In the last days of Killarney Market, the beloved grocery store with the shamrock logo at 49th and Elliott, a customer browsing sale items came to a halt when she spotted the owner.
鈥淲hy are you retiring?鈥� she cried.
鈥淚鈥檓 75!鈥� said Tito Chiang with a smile, because he鈥檚 actually 68.
It鈥檚 the end of an era for Tito, who opened Killarney Market with his brother John in 1993. For 25 years, it was the anchor of a plaza in residential south 麻豆传媒映画that was also home to medical offices, a Chevron and a Wally鈥檚 Burgers.
Killarney Market was a rare independent grocery store that boasted the size of a chain supermarket and carried products from all over the world 鈥� everything from Turkish comb honey to smoked eel from Holland. Because the Chiangs came from Peru, there was an impressive Peruvian section with stock such as aj铆 amarillo paste, made from a local chili, and cans of golden Inca Kola.
There鈥檚 no 鈥渆thnic aisle鈥� here. International goods are everywhere. 鈥淲e have products from forty countries,鈥� said Tito proudly. He loves to travel, and every time he visited somewhere new, he鈥檇 pop into a grocery store to see if there鈥檚 anything good he could stock at Killarney.
There was a joke among employees that 鈥渋f you couldn鈥檛 find a product, that country probably doesn鈥檛 exist.鈥�
Tito was born into a family with connections dotted along Pacific coasts 鈥� the old routes of emigration from southern China. In 1967, after finishing high school, Tito visited 麻豆传媒映画with his family, but by way of Mexico, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Honolulu, Japan, Hong Kong and China. 鈥淲e were tracing those old routes,鈥� he said, 鈥渧isiting my father鈥檚 friends and family.鈥�
Tito settled in 麻豆传媒映画in 1970 and went to the University of British Columbia.
鈥淚 became a chemical engineer by trade,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 did very well, but the problem was, every time I got a promotion, I had to move somewhere else. Then the day after marrying, my wife said, 鈥楴one of this moving. I want to live in Vancouver.鈥欌��
To stay in one place, Tito decided to pursue what he knew: the grocery business. His family had a store back in Peru, which he had helped with.
In those days, a big 麻豆传媒映画name in the grocery business was Tong Louie. He grew his father鈥檚 company, H.Y. Louie, from a small family business in Chinatown to a grocery distribution giant. The company, with Tong at the head, also bought London Drugs in 1976 for $9 million.
Tito had a meeting with Tong Louie, who was Canadian-born but with Cantonese roots like Tito, and they started talking about family history. The topic of Tito鈥檚 Canadian grandfather, who had lived in 麻豆传媒映画since 1920 and had a farm on Marine Drive near Oak, came up. Louie asked his name, and it turned out they knew each other.
鈥淏ack then, Pender Street and Keefer Street used to be all wholesalers,鈥� said Tito. 鈥淎ll the farmers would take their produce there and merchants would go and buy stuff there. So that was how Tong Louie knew my grandfather.
鈥淎nd because of that, just with a handshake, he helped me get financed and get started. At the time, that was all you needed: just a handshake, instead of a lot of contracts.鈥�
In the 1980s, the Chiang brothers had an IGA grocery store. It was family affair; their sister Nancy and their wives helped.
Then in 1993, the brothers decided to 鈥済o their own way鈥� and open their own store, complete with a new name. They took a cue from the neighbourhood.
鈥淲e decided to call it Killarney Market,鈥� said Tito. There was once a community of Irish immigrants in the area, hence the neighbourhood鈥檚 Irish namesake. The Chiangs added a shamrock to their green Killarney Market sign for good measure.
With a local name, they made sure the grocery store did local good.
Killarney Market helped local companies grow by carrying their products when they were starting out 鈥� there were Que Pasa鈥檚 tortilla chips and Dan-D Pak鈥檚 dried fruits, nuts and crackers. Donations were made to nearby churches and elementary schools; gift certificates for fundraisers and pumpkins in the fall. Tito made sure full-time employees got benefits. He hired a lot of young people, many from the nearby Killarney Secondary School, and watched as they graduated university. 鈥淥ne is doing her doctorate. I鈥檓 so proud. She鈥檚 studying oysters and how global warming is affecting the oyster industry!鈥�
Tito hires very intentionally.
