Convenience store owners, new generation

When they think of a convenience store, many people see an old marquee and counter selling cigarettes, lottery tickets, chips, beer and candy. However, more and more young entrepreneurs are reinventing local shopping activities. Visit.

Emilie Cote
The Press

O sweets!

Ô Dépanneur has nearly 13,000 subscribers on TikTok, and more than 93,000 people “like” its profile.

What distinguishes “the most bed’ », located in Cartierville on boulevard Gouin Ouest? Its candies and other rare, exotic sweets, vintage and even in limited series! Cherry flavored 7Up. Apple Jacks cereal. Chiclets or Bazooka gum. Dunkaroos. Lark.

Opened last May, Ô Dépanneur sells products online as far away as Gaspésie and Saguenay. Families drive for hours to come and find sweet finds.

The owners, the brothers Ted and Carl Laguerre, will even soon open a second branch, in Sainte-Thérèse.

“Is it beyond your expectations?

“Beyond that, you say?” »

— What I love and what we hadn’t expected is the delight and the smiles of the people. People come as a family, as a couple. Everyone is happy to come here,” notes Ted Laguerre.

Ted Laguerre had a degree from HEC in his pocket and a solid business plan, but the young man of 28 years did not expect such success.

It must be said that Ô Dépanneur makes brilliant use of social networks. You have to see the videos of employees Antho and Juan on TikTok, including the one “how to spice up a date night on Netflix”.

“TikTok was in our marketing strategy. Even before opening, we had targeted influencers,” explains Ted Laguerre.

The Laguerre brothers have their heads full of projects and they recently had meetings with renowned investors. “My brother and I are the first generation of the family born here. It’s a source of pride for our parents,” says Ted.

His mother also has a fondness for sugar. “Sometimes we have to watch her and tell her: slow down! “, he says.

All Things Quebec

“All things perfect, it’s a revamped neighborhood dep with just about everything from a conventional convenience store, but all-local brands. We got there, don’t you think? »

This is how Karine Martel presents on her website the convenience store she opened last November in the heart of the Technopôle Angus district.

During the pandemic, Karine Martel was forced to close the In Vivo café that she had been running in the Olympic Park for eight years. But quickly, she knocked on the door of the Angu Development Companys with the idea of ​​a neighborhood convenience store that mainly offers Quebec products.

Now, she was going to sell plants instead of cigarettes. “As I often say, we are in 2022,” she says.

Beautiful and inviting, the décor of All Things Perfect is by Rübik Design.

You might think at first glance that we are in a store, but Karine Martel insists on proclaiming loud and clear that her business is a convenience store.

They sell beer, chips, candies, milk and newspapers like in any good convenience store. There are also dishes to take away (Aux Vivres, Mito Sushi), easy to prepare (thank you for Stefano Faita’s sauces) or to reheat (a Magpie pizza), as well as bulk soap, not to mention products from all more “luxurious” days which are a gift to give to oneself or to others. A Soja & Co candle, for example, or SÜK chocolate.

Karine and her employees also serve good coffees (from the micro-torréfacteur Lenoir & Lacroix), to accompany with a viennoiserie from Les Touriers.

“The answer is really good,” rejoices Karine Martel.

In the convenience store building (the only one in the area!), there is a medical clinic, so Karine regularly calls taxis for older customers. With new condos, a microbrewery and even a student residence expected soon, the Technopôle Angus district is in full swing.

During our visit, a customer, David, and his two children came by to buy pints of milk from La Pinte. On this freezing Sunday when the grocery stores were still closed, David was very happy not to have to take the car. “We really like bulk products and the choice of Quebec wines which saves us lines at the SAQ,” he said. Soon, we will even be able to come in pajamas. »

The condos and the building of the Angus Medical Clinic will indeed soon be connected by… a tunnel!

“The biggest and best convenience store in Quebec”

Unlike Ô Dépanneur and All things perfect, the Nobert convenience store looks like a traditional convenience store on Nobert Boulevard in Longueuil.

However, it presents itself as “the biggest and best convenience store in Quebec”. Nothing less !

Why ? “For the service”, assures Karl Ferraro, who is in the process of handing over the management of the convenience store to his son Louis-Pascal.

For having visited the convenience store on a Sunday when the grocery stores were still closed, we could not contradict him. It was frankly impressive to see a dozen employees behind the counter frantically preparing the orders. A real anthill!

It must be said that there are 12 telephone lines to receive orders, and that we can also proceed by Facebook. As they say, it rolls!

However, there is no shortage of convenience stores in the area.

A year ago, the whole neighborhood was in mourning when grandfather Aldo Ferraro died.

His son has also decided to slow down the pace: “120 hours a week, it burns a man,” he says.

Karl Ferraro decided to get even more involved in his community. During the last elections, he entered municipal politics and was elected councilor in the district of Explorers (in Vieux-Longueuil) for Catherine Fournier’s party, Coalition Longueuil.

His son Louis-Pascal does not plan to work 120 hours a week, but having seen the young man of 20 go, he is very efficient, hardworking and courteous.

“I like it,” he said simply.

“It’s a vocation,” adds his father.

A vocation certainly family.