Grocery Stores
A long-running Eastern and Central European grocer in Steveston, entered from the back of the building on Second Avenue. Imported sausage and smoked meats, rye breads, pickles, preserves and the candy people grew up with in Poland and Ukraine.
Anybody who grew up on rye bread, smoked sausage and proper pickles knows that the international aisle of a supermarket does not solve the problem. A dedicated Central and Eastern European grocer does. The range is narrow and the turnover is high, which is exactly why the cured and smoked goods are worth buying, and the person behind the counter usually knows the difference between four kinds of kielbasa.
Steveston gets written up as a fishing village with a Japanese-Canadian history, both true and neither the whole story. There has been a long European presence here as well, and a Polish and Ukrainian grocer a couple of blocks off the water is a fair reminder of it. Second Avenue, one street up from Moncton, is where that quieter layer of the village tends to sit, in low buildings that do not advertise themselves.
Shops of this kind do a job that scale cannot replicate. A supermarket carries one version of everything. A specialist carries six versions of a few things and moves them fast enough that nothing sits, which matters more for smoked meat and fresh bread than for almost anything else you buy.
Fold it into a village morning rather than making a special trip. Walk the dyke, do the fishing dock, pick up a loaf and something smoked on the way back to the car. That is a good morning, and it uses the village the way the people who live here use it, which is the best test of any errand in Steveston.
In the Steveston neighbourhood of Richmond.
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Other grocery stores and nearby businesses in the Richmond directory.
Off-the-boat seafood sold at Steveston's Fisherman's Wharf, open Thursday to Sunday mornings only and often sold out before closing time. Spot prawns in season plus whatever landed that day. Bring cash, or pre-order online and collect at the dock.
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A family-run butcher in Seafair Centre, trading since the early 1980s and one of very few shops in the area that dry-ages its own beef. European-style cuts, house sausage, cured meats, local poultry and lamb, and custom orders taken over the phone.
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The Vancouver chain's largest store, about 19,000 square feet on Garden City Road and open 8:30am to 10pm daily. Straightforward Chinese-Canadian grocery shopping: fresh meat and seafood counters, stacked produce, bulk dry goods and sauces.
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An older, no-frills Park Road supermarket that has outlasted flashier neighbors. Free parking, narrow aisles, and a genuinely pan-Asian shelf mix, with Chinese, Filipino, Malaysian and Indonesian pantry items sitting side by side at fair prices.
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Over 10,000 square feet of Japanese goods on Alderbridge Way, most of it imported directly. Bento, sushi and hot food made in-house each morning, plus frozen fish, seasonings, cosmetics and kitchenware. It closes at 6pm, so go earlier than you think.
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A busy Chinese supermarket in the plaza on No. 3 Road, popular for a well-stocked produce floor, a barbecue counter locals rate for leaner char siu, and bulk dace fish paste. Cashiers work fast; finding a parking spot is the only hard part.
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