The Food Issue
2015
grainswest.com
25
T WAS LUNCH HOUR AT
Sunterra Market Keynote in
Calgary, and it was elbow-to-
elbow at the self-serve salad bar. Office
folk in casual-Friday finery heaped
cubed ham, spinach and shredded
cheese into plastic take-home boxes.
Within minutes, the sandwich cooler
was emptied of its egg-salad, roast
beef and turkey packs. Two helmeted
construction workers searched for other
convenient cartable options.
Determined shoppers roamed the
tight main-floor produce aisles and
surrounding counters for the night’s
dinner. At the prepared-food kitchen,
servers doled out containers of
marinated meats and a rainbow array of
cold salads. Over at the butcher counter
there were glistening chicken-and-
pepper kebobs and a perfect selection
of steaks, while the packaged-meat
cooler displayed Sunterra Farms pork-
back ribs, Carmen Creek bison and
Maple Hill Farms chicken.
At the deli kiosk, olives and fine
cheeses complemented Valbella
Landjaeger sausage, and portly Sunterra
ham and beef roasts were ready for
slicing.
The fishmonger’s crushed-ice coolers
displayed scallops, salmon fillets,
lobster and a showy half-metre halibut;
the adjacent bakery counter featured
a profusion of pies and pastries, and a
wall of fresh Sunterra bread.
The balance of the main floor featured
shelving and coolers chockablock with
packaged goods, from premium jarred
tomato sauces to artisan sodas, quinoa
chips and endless tangles of packaged
pasta.
Storewide, service was quick and
attentive, and at the tills, lineups had
little time to form. It may have looked
it, but operating this premium grocery
chain is not easy work. The business
model cuts no corners and demands
the best foods be cooked, packaged
and served in multiple convenient
configurations, explained senior vice-
president of operations Chris Alladin.
He oversees the operation of nine
Sunterra market locations in Edmonton
and Calgary.
A trained chef with a background in
restaurant management, Alladin has
been with Sunterra almost 13 years.
“When I first got here, I saw how proud
the people were. Everybody was just
so enthusiastic about the quality of the
products they were working on,” he
said. Staffing is always challenging in
Alberta, but Sunterra’s cachet is its own
hiring tool.
“The bigger chains tend to give up
on service,” said Alladin. “They try
to be quick. We try to find a balance
between fresh-to-order, great quality
and good variety, and still offer speed
and service.” And yet, keeping prices
competitive is a mantra here. Copycat
concepts have tried and failed to
duplicate this cost-versus-quality feat.
Sunterra may be perceived as
expensive among the uninitiated, but
once visitors try it, they understand why
they’re paying a premium price, said
Alladin. The chain’s marquee example
is its own pork products. While fattier
supermarket pork may require trimming
at the kitchen counter, Sunterra offers
lean, delicious and perfectly aged cuts
of pork at a comparable cost.
Patricia Derbyshire is a regular patron
of Sunterra Market in Calgary’s West
Market Square. “If I’ve ever needed
a quick meal, particularly when my
son was growing up, I always found
Sunterra better than a restaurant and
as convenient as fast food,” she said. “I
don’t compare Sunterra [prices] to other
grocery stores, but to what I would
spend if I ate out.”
The owner-operator of a seniors
concierge, Catherine Cartmill shops at
Sunterra and recommends it to clients
who may benefit from its services,
including grocery and meal delivery, to
make their lives easier. “I used to think
Sunterra was more expensive than other
stores, then I did a cost comparison,”
she said. Sunterra’s pricing can be “all
over the map,” but the prepared foods
are more interesting and less generic
than typical grocer fare.
Cartmill is also a fan of Keynote’s
third-floor restaurant, Marketbar, which
serves made-to-order pasta dishes and
“big pan” meals such as sausage with
perogies. At $20 for two entrees with
I
Glen Price spent more than a year in Hong Kong working for supermarket chain ParknShop,
gaining experience that helped the Price family launch its Sunterra market chain in 1990.
