I'm not sure whether I'm more surprised that it took this long to notice, or that it made the national news at all.
I'm not sure whether I'm more surprised that it took this long to notice, or that it made the national news at all. I came across the store when it was a tiny hole in the wall on Broadway in Kitsilano. This guy is the definition of the term "character", as in he's a character. As were many of the people he hired.
He was also involved with one of the proper NY bagel places, iirc. Which is a bit of a thing in Vancouver, because the biggest bagel places tend to be Montreal style. If Vancouver versions of Montreal style bagels are really what bagels are like in Montreal, I'll stick with the old fashioned style NY bagels.
That aside, I know he moved to a bigger, relatively proper store space on 4th Avenue, which I've never visited. That was 2 years ago. Many of his customers were people without cars, common in Vancouver. Even though Bellingham is only an hour or less away, there are lots of reasons why even with a car you might not want to go all the time - the border can have hefty wait times, gas prices are insanely high in Vancouver, stores in Bellingham get ridiculously crowded because of all the Canadians shopping there, etc. In fact, so many Canadians shop there that the Trader Joe's has copies of a pre-printed list of what is legal to take across the border back into Canada, so you can check it while you're shopping.
People asked all the time why Trader Joe's wasn't in Canada, but I gather it's a bit of a pain in the butt to do that sort of thing, even with NAFTA. Not that it should matter. Aldi's owns TJs; it's already an international company. Vancouverites are all over Whole Foods (there's a big fancy one on Cambie), which they call whole paycheck. They'd be totally all over a Trader Joe's.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/pirate-joes-sells-treasures-from-trader-joes-to-canadians-1425660654
http://www.wsj.com/articles/pirate-joes-sells-treasures-from-trader-joes-to-canadians-1425660654
He was also involved with one of the proper NY bagel places, iirc. Which is a bit of a thing in Vancouver, because the biggest bagel places tend to be Montreal style. If Vancouver versions of Montreal style bagels are really what bagels are like in Montreal, I'll stick with the old fashioned style NY bagels.
That aside, I know he moved to a bigger, relatively proper store space on 4th Avenue, which I've never visited. That was 2 years ago. Many of his customers were people without cars, common in Vancouver. Even though Bellingham is only an hour or less away, there are lots of reasons why even with a car you might not want to go all the time - the border can have hefty wait times, gas prices are insanely high in Vancouver, stores in Bellingham get ridiculously crowded because of all the Canadians shopping there, etc. In fact, so many Canadians shop there that the Trader Joe's has copies of a pre-printed list of what is legal to take across the border back into Canada, so you can check it while you're shopping.
People asked all the time why Trader Joe's wasn't in Canada, but I gather it's a bit of a pain in the butt to do that sort of thing, even with NAFTA. Not that it should matter. Aldi's owns TJs; it's already an international company. Vancouverites are all over Whole Foods (there's a big fancy one on Cambie), which they call whole paycheck. They'd be totally all over a Trader Joe's.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/pirate-joes-sells-treasures-from-trader-joes-to-canadians-1425660654
http://www.wsj.com/articles/pirate-joes-sells-treasures-from-trader-joes-to-canadians-1425660654
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