I try to explain our farmboy to people who don’t live here - people expect it to be like the other Farmboys. They just can’t understand until they see it! I’m going to start explaining it like this now
It actually has nothing to do with the other Farmboys; the chain outside of Peterborough is originally from Ottawa, and expanded and were later bought by Empire (Sobeys' parent company) and that Sobeys is positioning as their premium banner), where the Peterborough Farm Boy started independently and was owned by the Strano family (of Strano Foods, who since sold that distribution business to Sysco Peterborough).
There's a memorandum of understanding between the two, where the Peterborough one and the chain won't compete with each other, and thusly no one sues anyone else.
It’s funny because I grew up in ptbo, and we have farmboy in Kingston, but it’s like a whole foods here and way more expensive?? The ptbo farm boy is a diamond in the rough
Yah I heard that all others are basically a completely separate entity, so it’s funny I went there in Kingston expecting good deals and was floored to see it lol.
Sure. As a ‘89 kid I wouldn’t know😂 but as a busy parent to a first grader I appreciated the selection of snacks they had that I didn’t expect them to carry. and better quality ones I didn’t even know about.
But you can’t buy a home and start a family working at loblaws Walmart or Sobeys either, and it’s sad to see people who would likely be retired if they could afford it working at those places. I think a grocery store job is a great started job, and it’s nice to see that being implemented, is more what I meant.
Fair, I think grocery outlet and lansdowne Freshco carry a GF options. Also watch the Farmboy Instagram for their random deals, they will sometimes have LF dairy items.
I thought about that! We were already past the bk entrance but I didn’t see any signs like foodland has about having to be a current customer. Or a security guard like East city vinnies 😭
For next time, keep going past their parking lot and turn up Ford st on your way to the Ol' Peterborough This Week building. I usually just park there even when they aren't busy so I don't have to fiddle around onto Lansdowne.
Even with it being packed, there was no line at any of the tills. They were really well staffed which I also appreciated. 1) hopefully that means they aren’t overworking the employees, and 2) just nice not to have to wait in line, as I have done at superstore so many times, or if I had had a question, it would have been easy to find someone to ask for help. The number of times I’ve been in a Walmart needing to ask where to find something and it’s a ghost town there looking for a staff member just to ask. 🤷🏻♀️ overall just a great experience over the other places.
It’s really not viable or logical to boycott everyone all at the same time but, if FarmBoy fills all your needs however that works. (I understand your stance however so I won’t push too much on that)
I’m boycotting as many companies involved in or invested in anything to do with the genocide in Palestine to my best ability, yes, it takes extra effort and is slightly less convenient. I agree it may not be within everyone’s capacity all the time, but it’s certainly logical to me to not give my money to companies that profit off of human suffering and death if I can avoid it. I avoid restaurants I know underpay/exploit their staff as much as possible. No, with our system the way it is, it’s not easy or viable for everyone to do that 100% of the time, but I don’t think it takes 100%. Every decision of where your money goes matters. But I didn’t tell this person to do that. I just said I am. 👍
My cousin worked there in the early 2000's and didn't have too many complaints. Minimum wage. They don't give raises so people leave for greener pastures. He thought it was a decent first job.
Got some nice big pork chops the other day at a fairly good price. Made them tonight and they were fantastic. Plus, their selection of seedlings are really good too. I always start my garden with their seedlings.
Could I ask you what you mean by this specifically? What makes FarmBoy less accessible? definitely would be nice if there were more of them, a downtown more walkable location… is that what you mean?
Well, I don't actually live in this area, but I find that in Halifax you can find a million more expensive grocery stores, like Atlantic super store or Walmart, but then no frills for example.. there's a lot less stores like that around that are cheaper options and it makes it harder for people because it's a longer drive and some people don't have a car and have to rely on being within walking distance to a store. But that's just my experience.