鈥淟et me tell you one of my secrets,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f young people come by themselves and they knock on my office door and say, 鈥楬ello, sir. How are you? I鈥檓 looking for a job,鈥� that鈥檚 a plus.
鈥淚f they say, 鈥楬ey, you got a job?鈥� Or if their mom comes?
鈥淭hen I say, 鈥楬ey, sorry.鈥�
鈥淲e鈥檙e in a business where you need to know how to deal with people. I need people who are alert. Somebody could fall on the floor, somebody could trip. So, on purpose, sometimes I look like I鈥檓 looking for something and drop my keys on the floor. You know only one of 10 kids pick up the keys? Most of them don鈥檛!
鈥淎nd I say, 鈥楽orry, I don鈥檛 think we can hire you.鈥�
鈥淭hey say, 鈥榃ell, I saw it, but I thought you were going to pick it up.鈥� Or, 鈥極h, I didn鈥檛 notice.鈥�
鈥淲e get a lot of older customers. If they drop their keys or their wallet, you need to be alert to immediately respond to them. So that鈥檚 been a big part of us having such good workers.鈥�
One of those workers was Felipe Leon, who started at Killarney Market in 1996.
鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 really something I wanted to do, though my parents also had a grocery business in Peru like Tito鈥檚,鈥� said Leon. 鈥淚 had just come to Canada and I wasn鈥檛 doing anything, so I worked part-time.鈥�
While still working at Killarney Market, Leon tried accounting, but didn鈥檛 like it.
鈥淎nd so Tito told me, 鈥榊ou know, if you want more responsibilities, I鈥檒l give them to you.鈥欌��
Leon became a store manager, and was still there 22 years later.
鈥淚 had many opportunities to move to another store,鈥� he said, 鈥渂ut working with Tito has been a great experience. He was a mentor to all of us. Some people that worked with him already run a store, like Nesters Market.鈥�
One important lesson he learned about Killarney Market from Tito: 鈥淒on鈥檛 compete with the big guys.鈥�
鈥淭here鈥檚 no point,鈥� said Leon.
Rather, play to the strengths of being independent.
鈥淎 small store like us, customers ask for something and we can source it right away,鈥� said Tito. 鈥淭he response time is very quick.鈥�
It was direction like this that kept the store alive in a competitive industry, and in a city with escalating land costs that make it challenging for independent businesses to survive.
Well, direction, and a .
A man showed up at Killarney Market one day, but not to shop. He was looking for a local grocery store to film a music video for a Michael Bubl茅 song called 鈥溾�� John Chiang got it set up.
鈥淢ichael didn鈥檛 want a Safeway,鈥� said Tito, 鈥淏ut normally when they film a video, they erase the name 鈥� no Killarney Market.
鈥淵ou know, the girl who is in the video, her name is Luisana Lopilato, and she鈥檚 very popular in South America. She鈥檚 gorgeous. She鈥檚 got her own shows. She was an actress. And Michael started going out with her. She didn鈥檛 speak English, so when she came here, she was delighted! My sister-in-law Violeta went to talk to her. We sold products from Argentina [where Lopilato is from] including their famous yerbe mate, and she said, 鈥楢h! Now I can cook something for Michael!鈥�
鈥淎nd then my sister-in-law asked Luisana if they could leave the name of the market in the video. And she said, 鈥楧on鈥檛 worry. I鈥檒l get him to do that.鈥�
鈥淭hey filmed the video for two nights,鈥� Tito recalled. 鈥淭he second night, the whole neighbourhood was watching.鈥� There was a big dance scene in the parking lot with confetti. Bubl茅 took the time to sign some autographs.
