Writer and committed citizen, the author has taught literature at college; she is president of the governing board of a primary school and member of the editorial board of Quebec letters. She co-edited and co-wrote the collective work Shock treatments and tarts. Critical assessment of the management of COVID-19 in Quebec (All in all).
I’ve been there hundreds of times. A dapper twenty-something just arrived in the neighborhood; pregnant, then very pregnant; with one, then two children; with said children in baby carriers, in pushchairs, then on foot; sick, fit, sad or in a good mood. My oldest is now almost 12 years old, and it’s less and less at my neighborhood fruit store that I go shopping.
It’s because “Chez Roger”, as it’s nicknamed in the neighborhood, has been sold. Or bought, a matter of perspective… Established on Avenue Laurier Est in the village of Lorimier “since 1959”, as we can still read on its sign, the family business was recently acquired by Fraîchement bon!. And already, his soul is gone.
It all happened without fanfare. From the end of winter, clues began to appear. It started with credit cards, now accepted, while the previous guard resisted the fees of overly greedy banks. Then came the cash desks, now equipped with optical scanners and large bright screens (more efficient, I imagine, and weren’t there a lack of sound and light shows in the neighborhood?). And there were the products, which could no longer be found, because they had been moved or completely disappeared… And the very obvious drop in quality of these same products, which were more often imported, faded or less ready than before.
At the same time, familiar faces had also deserted the shelves, which a simple question to a new cashier confirmed: “If you had unsweetened dill pickles, I would buy them every week. Possible to pass the message to Chris? He is always ready to offer new products. “Chris is no longer here, it’s freshly good!” who bought, the sign has not yet been changed. »
The end of an era
Chris is the energetic and smiling Christophe Fiore Dastous, who took over the family business with his brother Jonathan during the pandemic. “Chris and his girlfriend are moving to Eastern Europe,” added a customer, inserting herself into the conversation. Ah good ? Having myself grown up in a convenience store and never having seen myself taking over as an adult, I was shocked: I knew the long hours, the sacrifices, the incessant logistics with suppliers, the pressure to maintain high quality standards, the sweat flowing from carrying cases…
I had always admired their decision to take over such a demanding trade. I wasn’t going to blame Chris for casting off—but still, the pinch was obvious. Roger had been part of our lives, of our daily lives, for so long… Until then, the changes that had taken place there vibrated in tune with the values of the neighborhood: new suppliers always handpicked, very fair prices for such a large quality, grapes offered in modest portions to avoid losses, introduction of bulk to reduce waste, compostable containers…
When the fruit store instilled changes, it was in almost homeopathic doses, so that we never felt confused. Always, these evolutions went in the direction of the wishes of the customers and made our visits more pleasant. Because frequent visits there was, as witness this reply from a long-time clerk, who had joked at me: “You, here? ! ? I then entered the fruit shop for the fourth time on the same day! We had a good laugh. Gone, too…
Elephants, porcelain
Like my late father, Chris was a maniac of facing : as soon as items were missing, he and his employees tried to fill the shelves. GOOD drette ; square. At Roger’s, the stalls were always full, stocked with colorful fruits and vegetables. From the sky or from Eastern Europe, one and the other would hyperventilate by observing the many shelves too frequently empty of the fruit store, which has kept only the name of “Roger”. Until when ?
Freshly good! made headlines in Villeray, last December, when the emblematic Fruiterie Tsikinis suddenly saw the price of its rent double. His owner ? Holding Rubino… which also owns Fraîchement bon!, a branch of which had just opened just opposite. Following these high-profile revelations, Holding Rubino guaranteed Tsikinis the price of his current rent for another three years. But after ?
We would thus have expected more delicacy during future establishments, starting with the one that concerns us… Removing your clogs, walking on tiptoe and taking the pulse is a must when acquiring a business run by the third generation of a family which saw the birth, aging and death of many inhabitants of the place over the past 64 years. However, the clientele is scalded. It’s gossiping. She would have preferred an imperceptible changing of the guard to a revolution; a measured approach to the stupid application of a generic recipe; maintaining the standards to which she was accustomed. Nothing could be more normal when you frequent a business as much for the quality of its products as because you feel at home there.
Have a good life overseas, Chris. Good luck to your brother. This renewal, for you, is unfortunately the end of the beans for many of us. Our visits to Roger (mine, at least) are therefore rarer. Because if the geographical proximity of the fruit store remains, the bond of the heart crumbles.
Freshly good! has not yet replaced the old sign with its own. Let’s hope, by the time this is done, that its owners will understand that it is not enough to register “neighbourhood fruit store” on its awning to be one.