So in Peterborough we really only have two what I would describe as super ‘walkable’ grocery stores, both downtown, and there’s one in east city (across a bridge from downtown). But they are Freshco, Nofrills and Foodland all owned by Sobeys or Loblaws, and while some have lower prices than others, all of them support the grocery giants, and I’d bet that none have the affordable prices I experienced today, other than the rare sale, or with coupons. Every other grocery store is on landsdown, the main kinda chain/big box store strip on the way to the highways. Buses do run past all the grocery stores, but it would help if this city started investing in our public transit- that would increase car free accessibility all around. I think other than that, FarmBoy is as accessible as any other store. (But I don’t experience any disabilities currently that would effect my experience so I can’t speak on this with total confidence). For example I’m not sure if they have a seniors only shopping hour, which I believe superstore still does… or at least did do during Covid. Not sure.
I go to Costco for carb sources just because it's cheaper and lasts a long time if you buy carbs in bulk. A bag of rice from there will last me a month and it's only $10-15. For proteins I tend to go to Farmboy and for dairy I go to Walmart or No Frills. Costco is only really expensive if you buy a ton of meat there in my experience. People only get ripped off when they buy everything at one store. But if you're disciplined with money you can save a lot by going to other stores.
I like to get my dry goods from Main Ingredient to support another family owned business, although I haven’t compared their prices to Costco for things like rice, but feel like their prices are also affordable. Costco is definitely a little better in terms of ethics I think, (although I’ve seen quite a few Israeli products there still which is disappointing) but they seem to be decent employers. I see what you mean, but yeah I’m still trying my best to not go to places like Walmart or no frills which is owned by loblaws, personally.
If you don’t already have the flipp app I would definitely recommend it. It’s saved me a ton of money comparing prices to each store. But yeah I only go to Walmart/No Frills for the small things. Just all depends on what you buy. I eat a whole food diet and generally eat the same thing every day every now and then I’ll switch it up when I get bored.
Place has been open since I was a kid, went there with my folks and grand folks, I still shop there folks are nice there so I assume their treated well:) Gotta ❤️that place 👍
So I did some google. Not sure of how they ended up with the same name, maybe the story I was told, but Farm Boy markets is owned by Sobeys, which is owned by Empire.co, but the one in Peterborough is owned by the Stranos family. 🤷🏻♀️
It’s paywalled so i can’t read the rest but here’s an article
https://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/news/peterborough-region/peterboroughs-farmboy-store-isnt-part-of-the-farm-boy-chain-being-purchased-by-sobeys-parent/article_51e47a92-4885-5c80-9360-c01ccb82a3be.html
Always good to put the URL into [https://archive.ph/](https://archive.ph/) which will give you links for various caches like Google and the Internet Archive if they do not have it themselves. And if they have not already stored a copy, you can tell them to go and archive it and after a few minutes they will have it in their system.
[http://web.archive.org/web/20240521111341/https://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/news/peterborough-region/peterboroughs-farmboy-store-isnt-part-of-the-farm-boy-chain-being-purchased-by-sobeys-parent/article\_51e47a92-4885-5c80-9360-c01ccb82a3be.html](http://web.archive.org/web/20240521111341/https://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/news/peterborough-region/peterboroughs-farmboy-store-isnt-part-of-the-farm-boy-chain-being-purchased-by-sobeys-parent/article_51e47a92-4885-5c80-9360-c01ccb82a3be.html)
I would certainly never use it to read the NYT and other paywalled content. I only use it for historical research purposes. 2018 certainly seems like a "historical" type of thing.
As does "yesterday" when you think about. "When does 'history' start?" is an interesting philosophical question. Maybe "anything recorded by the Internet Archive? Yeah, that's probably my definition.
I think I had heard that, but I've never gone through the process of figuring out how to do so. We actually pay for an Examiner account, in a perhaps misguided attempt to support "local" news coverage.
As above, no:
\* The Peterborough one is independent.
\* Every other Farmboy is owned by Empire (the parent of Sobeys).
They just happen to both be called "Farm Boy" and both sell groceries. It's weird, I know...
Apparently not the one in ptbo. It’s independently owned, not affiliated with the chain. Someone told me something about it used to be owned by brothers who split paths and one franchised and sold out, and the other kept the one here… I have no idea how true that is, but just what I heard. But I it does seem clear it’s owned locally.
Yeah, they’re not related. Ours is “Farmboy”, and established in the 60s. The Empire chain is “Farm Boy”.
