Kollin Schmalenberg is a lab scientist-turned-businessman who is very happily learning the ropes as the new owner of M&M Food Mart. He’s hoping his enthusiasm for the product and the storefront will retain long-time customers' loyalty and bring curious new shoppers flocking.
“I’m really loving this so far,” Schmalenberg said in an interview with MooseJawToday.com. “It’s been a lot of fun. The learning curve is huge, I’ve never had to manage people before … just when I think I have things finished up, I find five more things I need to do.
“It’s good, because the more I learn, the better I can do this job.”
Schmalenberg and his wife are from Regina, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology, concentrating on cellular and molecular biology.
“I grew up in Regina,” he explained, “and we would always go to M&M Food Mart. And I grew up having, like, their peach juice, as an example. So, there’s just lots of nostalgia with that.
“And as a business model, it’s really smart. It’s all frozen food, so you’re not dealing with the same kind of sample turnover, say, where things get old and have to be discarded. Everything is frozen, so it keeps for a long, long time. And the way they flash-freeze their products, the freshness is sealed in, so you don’t lose the quality of the food, either.”
Schmalenberg has taken a temporary leave from his role at the Roy Romanow Provincial Laboratory while he sets up his new business. He half-jokingly noted that with the holiday sample season coming up, he can put his expertise in creating sterile environments to good use — particularly considering how people might be a little cautious after recent events.
“We’re going to be sampling food in the beginning of December, and that’s the first time we’ve been able to do that since before COVID,” he laughed. “It’s nice having that backwards understanding … of how viruses and bacteria and what-not affect food safety.”
The sampling promotions start Dec. 1, and Schmalenberg makes sure his team can actually make informed recommendations to their customers. That means trying the food and learning how to describe it.
“We’re not selling product we don’t know,” he said. “You can only make up stuff so much, right? You’ve got to actually be able to say, ‘this pastry has a fluffy top, with real cream and not milk powder.’”
“We come together as a team and say, ‘OK, if you were making this, how would you do it?’ And what would you pair it with, you know, how do we make a full meal out of it?”
Schmalenberg is happy with his employees, most of whom stayed on through the ownership transition. He credits assistant manager Brenda Kulach as being instrumental in helping him set things up.
“I really enjoy working here. I actually came for a part-time job,” Kulach laughed. “Now I’ve managed a transition from franchise to corporate and back to franchise, so I’ve been running the store.”
One of the things Schmalenberg wanted to highlight is M&M Food Mart’s Discover program, which brings new products out for sampling every two weeks. He buys some of the product for his staff to try, and some of the profits go to support BGC Canada.
“That’s always a good selling point, too, knowing that a portion of the proceeds goes to help underprivileged kids in the country.”
