53 years ago in the same location. We had it for 23 years and then went into children's clothing for 30 years. Now, we're going back to a full-service grocery store. Only it will be bigger, cleaner and brighter."
Mr. Zimmerman wants the area to become competitive with locations such as St. Lawrence Market, which is considered a more coherent, sanitized version of Kensington. But the loss of Kensington's unique culture worries some market denizens.
"Stores like that can kill a neighbourhood," says David Sanchez, who lives a few blocks from the market. "Smaller shops start to disappear because they can't compete, and then you lose the character of a neighbourhood."
Mike Pavao, an employee at bulk-food store Casa Açoreana, says Freshmart's opening could signal the gentrification of Kensington. "When it starts to become too trendy an area, it will just become another Yorkville," he says. "I'd rather the market stayed the old way."
Not everybody agrees with that view. Cecilia Espinoza of the Latin American Emporium is hoping Freshmart will encourage new people to explore the area. The competition doesn't worry her. "I don't carry Canadian stuff, just Latin American, and they probably won't have that," she says. Her sentiment is shared by other vendors who believe their one-of-a-kind products won't be matched by the incoming grocery store.
Darlene Hebert, who shops in the market daily, says there are currently about 10 fruit and vegetable stores that happily co-exist with each other. She's just pleased she won't have to travel far to get her basics. "This is going to save me making a second trip to a grocery store. It will be really handy having this in the market."