Pete's Frootique

[fgummett]

We have a local chain here in Nova Scotia (not sure if he is any further afield yet) run by a cockney market-stall green-grocer, name of Pete Luckett... the kind that bawls out his wares on the street (unlike the Daschund which tends to wear out it's... censored due to bad taste). :eek:

The store is called Pete's Frootique... (http://www.petesfrootique.com/) and is one of my regular haunts because not only is the produce some of the best around, but he also keeps a regular stock of goodies normally only found on British store shelves... including Bournville Dark Chocolate ;)

Any of you counting Carbs may already know that in Canada at least, if we see a Total Carbs of 23g with 4g Fibre we figure that we only need to allow for 19g Carbohydrate (23 minus 4). But in Europe Total Carbs are shown on the nutrition label with the fibre already taken off... so if it says 19g Carbs and 4g Fibre you need to allow for the full 19g... NOT 15g

I was in Pete's today to check if this was the case and indeed the British labels do seem to be that way. I had a word with the store dietitian and she was surprised but is going to pursue it further.

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So bottom line I guess is a warning for anyone carb-counting who may visit a specialty store :)

[xMenace]

They broke the mold when they made Pete.

He opened his first frootique here in 1981. I may well have been one of his first customers. I still go there regularly.

http://www.canada-photos.com/data/media/10/city-market_2281.jpg

I didn't know that about British carbs.

[fgummett]

I saw on his site that his first Canadian store was in NB but I couldn't find it listed as a location on his web site. Does he have others in NB? Yes he is quite the character... he still likes to rub shoulders with the customers by working in the stores.

He's a canny businessman too... he pretty much single-handedly caused our government to allow Sunday shopping: the old law allowed stores of a certain small square footage (i.e. a corner store) to open Sundays... so Pete just sub-divided his big stores into many smaller ones, each with a specialty like deli or fish etc... and started opening on Sundays. The big supermarkets started losing money to him and defied the law to open on Sunday too... the rest as they say, is history... NS finally enters the 21st Century!

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If I recall correctly, I read the fact about European Carbs in the Gretchen Becker book

[xMenace]

I saw on his site that his first Canadian store was in NB but I couldn't find it listed as a location on his web site. Does he have others in NB?

He has 4 outlets in NB and apparently one distribution centre. Pete's Frootique, Saint John, NB on Profile Canada Business Directory of Companies (http://www.profilecanada.com/companydetail.cfm?company=2303763_Petes_Frootique_ Saint_John_NB)

He started out under the Irving shadow. That must be where he learned his shrewdness ;)

[valc3]

They broke the mold when they made Pete.

He opened his first frootique here in 1981. I may well have been one of his first customers. I still go there regularly.

http://www.canada-photos.com/data/media/10/city-market_2281.jpg

I didn't know that about British carbs.

That's it, I'm moving to Canada. :D That is an awesome looking store.