Sun Valley grocery store to close after nearly 40 years, condo building to be built

Sun Valley Market, a local institution in Toronto’s Birchmount Park, will be closing its doors for good at the end of July.

The grocery store, which has been located at Danforth Road and Birchmount Road, first opened its doors in 1986 and will close on July 29. The original Sun Valley location was a small mom-and-pop shop opened in 1978, then opened a location on the Danforth in 1983, which also closed in 2010.

“The community has embraced us over the years, and we’ve embraced it; it’s been a joy supporting the community and doing whatever we can. That’s the part I’m going to miss,” said Jim Bexis, a co-owner of Sun Valley Market.

And community is on display near every end-cap, with customers shouting, “I’m going to miss you guys” or “I can’t believe” you’re about to close to Bexis and his brother-in-law Peter Vacirtzoglou.

The two men took over the business from their shared father-in-law and have been running the grocery store for nearly two decades. They came up in the business, Bexis having joined the company since the Birchmount location, while Vacirtzoglou started full-time in 2001, but previously worked as a delivery driver on occasion.

“This started as a part-time job and became a lifelong career. No regrets,” Vacirtzoglou said.

The original hope for the two men was to keep it in the family, then they even tried to sell it, but eventually, they decided nobody was looking to buy a grocery store.

“Not too many people were interested. Seven days a week, morning till night, business has got tougher to make money, and most people just want a nine-to-five and a regular job,” said Vacirtzoglou.

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The larger family owns the land and decided to sell the land for the development of a 12-storey condo building.

The announcement of their closure has left customers and community members gutted. Jane Valente and her son drive past several grocery stores from their home in North York to come to Sun Valley.

“I usually just come down here just to shop in this store, and I’ve been coming here for 10 years, and I love it here, it’s a wonderful ambiance,” she said.

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The charm of the grocery store was its consistency, from the front end where young and older cashiers have been working from their teenage days to the produce section, which is curated to a tee by Santino Carson.

“I love it here. I like to talk to people; that’s why I love this store because they let me do whatever we want,” said Carson, who has worked for Sun Valley since 1983, and was there on opening day.

And Carson is a friendly face who is known by many who walk through the glass doors. Whether it’s a simple hello and smile or a chat, Carson is ready to oblige.

“The people know me, I know them — this is a community. This job is more than sustenance, it gives me excitement,” he said.

Carson, who is wearing a button-up shirt and tie under his Sun Valley outfit, noted that the owners have always allowed him to do his job in his own manner.

“They let me dress, they let me interact and chat with customers, they care, and that’s rare,” he said.

While Carson has spent most of his life working for the grocer, Alyssa Biondo has been there for five years. But for the young woman, the culture has kept her around as she navigates going through post-secondary school.

“Everyone is friendly, we’re all like best friends and we’re all like family,” she said.

In their nearly 40 years of operation, the owners say service has been key to their success.

“If you treat people the way you want to be treated, the staff, the customers, and it’s so important to us,” Bexis said.

In the age of digital interactions and now artificial intelligence on the horizon, Vacirtzoglou noted he’s happy to have cultivated a lasting memory of making people feel something in their community.

“The camaraderie between the employees, customers, people walk in, they know us by our first names…that is the magic of what we created here,” he said.

Sun Valley is hosting a neighbourhood barbecue on July 29 to mark its closure.