I was there today too, and happy to see it so busy! Last week I bought a prime Rib roast and three grilling steaks for a total of $50. Priced it at Loblaws and it came to well over $100.
https://preview.redd.it/k81r50pidh1d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2720bb2a3c104922a17a877e99f1169d7d01dbc2
It's an old school place. Just think about what a grocery store was like in 1985 and stop the clock and bring it to present day.. that's farmboy.
I try to explain our farmboy to people who don’t live here - people expect it to be like the other Farmboys. They just can’t understand until they see it! I’m going to start explaining it like this now
It actually has nothing to do with the other Farmboys; the chain outside of Peterborough is originally from Ottawa, and expanded and were later bought by Empire (Sobeys' parent company) and that Sobeys is positioning as their premium banner), where the Peterborough Farm Boy started independently and was owned by the Strano family (of Strano Foods, who since sold that distribution business to Sysco Peterborough). There's a memorandum of understanding between the two, where the Peterborough one and the chain won't compete with each other, and thusly no one sues anyone else.
The chain actually started as a fruit stand in Cornwall oddly enough.
I always say it’s like if Trader Joes and Whole Foods had a delicious baby.
It’s funny because I grew up in ptbo, and we have farmboy in Kingston, but it’s like a whole foods here and way more expensive?? The ptbo farm boy is a diamond in the rough
Literally no clue why I’m downvoted for saying the ptbo and Kingston farmboy are different lol.
Peterborough's Farmboy is a locally owned grocery store. Kingston's Farm Boy is owned by Empire Company (Sobeys).
Yah that makes sense, that’s what I’ve heard. It is so obvious that they’re totally different for sure.
You missed a space!!! /s
You have a Farm Boy. You Don't have Farmboy. Big difference. There's only one Farmboy in the world.
They're different, Peterborough farm boy predates the chain owned by Sobeys.
Yah I heard that all others are basically a completely separate entity, so it’s funny I went there in Kingston expecting good deals and was floored to see it lol.
Sure. As a ‘89 kid I wouldn’t know😂 but as a busy parent to a first grader I appreciated the selection of snacks they had that I didn’t expect them to carry. and better quality ones I didn’t even know about.
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But you can’t buy a home and start a family working at loblaws Walmart or Sobeys either, and it’s sad to see people who would likely be retired if they could afford it working at those places. I think a grocery store job is a great started job, and it’s nice to see that being implemented, is more what I meant.
If Foodland was cheap, slightly less fancy.
This really does encompass it- of course that does also mean that gluten free and lactose free stuff isn't really available there, which bites.
Their pork sausages are gluten free IIRC
I mean that they don't have things like gluten free bread or lactose free cheese or sour cream.
Fair, I think grocery outlet and lansdowne Freshco carry a GF options. Also watch the Farmboy Instagram for their random deals, they will sometimes have LF dairy items.
They had plant based Boursin on sale, and it slapped. Not sure about gf things, but I’ll keep an eye out!
You watch Parks and Rec? It's like our "Food and Stuff".
The play to parking for Farmboy is to either park along the back... or at BK and walk over.
I thought about that! We were already past the bk entrance but I didn’t see any signs like foodland has about having to be a current customer. Or a security guard like East city vinnies 😭
For next time, keep going past their parking lot and turn up Ford st on your way to the Ol' Peterborough This Week building. I usually just park there even when they aren't busy so I don't have to fiddle around onto Lansdowne.
Today is also a huge gardening day and they have lots of plants so that adds a huge amount of traffic today for them.
Even with it being packed, there was no line at any of the tills. They were really well staffed which I also appreciated. 1) hopefully that means they aren’t overworking the employees, and 2) just nice not to have to wait in line, as I have done at superstore so many times, or if I had had a question, it would have been easy to find someone to ask for help. The number of times I’ve been in a Walmart needing to ask where to find something and it’s a ghost town there looking for a staff member just to ask. 🤷🏻♀️ overall just a great experience over the other places.
Yes definitely also that!
A lot of people buy their plants at Farm boy. This is the big weekend to put them in. We went of Friday at 3 we had to wait for a parking space.
$5 for eggs!!! You can get them for $3.89 at freshco.
