Unboxed Market — Local services in Toronto

Oof. What a disheartening experience. My partner and I just moved to the neighborhood and went for an early walk to check out local grocery stores etc. We were having a great morning and discovered what looked to be an organic and bulk store but turned out to be a zero waste concept.

First and foremost the store is BEAUTIFUL. But it's definitely not zero-waste. There are reusable containers, bulk products etc, but it's no different than the health food stores in the city that allow you to bring your own container. Plenty of plastic wrap and packaging to be found.

Immediately upon entering the mood felt somber, there were maybe 5 people in store - us, another customer and 2 employees.

There was a woman that looked immediately annoyed slash suspicious of us, I don't know why, however she seemed busy and I figured it was just a tight space and we were in her way. I apologized at some point and all seemed well.

We marvelled for a while at their stock- a variety of more uncommon goods, premade food and fresh produce. We would much rather support a local store than go to wholefoods so we were excited to find this store. We picked a couple of items to try and headed out within about 5-10 min.

Upon hitting the checkout, which was manned by another employee, I asked if they still take outside containers. And wouldn't you know it, that REALLY set this guy off. He became instantly patronizing as he proceeded to explain that well OBVIOUSLY they take containers that's their WHOLE BUSINESS! I said yes I understand but it's still technically a pandemic and some stores have different policies. He made me feel completely obtuse for asking a reasonable question.

Well f*ck me! I'm so sorry for trying to be respectful of your store. I obviously have no business being in this precious place spending my ignorant money. My fault. Won't happen again. I'll just stick to kensington where they don't give me attitude for supporting local.

Extremely off-putting. Please don't go into customer facing roles if you can't talk to people. Or learn like everyone else had to. i want to have empathy and compassion but this was...

0 Stars.

Food from the hot table was improperly cooked as several users have mentioned in their reviews and can 100% agree with their statements.

Butcher:

Roughly 85% of meats from their butcher aren't from the best quality farms, in terms of animal practice, feed animal and welfare. They claim "grass-fed," "cage-free," but can confirm through personal knowledge that some farms they choose to utilize aren't the best.

Deli: Most cheeses they have are of poor quality mis-labeled trending brands that do not care about low waste nor product quality, again you would expect better products from an overly priced store.

Conclusion: It seems their focus is ridding the world of plastic and that's fine. The food quality and product selection aren't the best for this price range $$$$. Most items sold here can be purchased at other retail markets for considerably less. They also use plastic wrap for their cheeses/meats and butcher.

There is no point in spending extra money here when other retailers are doing a better job at reducing waste as well as have better products and...

I was very impressed with the concept and the selection as I wanted to contribute to reduce my waste and packaging. Sadly the staff were not overly helpful. I had a question on the milk and was told "I don't know go ask up front" and then when I was checking out the lady cashier was more interested in her macbook vs greeting me or asking if I found everything I was looking for. Considering we are paying more to buy local product and make a difference, you would think it would be important to make people feel welcome and a part of something bigger. Perhaps it was because it was a Sunday and late in the day this was a one off poor experience. I am willing to give it one more try because my friends have not had a similar interaction. I hope this turns out to be true as I really want to...