Cantor's - Celebrating 75 Years

CongratulationsCantor'sMeats! Grimm'sisproudtobepartofyour continuedsuccess. www.GrimmsFineFoods.com NOMSGADDED LACTOSEFREE GLUTENFREE SOY FREE Quality,NoMatterHow You Slice It! WinnipegOldCountrySausage 691DufferinAvenue Phone:204-589-8331 Congratulationsfrom Winnipeg Old Country! C AWinnipegtraditionforover100years servingCantor'sfor70ofthem. AlltheBestintheFuture. A t one time, Winnipeg's neighbourhood grocery stores were just that – mom-and-pop shops, often downstairs businesses in the family home, that served a community within walking distance of the storefront. Not many have survived in the big-box era, but one such grocery store has achieved near-legendary status in the Brooklands neighbourhood, thanks to twin brothers Joe and Oscar Cantor, who watched over Cantor's Quality Meats & Groceries for almost 70 years. Joe and Oscar were born in Poland in 1925, and moved to Winnipeg as toddlers with their parents Edward and Sara and siblings Lee and Lily, also twins. The grocery store couldn't have had more humble beginnings, starting on the dining room table in the family home on Magnus Avenue, near the Slaw Rebchuk Bridge. Edward would drive a horse and wagon into the countryside and barter buttons, cloth, thread and other small goods for chicken, eggs, butter and produce, and from an early age, the boys made deliveries on bicycle. The family eventually opened a storefront on Gallagher Avenue, and Cantor's Quality Meats & Groceries has been serving customers in the neighbourhood and across Winnipeg ever since. "The old store was a house. They opened up their living room and made it a grocery store," says third-generation grocer Ed Cantor. Several additions to the house allowed the store to expand over the years, but customers were squeezed in elbow-to- elbow at the locally famous meat counter on busy Saturdays until 2009, when a 13,500-square-foot store was built right in front of the old store, on what used to be the parking lot. In their 80s at the time, Joe and Oscar were still at the store every day, and Joe continued working right up to the day he died on May 18, 2013— on his way home from the store. During the Second World War, Oscar, who had a heart condition, helped his parents on the home front while Joe joined the navy as a decoder. After the war, he studied accounting and he and Oscar kept the store running after their father's death in 1944. A framed photo of Joe in uniform hangs with his medals near the checkout today, a reminder both of his service and the only period of his life when he travelled for any length of time. History in the Making Cantor's Quality Meats & Groceries grew from humble beginnings Page 2

• Cover