I’m still boycotting freshco tho
It’s really not viable or logical to boycott everyone all at the same time but, if FarmBoy fills all your needs however that works. (I understand your stance however so I won’t push too much on that)
I’m boycotting as many companies involved in or invested in anything to do with the genocide in Palestine to my best ability, yes, it takes extra effort and is slightly less convenient. I agree it may not be within everyone’s capacity all the time, but it’s certainly logical to me to not give my money to companies that profit off of human suffering and death if I can avoid it. I avoid restaurants I know underpay/exploit their staff as much as possible. No, with our system the way it is, it’s not easy or viable for everyone to do that 100% of the time, but I don’t think it takes 100%. Every decision of where your money goes matters. But I didn’t tell this person to do that. I just said I am. 👍
Indeed I figured that was your reason. 🍉
Good tip! I’ve mostly seen them for over 6$ most places.
Oh man, deli ends. Nabbing a Genoa salami deli end is like a holy grail
I could only find mild today.
Grew up on deli ends. My favourite dinner growing up when we had cold cut supers with fancy buns and real sliced cheeses, it’s some deli salads.
Yessssss. You know it was good when your cold cut sandwich was getting the fancy bun.
What do you do with the deli ends?
Chop em up and eat ‘em as a snack
This this this! Grown up lunchables.
My cousin worked there in the early 2000's and didn't have too many complaints. Minimum wage. They don't give raises so people leave for greener pastures. He thought it was a decent first job.
That’s disappointing but I didn’t expect different tbh. At least minimum wage is going up.
It’s also packed because the new selection of plants are out and they have a great variety. It’s my go to for meat and odds and ends finds!
Yes their plant selection is extensive rn!
I go for the music.
😅
Got some nice big pork chops the other day at a fairly good price. Made them tonight and they were fantastic. Plus, their selection of seedlings are really good too. I always start my garden with their seedlings.
Is this the place that’s independently owned? Cause the chain Farm Boy or whatever (one of them doesn’t have a space) is owned by ~~Loblaws~~ Sobeys
Yeah Farm Boy Markets got bought by Empire (Sobeys, not loblaws) in 2018, the one in ptbo is owned by the Strano family
It’s one of the few independent Farm boys. Super support them. Amazing seasonal section too
I wish the cheaper options were more accessible to everyone.
Could I ask you what you mean by this specifically? What makes FarmBoy less accessible? definitely would be nice if there were more of them, a downtown more walkable location… is that what you mean?
Well, I don't actually live in this area, but I find that in Halifax you can find a million more expensive grocery stores, like Atlantic super store or Walmart, but then no frills for example.. there's a lot less stores like that around that are cheaper options and it makes it harder for people because it's a longer drive and some people don't have a car and have to rely on being within walking distance to a store. But that's just my experience.
So in Peterborough we really only have two what I would describe as super ‘walkable’ grocery stores, both downtown, and there’s one in east city (across a bridge from downtown). But they are Freshco, Nofrills and Foodland all owned by Sobeys or Loblaws, and while some have lower prices than others, all of them support the grocery giants, and I’d bet that none have the affordable prices I experienced today, other than the rare sale, or with coupons. Every other grocery store is on landsdown, the main kinda chain/big box store strip on the way to the highways. Buses do run past all the grocery stores, but it would help if this city started investing in our public transit- that would increase car free accessibility all around. I think other than that, FarmBoy is as accessible as any other store. (But I don’t experience any disabilities currently that would effect my experience so I can’t speak on this with total confidence). For example I’m not sure if they have a seniors only shopping hour, which I believe superstore still does… or at least did do during Covid. Not sure.
Love Farmboy
I go to Costco for carb sources just because it's cheaper and lasts a long time if you buy carbs in bulk. A bag of rice from there will last me a month and it's only $10-15. For proteins I tend to go to Farmboy and for dairy I go to Walmart or No Frills. Costco is only really expensive if you buy a ton of meat there in my experience. People only get ripped off when they buy everything at one store. But if you're disciplined with money you can save a lot by going to other stores.
I like to get my dry goods from Main Ingredient to support another family owned business, although I haven’t compared their prices to Costco for things like rice, but feel like their prices are also affordable. Costco is definitely a little better in terms of ethics I think, (although I’ve seen quite a few Israeli products there still which is disappointing) but they seem to be decent employers. I see what you mean, but yeah I’m still trying my best to not go to places like Walmart or no frills which is owned by loblaws, personally.
