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Best of the City: Terminal Park is winner central

In Nanaimo's Terminal Park mall, you’ll find four stores voted most popular among readers.
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Zena Bentley

Josh Nesvog, 25, breezed through Nesvog Meat and Sausage Company, smiling widely as he greeted employees serving customers behind the meat counter and others bustling in the backroom.

He’s spent the last decade in the Terminal Park store, owned by his parents Ingrid and Arnold Nesvog, moving up from a clean-up kid to a butcher and store manager. His younger brothers, Cameron and Connor, also work in the business.

Shoppers can see the family’s story on the wall of the store – including a picture of a young Josh, which he has pointed out to inquiring customers before.

“It’s just cool to bring them in and almost become part of our family,” he said.

Nesvog dishes out the best, according to shoppers, who ranked the store along with its Terminal Park neighbours Charlie Brown’s Health Foods, Seadrift Fish Market and Cobs Bread, as being at top of their class.

A decade ago, Josh remembers being next to a dollar store, vacuum shop and post office. Today his family’s business is surrounded by specialty shops.

“It’s cool to have seen it develop into what it is,” said Nesvog, who knows the owners of the stores and thinks its awesome to see passionate people doing what they love and thriving.

Logan White, whose family has owned Charlie Brown’s since 1971, believes the winning ingredients are quality and service. The specialty stores are good at what they do so there’s no need to go anywhere else – it’s a one-stop destination, he said.

For example, he said Nesvog does an amazing job with meat.

“You can’t really compare the supermarkets and what they’re doing to what an actual butcher is doing,” he said. “People really appreciate that.”

White’s family has been in business for 45 years and has developed good customer relationships, he said of what sets the store apart, adding that people come to health food stores for supplement and dietary advice and problems and they are there to listen and use their knowledge.

“We have quite a few staff members here that’ve worked here over 20 years.”

Charlie Brown’s offers natural and gluten-free foods, supplements and produce.

A few stores down from Charlie Brown’s is Cobs Bread, a franchise that opened six years ago in Terminal Park. It’s not uncommon to see lineups out the door of people waiting to buy loaves of bread, scones and buns.

Everything made is fresh, the store is open daily except for Christmas and New Year’s Day and what isn’t sold goes to local organizations, said Zena Bentley, assistant manager, who says the team there isn’t ‘normal co-workers’ but like a big family.

“That’s what the public enjoys when they walk into the store. It’s a different feeling, different atmosphere,” she said.

As for the strip mall – it’s popular.

“Lots of people coming into my store call it their one-stop strip because they've got the fresh bread, they've got the meat next door, they've got the seafood and then they've got the liquor store,” she said. “It works out well for everyone.”

She said it’s awesome that they are collecting an award for being the best.

Cobs Bread won Best Bakery, while Seadrift Fish Market won Best Place to Buy Seafood and Charlie Brown’s Health Foods won Best Vitamin Health Food store. Nesvog took home Best Deli and Best Place to Buy Meat.