On Aug. 1, a little fruit shop that’s been in business for 45 years, located just south of Church and Wellesley, sent out a cry for help via social media. “Save our store!” said owners Frank Mangione and Tony Cerminara on their Twitter feed. “Don’t want to be another casualty of Loblaws moving into the hood. Email us your thoughts/suggestions.”

The shop, Pusateri Fruit Market (unrelated to the Pusa­teri’s Fine Foods chain), is one of a handful of independent retailers in this neighbourhood feeling the pressure since Loblaws opened its “new crown jewel of food stores” in the old Maple Leaf Gardens building on Carlton last November.

“We’ve always had competition, of course, but this has really affected us,” says Mangione, “not to mention the local butcher shop, the cheese shop — even the 24-hour grocery store Super Freshmart; everyone in the area is feeling it, which unfortunately just sucks.”

Sales have gone down, he says, and they’re desperate to figure out what it’ll take to lure customers back. They’ve already extended store hours and managed a few renovations, but it’s not enough. Mangione and Cerminara worry Pusateri may suffer the same fate as Reither’s Fine Food International, a deli and seafood place across the street that closed in March after 23 years in business.

“We’re hoping it’s just a phase,” Cerminara says, “like people checking out the flashy new store to see what the hype is all about, but it’s tough. The impact this has had is more than we bargained for.”

The owners of Pusateri and other small businesses on Church Street aren’t alone in their David-and-Goliath-esque struggles — it’s a trend that’s affected nearly every part of Toronto for years, be it a Metro opposite the St. Lawrence Market or a Loblaws at the intersection of Queen and Portland that opened around the same time neighbouring corner stores Square Fruit and Olympia Fruit Market closed. (Loblaws, as well as the Retail Council of Canada, declined to be interviewed for this story.)

Often, there is some public outcry when big-box retailers announce plans to open up in an area with a long-cultivated indie reputation. But at the same time, there is clearly demand for such institutions, especially when slews of new condo buildings are going up and density is increasing dramatically.

Besides, not everyone wants to walk from store to store to pick up all their groceries, especially if it’s freezing outside or they’ve got a bunch of restless children in tow. Loblaws and most other chain grocery stores offer something the specialized shops don’t, namely convenience and variety.

There are 52 reviews on Yelp for the Maple Leaf Gardens Loblaws and it averages a solid four out of five stars. A common thread of “they have it all” emerges from the reviews, with one woman raving about the fact that she can pick up banana flowers and corn husks in the ethnic aisles, then browse through the cupcake station before hitting up two separate olive bars. “It is truly an American-style grocery store,” writes Tonya G., “which means everything in one spot for those who are too busy to go to five different stores to check off everything on [their] shopping list.”

Others have mixed feelings. Amy Underwood, a daycare worker who’s lived in Cabbagetown for 20 years and describes herself as food conscious, says she was excited when she first heard about Loblaws opening and shopped there for a bit; however, the novelty started to wear off.

“The first few times my family went there, we really liked it,” she says. “It’s a neat experience: It feels kind of like an urban market, and they have everything. So aesthetically it’s nice and stuff looks pretty and delicious. But because it’s such a huge store, if you only need to pick up a few things, it can be overwhelming. Like, why do you need so much cheese? You can get lost in that cheese aisle.”

Now, she mostly goes to this Loblaws for Joe Fresh clothing and, when it comes to groceries, sticks to Cabbagetown. Underwood buys her produce, cleaning supplies and other basics at the No Frills on Parliament, then heads next door to the tiny Epicure Shop for meats and cheeses, goes to Cabbagetown Organics for specialty items (“they have a hummus I really like”) and, if it’s a Tuesday, she’ll grab some local, seasonal items at the Riverdale farmers’ market.

In an ideal world, this is how Torontonians should shop — supporting bigger chain grocers so we continue to have the convenience factor, while also dipping into smaller stores for niche items. In this situation, big and small businesses would coexist peacefully and turn a decent profit. (It’s worth mentioning that the Epicure Shop will make its sandwiches using tomatoes and lettuce from No Frills, while the employees at No Frills often come to the Epicure Shop to buy those sandwiches.) The key to success, using Cabbagetown as an example, is ensuring that the independents focus on supplying what the chain stores can’t: personalized service and an intimate shopping environment, handmade, small-batch or hyper-local products, customized lunches and so forth.

It also helps if everyone learns to work together toward a common goal of bringing more people into the neighbourhood. This is what David Wootton, manager of the Church Wellesley Village BIA, is hoping to do. He’s focused on accepting Loblaws as a local merchant and moving forward.

“We want to reach out and make friends with them,” he says. “You can’t deny it’s a pretty cool place, there’s lots of stuff, it’s a great social scene. But the reality is that it’s affecting sales for local businesses, and not all of them can bounce back. And it’s not just food stores like Pusateri — it’s also flower markets, pharmacies and wine stores, because Loblaws sells everything now.”

His goal is to find a way for the bigger commercial retailers to send a bit of their traffic over to the village, and for everyone in the community to work on promoting the importance of shopping local. “In the long term,” he says, “I think Loblaws will bring more business to the area, but we’re in a transition phase right now and the little guys just have to hang in there.”

Although a Facebook page has already been set up to show support for Pusateri, imploring former customers to “Please, don’t abandon them!,” Wootton isn’t too concerned yet.

“People will always want to shop at places they trust, and Pusateri has cultivated a loyal customer base,” he says. “They’re smart business people, they just need to ride this wave.”

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