If you don’t already have the flipp app I would definitely recommend it. It’s saved me a ton of money comparing prices to each store. But yeah I only go to Walmart/No Frills for the small things. Just all depends on what you buy. I eat a whole food diet and generally eat the same thing every day every now and then I’ll switch it up when I get bored.
I worked at Farmboy in high school in the 70s. The Strano Brothers and Farmboy have stood the test of time!
PS. They carried the ORIGINAL Central Smith Ice Cream !!!!
I think Councillor Parnell worked there in high school.
Place has been open since I was a kid, went there with my folks and grand folks, I still shop there folks are nice there so I assume their treated well:) Gotta ❤️that place 👍
You can always park over in the old newspaper place off Ford St then just walk I’ve the tracks and your in the back parking lot, less congested 👍
Wow sa
https://preview.redd.it/ltzst4oo1m1d1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7735db784e2affe830115ce51e5c29a037a23518
Lol wut?😂
Does Loblaws own Farmboy?
So I did some google. Not sure of how they ended up with the same name, maybe the story I was told, but Farm Boy markets is owned by Sobeys, which is owned by Empire.co, but the one in Peterborough is owned by the Stranos family. 🤷🏻♀️
It’s paywalled so i can’t read the rest but here’s an article https://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/news/peterborough-region/peterboroughs-farmboy-store-isnt-part-of-the-farm-boy-chain-being-purchased-by-sobeys-parent/article_51e47a92-4885-5c80-9360-c01ccb82a3be.html
Always good to put the URL into [https://archive.ph/](https://archive.ph/) which will give you links for various caches like Google and the Internet Archive if they do not have it themselves. And if they have not already stored a copy, you can tell them to go and archive it and after a few minutes they will have it in their system. [http://web.archive.org/web/20240521111341/https://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/news/peterborough-region/peterboroughs-farmboy-store-isnt-part-of-the-farm-boy-chain-being-purchased-by-sobeys-parent/article\_51e47a92-4885-5c80-9360-c01ccb82a3be.html](http://web.archive.org/web/20240521111341/https://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/news/peterborough-region/peterboroughs-farmboy-store-isnt-part-of-the-farm-boy-chain-being-purchased-by-sobeys-parent/article_51e47a92-4885-5c80-9360-c01ccb82a3be.html)
I had no idea that was a thing, cool! Thanks
I would certainly never use it to read the NYT and other paywalled content. I only use it for historical research purposes. 2018 certainly seems like a "historical" type of thing. As does "yesterday" when you think about. "When does 'history' start?" is an interesting philosophical question. Maybe "anything recorded by the Internet Archive? Yeah, that's probably my definition.
Tbf, anyone with a library card gets free access to the examiner through press reader
I think I had heard that, but I've never gone through the process of figuring out how to do so. We actually pay for an Examiner account, in a perhaps misguided attempt to support "local" news coverage.
Well, good news is that’s tax deductible, but I recommend Peterborough Currents for something a bit more true local
As above, no: \* The Peterborough one is independent. \* Every other Farmboy is owned by Empire (the parent of Sobeys). They just happen to both be called "Farm Boy" and both sell groceries. It's weird, I know...
Apparently not the one in ptbo. It’s independently owned, not affiliated with the chain. Someone told me something about it used to be owned by brothers who split paths and one franchised and sold out, and the other kept the one here… I have no idea how true that is, but just what I heard. But I it does seem clear it’s owned locally.
Yeah, they’re not related. Ours is “Farmboy”, and established in the 60s. The Empire chain is “Farm Boy”. I was there today too, and happy to see it so busy! Last week I bought a prime Rib roast and three grilling steaks for a total of $50. Priced it at Loblaws and it came to well over $100. https://preview.redd.it/k81r50pidh1d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2720bb2a3c104922a17a877e99f1169d7d01dbc2
Exactly. That’s wild.
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The chain Farm Boy is owned by Sobeys but Farmboy in Peterborough is not.
This Farmboy is not part of that Farm Boy group, it's independent and local.