Wayway Food Mart serves up carnival to mark milestone

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/05/2018 (2906 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WAYWAYSEECAPPO — After 25 years in business, the Wayway Food Mart marked its quarter-century achievement on the weekend with a carnival for the families and children in and around the Waywayseecappo community.

The celebration ran from Friday to Sunday and is the first in what is expected to be a summer-long event for the Food Mart, an affiliate of Loblaw and the company’s longest-running First Nations-owned grocery store, according to longtime manager Dan Szwaluk.

“Based on what we’ve seen Friday and Saturday night, it’s been a huge success,” Szwaluk said on Sunday.

The weekend festivities included the usual carnival fixtures — rides, games, food, as well as a fireworks show on Saturday night — and the carnival proved to be so successful that after two days, organizers had to buy more ride tickets.

Waywayseecappo Chief Murray Clearsky said the carnival was a big change for the community, but proved to be good for the families and children in Waywayseecappo, who would normally have to travel elsewhere for an event like this, as well as the neighbouring communities.

Clearsky said there are talks of having the carnival back again next year and possibly making it even bigger.

“It’s for the children, it’s a good thing,” he said. “(I’m) proud of our community.”

The Food Mart is owned by Waywayseecappo, and has been managed by Szwaluk for nearly its entire 25-year history.

Szwaluk, who lives in Shoal Lake, joined the store 24 years ago while working for the accounting firm MNP. The store was in need of a new manager after its first year and considering the band was a client of MNP, it asked Szwaluk if he would be interested in working for them on a part-time basis.

“It just evolved into a full-time career,” he said.

Szwaluk had some business experience going into the job, having lived on a farm and grown up working in his family’s restaurant, but he had never managed a grocery store before.

While difficult at first, he said the store has worked hard to stay competitive over the years by trying to order product further in advance and creating an in-store loyalty program.

“We’ve been really successful in building the business up to a really sustainable level,” he said.

Leading up to last weekend’s carnival, he said the store

gave every student in Waywayseecappo a free wristband to go on the rides.

The focus on family was an important part of the celebration, Szwaluk said, considering one-third of the population is under the age of 14, according to the latest census data.

Moving into the summer, he said there are plans to involve local vendors in a special promotion, where they sell their products at the prices they would have been 25 years ago, and a customer appreciation barbecue.

Looking long term, the Food Mart is planning a major redevelopment to expand the store to more than twice its current size.

Szwaluk said the store wouldn’t be where it is without the good group he has working at the store.

And as the carnival neared its end, Szwaluk said he saw many people with smiles on their faces. “It’s things like that that make it all worthwhile.”

» mlee@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @mtaylorlee