Masstown Market
'Sharing Nova Scotia’s Bounty'
In 1969 it was a roadside fruit and vegetable stand. Today it’s a year-round business serving an estimated 300,000 customers a year, and the winner of the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers’ 2008 Gold National Award.
Masstown Market, known to locals and travellers alike, is a popular stopping place in central Nova Scotia, just 10 minutes west of Truro.
Many customers are regulars. But if it’s your first visit, take a moment to look around—there’s more here than you thought. At this market, you could do your weekly grocery shopping, have lunch, buy a birthday gift, get bulbs for the garden, pick up a bottle of Nova Scotian wine and try cheeses from around the world. Or just sit a bit with a cup of coffee and a cinnamon bun still warm from the oven.
Yet despite its size, Masstown Market hasn’t lost touch with its roots as a farm-gate stand started on Eric Jennings’ family farm some 40 years ago. Eric’s son Laurie Jennings, co-owner, provides some insight during a tour of the market. He starts with Produce — the section that started it all.
Located right in the middle of the building, this is the market’s biggest department. An abundance of fruit and vegetables are displayed, not in bags, but loose, so you can see and touch what you are buying.
“We buy as much as we can local,” says Jennings, pointing to display after display. “People don’t realize that even in winter there is still lots of local produce.”
As Jennings describes the products, he automatically connects the items with the farm—and even the farmer—that produced them: “Onions from Mark Sawler’s in Berwick; broccoli from Canning; cranberries from Paul Kittilsen’s just down the road.” Having grown up on a farm, Jennings can’t seem to help himself. But it’s also a quality that his customers appreciate.
“Why do people shop at farmers’ markets?” he asks. “They know it’s fresh, and they want to be able to talk to the person who produced it.”
Jennings may not have grown them himself, but he knows his products and is an active supporter of local food. He sits on the Minister’s Advisory Committee for Select Nova Scotia, a provincial campaign promoting locally grown or produced food.
Buying local supports local business and gives consumers a good product, says Jennings. But on a personal level, he says it also means a lot to him to have a direct connection to farming.
“We’ve got all kinds of fabulous apples in Nova Scotia,” says Jennings. “I could sell apples from California or from this province and make about the same amount of profit. But I feel better when I sell local.”
The back-to-basics feeling found in the produce section is repeated in the bakery, the market’s second biggest department in terms of sales.
Glass-doored wall cabinets contain loaves brought fresh from the oven; wooden shelves hold sweets and rolls. Some are old favourites—brown bread, white bread, raisin bread. Some are new creations like lemon blueberry rolls.
“We focus on fresh and homemade products. It’s really not that complicated,” says Jennings, motioning to the large-print reference cards tacked to the wall, each showing only 6-8 ingredients needed for the various breads. “Our biggest problem sometimes is keeping up with demand.”
Bread baked from scratch, berries brought in right from the farm, a cup of coffee and a place to sit and enjoy it - it all ties in to the market’s founding principles of “Quality, Selection and Service.”
To Jennings, the service principle is what he describes as the “experience” a customer has when he comes to the market.
“Most of our advertising is done right here,” he says motioning around him to the store itself. When people come here he wants them to say: “Oh, that was more than I expected.” He wants them to be excited about telling friends and neighbours.
And the experience is more that just what is for sale. Every month or so the market holds some sort of activity. In the fall they get out their apple press so people can taste cider from lots of varieties. Just plain good marketing, or is it something more?
“Well, it’s agricultural awareness,” says Jennings. “People don’t appreciate the work that farmers do. I want to help people know where food comes from.”
Since 1969, the Jennings family have maintained a connection to who they are, and to what their customers are looking for — a combination that has allowed the market to thrive. “We have managed growth of 10% or better almost since the market began,” says Jennings.
In 2007 they underwent a significant expansion — the addition of a 13,000 square-foot storage and freezer section. This doubled the size of the produce section, enlarged the gift shop, and made space for a Nova Scotia Liquor Commission agency store.
How do they choose which way to expand? No secret, says Jennings. “People ask for something, or we add on something we think will make sense.”
Blueberries, for example. “The province produced 40-million pounds of wild blueberries last year,” says Jennings. “A lot of those were exported. But still,” he asks, “why can’t Nova Scotians get local frozen blueberries in January?”
Enter, Masstown Market. The new freezer space will hold enough berries for customers to enjoy from the end of one harvest to the start of the next.
Masstown Market is located in scenic central Nova Scotia—with its Bay of Fundy tides, rolling hills and farmland, hardwood forests and maple syrup producers. Direct access from the Trans-Canada Highway is also an asset, says Jennings.
“We’re half way for a lot of people,” says Jennings, knowing that many of his customers use the market as a stopping place en route to New Brunswick or P.E.I.
But the market positions itself as much to local people as it does to travellers. “Tourist numbers can be up or down from one year to the next,” says Jennings. “But even in years when maybe people don’t travel as far, there are still lots of folks out looking for something to do.”
Customers sometimes ask Jennings if there are other markets like his. Although he doesn’t know of any, he assures them there’s not really any secret.
You take a good product, he says, sell it at a reasonable price in a pleasing environment, and provide your customer with an experience—a connection to the bounty this area has to offer.
