Popbox Mrkt

While working as a visual artist, Popbox Mrkt owner Attila Szanyi often reflected on the food industry. That's because, when he wasn't perfecting his oil paintings, the Montreal transplant was working as a server to make ends meet. He’d get off a shift, and the only place to grab some nosh would be a convenience store. “They’re vice peddlers,” says Attila, who sees convenience stores as being out of touch with the way modern city-dwellers eat.  “People want to eat good food; it doesn’t have to be crazy healthy, but it should still be nourishing,” he says.

What Attila was observing was the huge gulf between health food stores and corner stores packed to the brim with preservative-filled junk. He wanted to situate himself in a sweet spot between the two by offering premium products as well as pantry staples, and even household goods such as detergent and diapers. The catch: he’d offer a huge variety of goods, but he’d be particularly selective about which brands made it onto his shelves. After some serious brain storming, he settled on the perfect business trifecta: a combination upscale convenience store–health food store–café. And so, Popbox Mrkt was born.