
Inside the first Yummy Market store in Thornhill, Ontario.
Our journey from a neighbourhood store to a European food emporium
2002
Early days
An Eastern European family started small. In 2002, the founders opened a cozy grocery store catering to the tastes of the many Eastern European newcomers living in Toronto. Familiar groceries and scratch-made holiday delicacies drew crowds through word of mouth. And those nostalgic, comforting foods kept customers coming back for more. In no time, the grocer garnered a devoted following among Toronto’s Eastern European community.

Yummy Market located at Dufferin and Finch in North York.
2005
A leap forward
In just three years, Yummy Market’s clientele and product assortment outpaced the store’s floor space capacity. So the founders started searching for a bigger site to accommodate their businesses’ growth. Soon, a new 24,000-sq.-ft. location at Dufferin St. and Finch Ave. became Yummy Market’s new, more spacious home.
The founders’ focus on scratch-made foods and imported European products, coupled with the new store’s strategic location near a busy highway, proved a winning strategy. It helped attract the working moms and dads on their way home from work. Thanks to that, the store’s Prepared Foods department was booming. And so was Yummy Market’s popularity.
The new location became not only Toronto’s largest European grocer, but also an important community anchor, generous community supporter, and meeting place. In addition to its core audience, the grocer now managed to draw in a large number of mainstream consumers and curious foodies hungry for new taste experiences.




The grand opening of the Yummy Market flagship store in Maple, Ontario.
2013
Flagship store
Fast-forward to 2013 and, by that time, Yummy Market established itself as a household name within the local Eastern European community. No holiday festivities were complete without a trip to Yummy Market for familiar food favourites. The grocer’s product assortment and client base kept growing. So much so, that the single Yummy Market store started “bursting at the seams.” The time was ripe to expand to a second location.
Extensive research into customer demographics identified a demand for a European food store north of the existing North York location. In February 2013, Yummy Market became a grocery chain with the opening of its completely rebranded 50,000-sq.-ft. concept store in Maple, Ontario.
That’s when a European food experience came to life! Thousands of local, imported and scratch-made foods found their spotlight within the flagship store’s spacious, award-winning interior, which includes European landmark images, curved bulkheads and open market areas.
And people started noticing. As one Google review described it: “… Great supermarket for European food products. I find myself coming back here regularly because they stock products the usual supermarkets simply do not have. They seem to have Russian/Eastern European roots and feature a lot of products from that area, but I also found a lot of products from France, Italy, etc. ….”
Yummy Points®
The opening of the flagship store preceded another big milestone in 2013 — the launch of the Yummy Points® loyalty program. Designed to reward Yummy Market’s growing loyal clientele, this thank-you program proved popular right from the start. With their card, members earn Yummy Points® on everything they buy in-store, every time they shop, with the earned points redeemable on all in-store purchases. The Yummy Points® program counts thousands of members with new ones being added daily.
Private label
That same year saw the introduction of Yummy Market’s first private brand products: frozen perogies and pelmeni (Russian dumplings). With the promise of the same scratch-made quality as Yummy Market’s in-store prepared foods, the three varieties of perogies and the six varieties of pelmeni have since earned a permanent place in customers’ freezers and their hearts. Since then, Yummy Market’s private label has grown to more products. In addition to the perogies and pelmeni, it now includes just as popular homemade-quality frozen soups, sauerkraut and lasagnas.


Yummy Market located at 1390 Major Mackenzie Dr. West in Maple, Ontario.
2016, 2020
Yummy Market is golden
In 2016, the evolution of the brand reached new heights with the Maple store’s first Gold Award win in the Specialty Food category from the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers (CFIG). Then, in 2020, the flagship store in Maple solidified its gold standing by winning a second Gold Award in the Specialty Food category from the CFIG amid a challenging year of a global pandemic, no less. The top industry prizes are a nod to the European retailer’s quality of products and services offered at its flagship store in Maple, Ontario. Above all, it’s a testament to the founders’ continued dedication to excellence and their perseverance since day one.

Yummy Market in Maple, Ont. wins gold in specialty retail.
2023
New ownership
In July of 2023, Yummy Market transitioned to new ownership with a focus on continued business growth while honouring the founders’ lasting legacy. The new owners are committed to taking the European grocery business to new levels of success while continuing to support local communities, nurturing established business relationships, and offering more value to the Yummy Market customers.
Today
A European food emporium
Innovation, along with the drive for excellence, is at the core of the Yummy Market brand’s heart. From an unconventional store layout to unparalleled product quality and assortment, the grocer has always been ahead of its times. And it continues to entice and surprise its customers every day. As one Google review noted: “The food selections blew my mind! The variety of hot and cold prepared foods is amazing.”
Today, Yummy Market is a must-visit European food emporium in the GTA, offering a shopping experience unlike any other. The breads and rolls at the in-store Bakery are hand-kneaded and baked fresh, the old-fashioned way; the cakes and pastries at the in-store Patisserie are perfected to centuries-old European standards; the prepared foods at the in-store Kitchen are made according to classic European recipes and cooking techniques.
Yummy Market’s founders set the bar high. That is why the grocer’s prepared foods, breads, cakes and pastries are always made from scratch, using only real ingredients like fresh herbs, butter and whole eggs. That is why Yummy Market’s Deli sources only the highest-quality cheeses and charcuterie, offering the largest variety in the GTA. That is the reason the shelves are filled with the most premium products that Europe has to offer, imported from every corner of the European continent, and well beyond.
From fine imported specialties to everyday staples, there is something for everyone at Yummy Market’s two convenient locations in the GTA. At Yummy Market, customers get more than grocery shopping – they live an experience. A European food experience.