Innovation

Market Fresh’s innovation is their commitment to supporting local businesses, as well as their commitment to reduce waste despite cost. Market Fresh emerged from a true love of food and wanting to provide great products to the citizens of Guelph. As Market Fresh grew they realized it was much more than what they had originally thought. Their core values are to “offer the best quality product, the most local quality product, give the customers the best service and have them feel valued” as well as being “involved in the community”. These core values are what have helped sustain their business as they’ve grown throughout the years.

Market Fresh limits waste from the moment product enters the building. They take a piece of produce, handle it and re-purpose it multiple times before it is considered waste. For example, a “perfectly good pepper gets bruised, so then they cut it up and put it on a vegetable tray. If that vegetable tray doesn’t sell then they may take it out and make it into soup. If the soup doesn’t sell, then instead of throwing the product out they would go and donate it to the food bank.” The owner says that the food bank “comes to pick up [donations] seven days a week and [Market Fresh] is one of their biggest supporters”. This way products are re-purposed and waste is limited as much as possible within the business. Some companies may think that handling the food this many times may waste time and money, instead of just throwing out the product and replacing it with new product. Market Fresh believes that even if the re-purposing of food is not ideal for business, it is ideal for their core values and commitment to limiting waste and providing unsold food to the food bank. The owner states that “although it costs a lot of money to touch that pepper four or five times, to me its worth it in the end, that were not throwing that in the waste.” Additionally, although they are not mandated to in the City of Guelph, Market Fresh chooses to recycle as part of their waste management.

Market Fresh is committed to supporting local businesses and sourcing local products. They believe that “how they source local product is helping them maintain a sustainable business.” According to the owner, this part of their business has been getting easier as they’ve grown. She states that “we’re known in the community that we support local, so whenever there’s a new supplier, there’s a new producer, there’s a new artisan in the area producing a new product, they come to us first”. Because of their commitment to supporting local businesses they have built a reputation within the community which has only attracted more local businesses and suppliers to try and feature their products on the shelves of Market Fresh.

Inspiration

According to Market Fresh Owner Dayle, Market Fresh's inspiration stems “a true love of food" and the desire to support and promote local businesses. She elaborated, saying that she grew up on a farm where her husband, Frank, also worked. Dayle would sell watermelon at markets, and later attended school for food related studies; "It's always come back to food."

Growing up in a farming family that depended on local support, a sense of giving back to the community has always been the driving inspiration behind Market Fresh. Aside from the love for local food, "[Market Fresh's] personal core values [are] to offer the best local quality product, give the customers the best service and have them feel valued, build a really strong team and be involved in the community." It is clear that it is quality food and quality relationships that inspire Market Fresh's sense of purpose.

It all began when her husband got into wholesale produce. "Market Fresh started by him seeing a little store here called Mr. Kiwi and thinking that we could do more with it. So we purchased Mr. Kiwi and then it evolved, there was a bakery and a butcher shop beside it, we ended up buying those through the years." As the business expanded from their starting 3 to their current 140 employees, their inspiration and values remained as they were when it first began, and have only gotten stronger and deeper. Dayle stated that the inspiration "hasn't changed, but I think it has just developed and gotten deeper... When you're trying to do this every single day, if [our values] are not really strong or not embedded in everything we do it's easy to let things fall through the cracks... So I would say the core [values] have really sustained themselves but they've just gotten stronger.”

Overall impact

The fact that Market Fresh has committed to supporting local businesses and reducing their waste cost has impacted the business by increasing the business's overall reputation and customer positioning which leads to increased sales and profits. This impact is caused by Guelph being a community that cares about supporting local business as well as cares about the environment, so Market Fresh’s values fit in very wel.

Market Fresh’s support of local businesses and waste reduction ethics have greatly impacted society in many ways, including inspiring entrepreneurs in the community to come up with new products that align with their core values. Also, this innovation greatly impacts the local economy by bringing more business to the local producers and farmers.

The impact that Market Fresh’s innovation of supporting local and reducing waste has impacted the environment positively by, reducing landfill waste they produce, donating food that is unsold to charities, which reduces the carbon footprint of the business as a whole.

Some of the short-term effects of Market Fresh supporting local business and reducing waste has been an increased presence in the community and a stronger reputation of being a sustainable, eco-friendly business that supports local. As well as boosting current sales. The long-term effects of this innovation are that Market Fresh can attract employees, investors and even new suppliers just from reputation and word of mouth. Also, Market Fresh can gain grants/donations for their local community support and environmental work.

Quotation from interview:

“Because we're known in the community that we support local so whenever there's a new supplier, there's a new producer, there's a new artisan in the area producing any product they come to us first. It's such a great feeling I could show you about 3 emails in my inbox right now of people saying hey I produce this hot sauce, hey I produce this cheese spread I wonder if I can come in and show it to you so that you maybe you could sell it in your in your store” (Dayle Toscan, Market Fresh Owner)

This quote from the interview really shows how Market Fresh has built a reputation and brand around being a local comunity supporting, high quality business. They are the business that local innovators and entrepreneurs head to, to launch a product or brand that shares the values of Market Fresh.

Business benefit

Market Fresh’s focus on being a sustainable, local grocery store benefits the business through its reputation and consumer positioning. Market Fresh puts an emphasis on buying products from local farms and artisans. This business model benefits Market Fresh because the citizens of Guelph and surrounding area recognize Market Fresh values local agriculture and talent. As a result, consumers with similar ethical viewpoints support the store. The local grocer has created a positive reputation in the community through their community involvement, sustainable practices, and love for local resources.

Social and environmental benefit

Market Fresh benefits society because they support local farmers and artisans. They benefit the local economy of Guelph and surrounding area through buying and promoting local products. This business model supports domestic business growth and inspires entrepreneurs. Furthermore, Market Fresh’s business model innovation benefits the environment for multiple reasons. Firstly, Market Fresh supplies local, organic produce. Through doing this, they support organic farmers and help eliminate environmentally harmful pesticide and fertilizer use in Ontario. In addition, the grocery store makes it their goal to eliminate as much waste as possible. If a piece of produce becomes bruised, they will re-purpose that product as many times as possible (I.e. added to a vegetable tray then soup). They even give their unsold products to local farmers for livestock feed. Market Fresh also enforces a waste and recycling system in their store even though it is not mandated by the city. This action to reduce and organize waste is another way the business benefits the environment. Overall, Market Fresh’s actions of supporting local businesses and eliminating waste benefit society and the environment.

Interview

Dayle Toscan, Owner