Weed and (fresh) feed in the east Exchange Outside, Ashdown Market looks like the cannabis shop it is, but there’s a much-needed, well-stocked grocery store inside; some Romaine lettuce along with your Devil’s Lettuce? By: Gabrielle Piché Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Tuesday, May. 9, 2023 Last Modified: 10:49 AM CDT Wednesday, May. 10, 2023 Updates

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This article was published 09/05/2023 (853 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A hidden grocery store has emerged in the Exchange District.

Produce, bread and toilet paper line the walls behind the door marked Ashdown Cannabis.

It’s likely the only grocery store to provide fresh produce in the east Exchange District, according to the local business improvement zone.

“This all happened so fast,” Marleen Mecas said from behind the counter at 171 Bannatyne Ave.

Just a few months ago, she was listing cannabis products on the wall-mounted chalkboards. Now, corn at 79 cents an ear and carrots for $1.59 per pound are written in white.

Ashdown Market — the rebranded Ashdown Cannabis — opened last Friday. Cannabis products are still available, locked away in the back. Customers must be 19 years old to enter, because of the cannabis industry’s regulations.

“We’re thinking if (this) ever expands, we’ll have to bust off this man-made wall… and bring more fridges or coolers,” Mecas said, gesturing to a back wall.

Currently, a single freezer holds meat products including steaks and burgers. Beside it, a fridge displays dairy items such as milk and coffee creamers.

The market area is just 1,700 square feet but could expand to 5,000, said Noel Bernier, co-creator of Ashdown Market.

Mecas is one of his business partners. She’s been around since the space housed Uncle Sam’s Cannabis.

The shop shuttered last summer after a lawsuit between the chain’s Manitoba and Alberta branches. It remained empty for months before Bernier, who owns Hermanos Restaurant and Wine Bar next door, launched Ashdown Cannabis with Mecas and Josh Giesbrecht, who formerly ran Uncle Sam’s in Winnipeg.

Customers were few and far between at Ashdown Cannabis, Mecas said.

“Our first idea as a group was just to have basic snacks, like a lot of other cannabis stores,” she said.

Bernier, who’s led companies such as TappCar and Bunnii, suggested a grocery store.

“This community desperately needs fresh food,” he said.

Mecas lives nearby and doesn’t own a car. She’ll walk to Giant Tiger on Donald Street for groceries, but it’s hardly reliable for produce, she said.

“(The Exchange District has) all these restaurants and places you can get alcohol and such… but they don’t have basic places to get produce,” she said.

“(The Exchange District has) all these restaurants and places you can get alcohol and such… but they don’t have basic places to get produce.”–Marleen Mecas

There’s Young’s Trading on William Avenue and the Sun-Wah Supermarket on King Street, but each is located several blocks away on the other side of Main Street.

Bernier is using his restaurant connections at Sysco to stock Ashdown Market.

“What we’ve done is shifted the supply chain into the grocery store for fresh produce,” Bernier said.

The grocery store items match the foods used in Hermanos dishes. The restaurant’s chefs visit Ashdown Market daily, Bernier said.

“This guarantees constant turnover and constant freshness,” he said. “That’s the No. 1 challenge of people opening up a fresh produce market, is turnover.”

The other day, mushrooms were about to go bad, Mecas said. The new soup special at Hermanos? Mushroom.

The turnout has been good, Mecas added.

“Just looking at our sales, they’ve grown a lot in just a couple of days,” she said.

There’s demand, noted David Pensato, executive director of the Exchange District BIZ.

“I think this is an option that has been lacking,” he said, adding it’s a sign the neighbourhood’s residential population is growing. “For those who are concerned about wanting to walk to get their groceries, this is one thing.”

The area was home to about 4,000 residents a couple of years ago, he said. That’s more than double the 1,205 people who lived within 15 minutes of Old Market Square in 2016.

Two apartments — The Bend (on Waterfront Drive between Pacific and Alexander avenues), and the second phase of The Pumphouse (330 Waterfront Dr.) — are set to open later this year.

“Produce is the most challenging of all because you have to use it quickly enough, otherwise it’s wastage,” Pensato said. “Once you have enough people around to have a viable business with fresh produce, you see that (business) starts to happen.”

“Produce is the most challenging of all because you have to use it quickly enough, otherwise it’s wastage… Once you have enough people around to have a viable business with fresh produce, you see that (business) starts to happen.”–David Pensato, Exchange District BIZ

Residents are increasingly opting for car-free lifestyles, Pensato added. He guessed many Exchange District residents grab groceries on the weekends using Peg City Car Co-op.

Bernier wouldn’t divulge food markup rates at Ashdown Market, adding “it’s a very fluid thing.”

“We don’t think anybody is getting rich off a produce store,” he said. “It’s a community-based business; it has no aspirations of being anything else.”

The company loses money on a couple of items but overall has sustainable margins, he said. A lemon cost 99 cents Tuesday; a pineapple was $10.99.

Retailers can sell cannabis within a grocery store if the cannabis products aren’t visible and they have the proper licence, said Lisa Hansen, a communications analyst with the Liquor, Gaming and Cannabis Authority of Manitoba.

Ashdown Cannabis has a licence to sell cannabis, as long as entrants are at least 19 years old, which is a different licence, Hansen added. Such stores must follow a cannabis store retailer agreement.

The store has a Manitoba health permit to sell food, Bernier said.

“I would love if they did really well,” said Alex Wallace, who works for the Exchange District BIZ.

She passed the grocery store Tuesday. It’s hard to tell it’s a grocery store, she noted — there’s a sign at the end of the street highlighting Ashdown Market, but to glance while passing by, it still looks like a cannabis shop.

“I don’t know how much people are going to know about it,” Wallace said.

She hasn’t developed a routine of getting groceries after work as there hasn’t been anywhere close to visit.

“It’s shameful that you have to go to suburbia to shop, or you’ve got to go to the edge of downtown,” said Louis Bako, who frequents the Exchange District.

“I would love if they did really well.”–Alex Wallace, Exchange District BIZ

The former city planner reminisced about the days of The Bay’s basement grocery area.

Heather Boyd, who lives near Ashdown Market, called the new shop “nice.”

“We need more,” she added. “There’s so many condos along this area — thousands of people, so there is a market.”

Ashdown Market is open from 8 a.m. to midnight daily.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com