The Old Farm Market — Local services in Courtenay

Visit here soon, may not be around for long. This is a great place for some local fruit and vegetables but all other niche products can be expensive. The Deli experience is limiting and sometimes hard to get the attention of an employee for assistance, let alone trying to communicate over a too-high counter which is difficult when the place is busy. Consider actual fishing for faster fish than waiting at the Sea Food counter. We live only two blocks away and have visited dozens of times throughout different hours of the day and have never seen anyone sitting in the eating area. We really want to buy items, but they make it hard. At 6:00pm tonight there are only two cashiers open and a small lineup of people, yet somehow one of the cashiers has to manage other staff asking questions or needing help. Consider a 'light' system to indicate next cashier availability, the constant yelling 'Next' gets tiring when you are in a long lineup. Open a space in the check-out maze to get at the front sooner; we would consider buying more if we didn't have to carry a heavy basket all the way around when coming from frozen foods, which is typically the last items we pickup. Customer service will continue to be problematic unless it is improved, and could be the potential downfall of this...

A recent visit to Old Farm Market (Courtenay) was a treat. We usually go there to stock up on lactose-free whipping cream (hard to find!) and other lactose-free dairy products, and pick up oysters from the Fanny Bay stall, plus all the brands & products that are not found in the usual big name chains. New find is Conimex, a Dutch brand that specializes in Indonesian sauces, and it's a treat to pick up Nasi Goreng spice mix, sambal oelek, sambal brandal, kecap manis (for Indo-Singaporean dishes. Loads of Belgian mustards, pickles, kraut, cool looking products everywhere else in the store. Great manager specials in the meat section, more fresh pasta options, and they even have pork belly with skin on (for the next porchetta project). I picked up local vegetables at very good prices and Farmer Brown eggs were the lowest prices we've seen anywhere. We plan to try the prepared foods next time, looks good and all the tables were full when we were there. Thanks for improving your...

I've just upped my rating from 4 to 5 stars ↗️ The Staff is super friendly - always worth a bonus! 😉 This Store is somewhat new to our Valley, and we've only recently started to incorporate it in our Sat morning rounds of visiting the CV Farmers Market (on the Exhibition Grounds) and the Butchers Block before stopping off at The Old Farm Market (this Store - where Thrifty Foods used to be). It is surprisingly well stocked with a variety of goods that would be hard to beat, including some exotics, like products from India, China, Japan, Germany etc. which has its own little section in case you hail from there and feel a bit nostalgic. They carry local produce from all over Vancouver Island as well as processed foods, but one of the biggest draw cards for our Family, is certainly the Fanny Bay Oysters outlet in...