鈥淎nd then one day, I got a call: 鈥榊ou should tune into Oprah!鈥� Because that鈥檚 where the video came out. I saw the first shot, and there it was: Killarney Market! Luisana did it! She got Killarney Market in there!鈥�
鈥淎nd of course, it made us known. People kept asking us, 鈥楧id Michael come back?鈥� And we said, 鈥榃e鈥檝e been begging him not to use Killarney Market anymore 鈥榗ause it鈥檚 time he made a name for himself.鈥� Just kidding, of course.鈥�
Tito sent a link to the video to his friends and relatives in Peru. 鈥淭hey didn鈥檛 know who Michael Buble was. He wasn鈥檛 so famous yet. Luisana they knew, but not Michael. They said, 鈥極h, by the way, the guy who sings? You guys should tell him to pursue a career.鈥� They thought he worked in our store. They thought it was a commercial for the store.鈥�
That was 2009.
Seven years later, John Chiang decided to retire. Two years after that, Tito decided it was his turn as well. He worked around seven days a week.
But Tito didn鈥檛 want to sell Killarney Market to just anybody.
鈥淚 wanted to find somebody who would take care of my workers,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 want to sell it to a chain store. To the big guys, you鈥檙e just another person. Most of them won鈥檛 give you more than 30 hours so that they don鈥檛 have to pay your medical, dental plans.鈥�
It happened that there was another grocery store, not too far away, that was looking for a second home. It was also an independent shop.
At Victoria Drive and 32nd, on the same block as the German community鈥檚 麻豆传媒映画Alpen Club, is . Ken Chau, who had a Richmond seafood business, opened the grocery store in 2006. While there are lots of mom-and-pop food businesses on Victoria Drive 鈥� most of them Cantonese: bakeries, meat shops, greengrocers 鈥� Chau said he wanted 88 to be a 鈥渙ne-stop shop.鈥�
Like Killarney Market鈥檚 shamrock, 88 also a bit of luck in its brand; 88 is a lucky number in Chinese cultures, because, when spoken aloud, the number eight sounds like the word for fortune.
88 has an impressive Southeast Asian selection, but also carries products from around the world: tortilla presses, Portuguese sardines, longaniza, and Coco Rico, a Puerto Rican soda that you can drink, but is popular at 88 with Vietnamese customers who like to use it in braised dishes like catfish and th峄媡 kho (caramelized pork).
88 doesn鈥檛 have as much square feet as Killarney Market, but it鈥檚 got more employees. Killarney Market has about 40; 88 has more than double that. Lines are often long. So owner Ken Chau was looking for a spot for a second location.
鈥淎 common friend of ours got us together,鈥� said Tito, 鈥渁nd we hashed things out.鈥�
As Killarney Market transitions into an 88, Khaleel Qureshi, 88鈥檚 general manager, said, 鈥淧eople are keeping their jobs. Nobody is getting laid off. Killarney Market has had people there working for 15, 20 years, so we鈥檙e going to treat them as if they鈥檝e been working for us that long.鈥�
Qureshi鈥檚 also been in the grocery business for a long time. In 2002, he started working at the Buy-Low that was at 88鈥檚 Victoria Drive location before it took over. Before that, in Pakistan, he helped out at his dad鈥檚 store, which sold agricultural goods such as seeds and fertilizer. 鈥淗e taught me a lot,鈥� he said.
In recent years, North American chain supermarkets like Safeway have been trying to tap into the immigrant market.
Qureshi says the best kind of market is one that responds to and reflects the people. That鈥檚 why 88 is both global and local. They carry international goods, but also basics like cereal and peanut butter.
鈥淩ight now, the Spanish and Latin communities are very big at Killarney, so we鈥檙e going to give more space to those kinds of products,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f later we have a high demand for Chinese products, then we might bring in more of that.
鈥淚f we know something is not working, then we respond to it. We change very quickly. We鈥檙e not just focused on one community. We鈥檙e focused on everyone who鈥檚 around. That鈥檚 diversity, and we embrace it.鈥�
Killarney Market is closing today (Feb. 27). But its sale to 88 is bucking a trend in an industry that Tito describes as 鈥渂ig stores eating little stores.鈥�
Even Leon is sticking around. 鈥淚鈥檓 taking Tito鈥檚 job!鈥� he said.
Everything was 20 per cent off during Killarney Market鈥檚 final days. The shelves slowly cleared 鈥� Russia, Poland, the Balkans, Peru.
鈥淚t鈥檚 so empty,鈥� said Tito on one of his final afternoons.
But it won鈥檛 be for long.
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