Fiesta Farms might be Toronto’s largest independently owned grocery store and garden centre. What does that mean? It means we only have one store.
But it’s a big one.
“Largest” means we carry the range of products you’d expect from a chain. “Independent” means we can choose what those products are-who makes them, where they come from, what’s in them, their place in the local economy. Stuff like that.
And we’re pretty choosy.
Partly because being choosy is good, and partly because it’s good business. When we opened up over 20 years ago, we decided to focus on two things the big guys couldn’t compete with: serving our local ethnic communities and supporting our local economy. Now those things are popular. And so are we!
A visit to the store will let you know pretty quickly that we don’t turn our nose up at anyone, but we tend to be particularly popular with folks who get more from food shopping than just a full larder. As it turns out, food matters to a lot of people for a lot of different reasons.
We help them celebrate those reasons by making organic, local, ethical, ethnic, healthy, gourmet, artisan and traditional fare accessible. We’ve got lots of it. We keep the prices for it all reasonable. And we sell it without the pomp. We wouldn’t know how to pull off pomp if the Queen were coming to pick up a Fenwood Farms chicken.
What we can pull off are partnerships with great organizations like Local Food Plus, who understand the importance of developing and promoting local entrepreneurs to our economy and our environment. And organizations like The Stop and The New Farm, who help people exercise their right to good food, whether they can afford it or not.
Long story short? We’re a nice grocery store and garden centre with good stuff.
Our philosophy
We sell things people need. Food, beverages, cleaning supplies. But most Fiesta customers get more from their visits than a ticked off shopping list. They get a chance to vote for what matters to them with their dollars.
We’re a family-run business in a progressive, multicultural city centre and we partner with producers to stock what people are interested in buying.
What are people interested in buying these days?
People are buying stuff that was produced and or created in Ontario. But also those unique reminders of where we came from. They’re buying organic. They’re buying new and old fashioned cuts of meats, and indeed, meat products you’d expect to find at specialty shops. They’re buying innovative offerings from local entrepreneurs and they’re buying more eco-friendly cleaning products.
People also buy less healthy nostalgic favourites, and the staples they need to run their lives. We stock the brands you’ll find at supermarket chains, but we also make it easier to make better choices in every aisle and on every shelf.
We do this by partnering with Organizations like Local Food Plus. We’re committed to stocking a range of LFP Certified Local Sustainable items and letting our customers know about them because we believe in building community and local sustainable food systems, and that LFP can make it easier to do.
We do it by partnering with important organizations like The Stop and The New Farm on our Grow for The Stop initiative.
We do it by supporting entrepreneurs because evolution and innovation are as important Food Matters as history and culture.
And we’re going to keep on finding ways to help you celebrate the many ways in which food matters to us all.