European Grocery Store ‘Taste Of Homeland’ Will Open In Moncton
MONCTON – Taste of Homeland, which sells food from Europe and Israel, plans to open its Moncton location the first week of December.
The 3,500-square-foot store will open at 1201 Mountain Rd.
“The idea was in the beginning to open in Moncton, it just took a long time to get to that point,” said owner Yulia Rubin, who is Russian-Israeli. “As immigrants, we have a little bit difficulty to start a business in Canada without any background or any investment from outside, so it took a little more time but we’re glad we got to that point eventually.”
Rubin, who is a nurse by training, started the grocery store and delivery business in Woodstock in 2016. That’s where she and her husband lived for eight years after arriving from Israel.
The goal of the business is to provide customers food that are familiar and traditional from their home countries, while at the same time introduce those foods to the local population.
She says it’s important that newcomers can find the food that reminds them of their home countries.
“We’re getting so much immigration right now from all the countries to here…We’re trying to keep them here by offering foods that they’re used to from their home countries. And hopefully, it will help to settle more people in New Brunswick,” she said.
Taste of Homeland offers various products, including Israeli kosher food and beverages. It also offers snacks, fish products, breads, cheeses, buckwheat and other products from Ukraine, Romania, Russia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany and other European countries. It also has an online store.
“Most of the products are imported from other countries and distributed by suppliers in Canada and U.S.,” Rubin says.
Because Rubin’s clientele comes from different cultural communities, she is open to suggestions of products that they’d like to see in the shop. The Moncton store will also carry things that customers can find in a regular convenience store like pop, chips, bread and milk.
Both Moncton and Woodstock are good locations, she says, because the former is a hub in the region, while people often drive through the latter to go to Maine.
The Woodstock store will remain open, and Rubin plans to hire staff for both locations in the near future.
“There are families that live [in Woodstock] and they’re adjusted to that food, and a lot of Canadians are used to our store and our food as well, so we are open,” she said. “We’re looking to attract as much as we can Canadians to our food and introduce our food [to them] as well.”
Taste homeland has a delivery service to Saint John, Sussex and Fredericton. It was suspended for the month as they set up the Moncton store, but it will resume in December.