If you have ever circled the Freestone Produce parking lot on a Saturday and given up, the photos making the rounds this week will make you genuinely happy.
Freestone Produce the family-owned wholesale produce market that has been feeding northeast Calgary since 2010 is moving into a massive new space just down the street from its existing location at 2828 32 Ave NE. New exterior signage is up on the building. A construction boom lift is still parked outside. No official opening date has been announced.
The new space is a former big-box retail building significantly larger than the current location and sitting on a parking lot that could swallow the old one several times over. The first comment on the photo Freestone's followers posted online was "So much parking!!" It got liked immediately.
One reviewer who had already visited the new space put it plainly: "They've just moved but parking is still an issue though better than it was." Given how extreme the parking situation was at the old location, "better" is already a win.
What Freestone actually is and why it matters
Freestone is not a grocery store in the conventional sense. It is a wholesale produce distributor that opened its doors to the public and in doing so became one of the most popular affordable food destinations in northeast Calgary.
The business supplies fresh fruits, vegetables, and dry goods to restaurants, caterers, organizations, and events across the city. But it also sells directly to anyone who walks in, at prices built for commercial buyers rather than retail margins. That gap is the entire reason the store exists in the public consciousness. A flat of strawberries, a case of mangoes, tomatoes in every variety imaginable all at prices that consistently undercut conventional grocery chains by a meaningful margin.
The store has over 105,000 Facebook followers. For context, that is a remarkable number for a single-location produce market that has never run a television ad. That following was built entirely through word of mouth particularly among newcomers to Calgary who recognized the wholesale model, families cooking for large households, and anyone who figured out that splitting a bulk order with a neighbour makes the produce bill drop considerably.
The parking problem in the words of the people who experienced it
Nearly every review the store has ever received mentions parking. Not as a footnote. As the main thing.
"Parking is an adventure." Yellow Pages review.
"Other than trying to find a place to park, this place is awesome." another.
"One thing was the parking, but that's all." another.
The store is simply too popular for the lot it occupies. On busy weekends the parking fills completely and spills onto surrounding streets. For customers with mobility issues, families loading up cases of produce, or anyone who cannot find a spot, it has been a genuine barrier one that regulars have accepted because the prices are worth it but that has kept some new customers away.
The new space solves this immediately. A large surface lot. A big-box footprint. Room to actually move.
Where it is coming from
The building Freestone is moving into is a former Toys R Us location in northeast Calgary the same chain that We covered when the Macleod Trail location closed on Boxing Day 2025. Read that story at culturealberta.com/articles/calgary-says-goodbye-to-toys-r-us-the-end-of-an-era-on-macleod-trail
The northeast Calgary Toys R Us had already closed between August and September 2025, part of the chain's wider collapse. Toys R Us Canada filed for creditor protection in February 2026 after shrinking from 81 locations across the country to a fraction of that. The building has been sitting empty since. For a produce market that was bursting out of its walls next door, the timing worked out.
What we still do not know
Freestone has not announced an official opening date. Construction equipment still visible in recent photos suggests finishing work is ongoing. No public statement about the new space has been released what the expanded offering will look like, whether the existing location will remain open, or when the doors will open to customers.
For updates follow Freestone Produce on Facebook at facebook.com/freestoneproduce or visit freestoneproduce.com.
Sources:
Freestone Produce, official website and Facebook page (freestoneproduce.com)
Facebook, Freestone Produce new location photo and comments, June 2026
Malls and Retail Wiki, Toys R Us Canada Locations (malls.fandom.com)
Culture Alberta, Calgary Says Goodbye to Toys R Us, December 27, 2025 (culturealberta.com)
Yellow Pages, Freestone Produce reviews (yellowpages.ca)
Sulekha, Freestone Produce reviews (sulekha.com)
