FreshVille Supermarket Brings More International Flavours to Uptown Saint John
SAINT JOHN– A new market in uptown Saint John hopes to be the spot where people from different cultures can find the food they love.
Freshville Supermarket opened this week at 200 Union Street in uptown Saint John. The store carries food from all around the world, including Asian, African, Middle Eastern and some North American staples.
Owner Vivianne Sun and her husband operate a similar market in St. George. She says they decided to open a location uptown because of the growing number of immigrants and newcomers to the city over the past several years. She says there are not a lot of places in Saint John where you can find a good variety of ethnic foods.
“It makes things easier for immigrants when they can find something they can get from home. They’ll feel that it’s very handy here and they can find almost everything they’re looking for,” she says. “Food is something that always makes you homesick.”
Freshville Supermarket carries both packaged and frozen food, ingredients and snacks. They also carry produce, dairy, honey and other staples needed for cooking. Sun says specializing in international food is what sets the market apart from other stores in the area.
The store is now open, though they’re still in the process of ordering food and stocking the shelves.
Take a peek inside FreshVille Supermarket below:
“I believe it’s going to be a good business around here. We’re not looking for an opportunity to become millionaires,” she says. “It’s still a small business.”
Freshville Supermarket will be open seven days a week, including Sundays, which might be welcome to some since many businesses uptown do no open on Sundays, especially as cruise ship season comes to a close.
“We want to try to make things easier. Sometimes the [Saint John] City Market doesn’t open on Sundays,” says Sun. “When you need something, you don’t look at the calendar.”
Sun and her husband took over the Union Street building last year and are just one of several other people to purchase and renovate buildings on Union Street. She’s glad to see new developments in the area, she says a lot more can be done.
“This building has been vacant for years, that’s not the way it should be in the uptown,” says Sun. “It should be very busy. There’s should be a lot of businesses and places for tourists to visit. It should be very handy.”
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