Ronnie's Groceries: What a small store in a tiny outport can tell you about food security

Ronnie's Groceries is the last of its kind.

Not the last rural grocery store in Newfoundland and Labrador, but the last to service the small coastal community of Gaultois. With a dwindling population, Gaultois is on Newfoundland's south coast, and is accessible only by helicopter or a ferry that runs daily from the nearby town of Hermitage.

Ronald Simms continues to operate the grocery store that he opened in Gaultois nearly 35 years ago. Before going into business for himself, he worked in the town's fish plant, which was a going concern until it closed, just over 30 years ago. 

"I'd say when I started my store there was close to over 700 people then [in Gaultois]," he said.

"Now, I don't think there's 80 people here."

When Ronnie's Groceries first opened, it was one of a few stores in the community. But when the Fishery Products International plant closed in 1990 amid steep cuts to cod fishing quotas, Gaultois's population went into decline.

In time, Simms became the community's sole vendor. It's a familiar story in a largely rural province that depends on local stores to fill the gaps where large chains will not operate, and where the food network is spread thin because of the expensive challenges of shipping food over long distances to few people. 

"It's been a bit hard in the community where I'm too: right now I've got competition where half the people now will go to Hermitage to get their groceries," he said.

"I've got a few regular customers, but that's about all."

According to Dr. Catherine Mah, the Canada research chair in promoting healthy populations at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Newfoundland and Labrador has a higher proportion of rural convenience stores than any other province in Canada. 

In addition to being an associate professor in the school of health administration, Mah runs the food policy lab, a research program that looks at how environment and public policy affect health.

When it comes to food security in Newfoundland and Labrador, said Mah, two of the biggest factors are economics and geography.

"When we're talking about household food insecurity in rural areas, it's not only about a level of income — of course poverty and child poverty are major drivers — but household food insecurity reflects a broader and more comprehensive state of what people have access to in terms of economic and financial assets."

According to Mah, that includes things like seasonality of work, pay schedules and inconsistent employment in rural communities.

Many of these economic barriers to food are amplified by geography, with communities spread far apart and supply chains tenuous. But for many in the province it's not just about the kilometres, said Mah; it's what's available.

"It's about the mix of stores in any particular region. It's about the transportation infrastructure in terms of how consumers get to stores but also, conversely, for store owners and managers about how they're able to get the food supply and stock their store really well," she said. 

Shelves lined with pantry staples 

The shelves of Ronald Simms's store are lined mostly with pantry staples like dried pasta and canned soups, and a selection of candy behind the counter, as well as sodas in a humming, red fridge.

"I've got a little bit of what you'd call a little bit of everything," he said, "from dry goods to paint."

There's some fresh produce on the shelves, but he said it can be hard to bring in and even harder to keep.

Simms gets his freight shipped in from Grand Falls, nearly 200 kilometres away, before being transported to Gaultois via the ferry.

"It costs us maybe $30-$35 every week just to get it," he said.

"I can get fruits and vegetables, but I find lots of times they don't last very long; I lose a bit of it on the end of it."

Things like the ferry schedule and weather conditions all play a part, so for the most part the store focuses on dry goods with longer shelf lives.

According to Simms, however, many in the community are focusing on their bottom dollar, which means spending more of their own time for marginally cheaper groceries in Hermitage.

"People now are after the one thing: they got to have everything on special," said Simms.

Where residents of Gaultois aren't charged to use the ferry, many opt to buy their groceries from stores in Hermitage where they can get items at a discounted price.

According to Mah, Newfoundland and Labrador boasts the highest proportion of independent food stores anywhere in the country, making stores like Ronnie's Groceries, as well as those in Hermitage, an important feature of how people in the province get their food.

"We know that independent stores, by virtue of economies of scale, really, don't necessarily have access to the same scope of supply chains that larger stores or chains and franchises are able to access."

By the time products get to the consumer they can come with inflated costs and, in regards to fresh produce, may have a drastically reduced shelf life.

Shelf-stable food is often less nutritious

For both consumers and store owners, there's less financial risk in focusing on longer-lasting, though potentially less nutritious, shelf-stable food.

When it comes to Newfoundland and Labrador's community health, said Mah, that has consequences.

"There is an inadequate intake of nutritious foods, but also an excess intake of less healthy food options," she said. "Top among them are things like sodium and sugar-sweetened beverages."

Newfoundland and Labrador has consistently had some of the country's highest rates of obesity and diabetes, with provincial health-care professionals pointing to poor nutrition and food insecurity, notably in central Newfoundland.

According to Mah, addressing economic access to food and household food insecurity is the first step to improving community health.

"You can live on top of the most beautiful grocery store in the world, fully stocked with all healthy foods, and if you don't have a dollar in your pocket, you're not going to be able to shop there," she said.

Those economic barriers can have far-reaching consequences, however; she noted that individual health and nutrition is tied to other areas of daily life.

"Individuals, households, as well as our broader public, like our provinces, depend on the health of the community in order to do all of the other things that we want to achieve in life: to have vibrant communities, to have prosperous communities," she said.

To that extent, the role of the rural store is more than just a business selling goods and services; rather, it acts as a touchstone for the broader community.

"It's really a special thing in rural communities, often because the owner of the store, the manager, the employees, are also directly members of that community and may have been so for a long, long time," said Mah.

"Those personal relationships, and that idea of customer service that really drives a lot of smaller businesses, is connected to the community in … an important way."

'I've got to be at something'

For Ronald Simms, his grocery store helps him keep busy in a community where work has steadily been more and more scarce over the last three decades. 

"I'm not the type of guy that likes to sit around the house; I've got to be at something. I've always been a workaholic," he said.

"The thing about [running a store] is just selling enough items to keep yourself going, just to pay your bills and everything."

Simms gets some help from the community where he can, including hauling his stock from the ferry.

WATCH | From the archives, a Land & Sea episode on the closure of the Gaultois FPI plant in 1990: 

"I got a side-by-side —I don't bother using the truck anymore because the roads are so damn bad — so I was using the side-by-side, but I've got she in the repair-shop right now," he said in a recent interview. 

"A friend of mine hauls my groceries for me until I get her back."

Though he admitted that running a rural grocery store wasn't the most sustainable business these days, Simms said he can't imagine the alternative.

"I had plenty of options to give it up," he said, "but like I told you, I got to have something to do because I've always been used to working."

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