Customer Appreciation Day is every day at Unger’s Market. “The most important things we have are our customers and our community. It’s a pleasure to serve them,” says Nick Unger, who works alongside his father, Chris, and cousin, Luke, as a third-generation owner of the Hyde Park business. For more than 40 years, the Unger family has placed customer satisfaction first. “I just want to honour what my family created and bring a version of Unger’s into the future,” he says. Building for the future includes those who walk through the doors each day. “People may go to the big grocery stores to check things off the list, but they come to Unger’s to get an experience.”
Homemade breads, pies, muffins, cookies, squares, loaves and other treats are available.
Family owned and operated by second- and third-generation Ungers Luke (left), Chris and Nick
Traditional customer-favourite comfort foods.
Nick says the baked goods are made from scratch, and the food tastes the way you remember your grandmother’s cooking and baking. “Almost everything that comes out of the bakery is handmade.” His uncle Greg, who retired last year, still makes his signature jam. “I know lots of people enjoy it and come to the store specifically for that.” The family loves interacting with customers and hearing their stories about time spent at the market. At the market’s Sip & Shop event this past spring, a vendor shared a story with Nick that perfectly captured why he wants to continue the family traditions. Jimeelie Bilyea, proprietor of Willow & Ben Jewelry, told him she had been coming to the market for years. “She remembers shopping here since she was five,” Nick says. “It’s a place where people have visceral and sentimental feelings. It’s an honour to be the steward of those memories. It’s really touching.”
While technology and mass production continue to reshape the food industry, Unger’s strives to maintain its identity as a friendly neighbourhood market, offering fresh produce, homemade breads, sandwiches, groceries, treats, coffee, giftware and more. Like an episode of Cheers, the regulars stop by every day. “We are like their second home,” says Nick. “We want to be here for the next generation of regulars who have their seat in the tea room, too.”
Unger’s Market • 1010 Gainsborough Road • 519-472-8126 • ungers.ca
