Pusateri’s Fine Foods recently reopened its food hall location at Saks Fifth Avenue Queen Street in the CF Toronto Eaton Centre.
Last month Pusateri’s welcomed customers to explore its new developments, which includes a wider variety of produce selection, grab and go meals, and new pantry items – bringing a whole new shopping experience to customers.
“As people are returning to work, we are looking forward to opening further. This new phase of reopening is almost half the footprint of the store. We are really focused on making the store much more shoppable, not only for people who are there for lunch or a quick grab and go options, but also for people who want to do a little bit of shopping after work or during their lunch break,” says Paolo Pusateri, the Marketing Manager of Pusateri’s.
With its reopening, Pusateri’s will be adding more selection for customers, such as offering an assortment of fresh vegetables and fruits.
“We significantly expanded with an assortment of fresh fruits and vegetables. Mostly fruits and they will be cut up along with prepared vegetables, so they are ready to take home and easy for people to cook dinner. We have also expanded our packaged prepared food offering with ready to eat, ready to heat, and ready to warm up offerings.”
Pusateri’s has also expanded its pantry selection to include more choices of canned, dry goods, pasta sauce, olive oil, drinks, and snacks. There is also a new bakery where customers now have access to Pusateri’s full pastry department at this location. This will include fresh pastries, single serve options, cakes, pies, tarts, as well as a small assortment of fresh bread.
“When customers come into the store, the first thing they will see is a new area called Ida’s Picks, which is a curated section of shelf items, mostly pantry items, ranging from olive oils to confectionary items. It is a one stop shop for a curated list of the best and some faviourites by Ida Pusateri, who runs the company. It is an impressive display area, and it is now a permanent display so this will be something customers can always look forward to and it is one of the first things they see when they entre the store. It is a great pause and a shopping section for people to pick up some key items without having to go throughout the whole store.”
This location has also reopened La Cucina Express, which is along the perimeter of the store where customers can find a variety of ready to go foods such as its gourmet grilled cheese and soup concept, and new favourites such as salads and a hot table. The store will also include a cafe.
“There is more to explore. If customers have visited us before September 8th, it was a very limited assortment. But now, we have a more robust lunch offering and we have a much more shoppable assortment on the inside of the store to help people build their basket and bring things home to make dinner and stock their pantry.”
As more people return to office and traffic returns to normal prior to the pandemic, Pusateri’s Saks Food Hall will continue to open more services at the store and will bring back more products. Pusateri said the company has some exciting new expansion plans customers can look forward to soon, although the details of the expansion plans will go unknown for a few weeks.
