As someone who grew up in flat-as-heck Southern Ontario, my mind was blown the first time I touched down in Vancouver and saw mountains everywhere.
And yet, while I marvelled and raved and filled an entire disposable camera roll with photos, my local friends were like “meh” because, to them, snow-capped peaks are just a thing that exist in the sky all the time.
A U.S. woman visiting Toronto recently had a similar experience when stumbling upon a Bulk Barn store for the first time, and watching her react to the wonders inside will remind you how lucky we all are to have Canada’s top dispenser of loose candy and oat flour in our lives.
Michigan State University student Mason Tannar was in Toronto this past weekend having a blast, by the looks of it, checking out our city’s many sports bars, nightclubs and other sights someone visiting the 6ix for the first time might want to take in.
She may not have been expecting Bulk Barn to be one of the highlights of her trip, but a TikTok video uploaded yesterday suggests that it was one of the coolest things she found during her trip to Canada (which is fair, because Canada.)
“Guys, what the f*ck is a Bulk Barn? Because my mind is blown,” says Tannar (@yunggravysfuturewife) while gazing in awe at the dizzying array of products all around her.
“You literally just take out macaroni and cheese, chicken soup mix, cereal,” she says while her camera pans around to show bins of loose powders and tubs of goo. “Lookit! You can just get lemon pie [filling], dulce de leche, by itself.
“This is wild,” the young woman continues, panning to her equally-astonished boyfriend. “Oh, I f*cking love Canada.”
A Michigan woman is going viral this week after having her mind blown by a Toronto Bulk Barn store – 📹 yunggravysfuturewife https://t.co/zXL3Yp5ylL #Toronto #BulkBarn pic.twitter.com/uaflD04e7W
— blogTO (@blogTO) November 15, 2022
The video, which has now been seen more than 1.4 million times on TikTok, only gets better as Tannar explores the store and discovers things like Turkish apricots, chocolate macaroons, M&Ms, chocolate-covered marshmallows, mini peanut butter cups, caramel corn and various salty snack mixes. You know, all the good stuff.
“Oh my god, this is the coolest place I’ve ever been in my life,” she says. “OMG, I am literally… my jaw is on the floor. This is the craziest place I’ve ever been.”
Tannar also notes while looking at various salts, spices and flour mixes that the bulk model of taking only what you need is “the smartest sh*t I’ve ever seen.”
After literally squealing with delight over red velvet cake mix and dried apple rings, she concludes the video with “I’m f*cking mind blown. MIND BLOWN.”
The Michigan resident’s sense of newfound joy is infectious, prompting thousands of comments — many from Canadians who say they now appreciate Bulk Barn even more, knowing that it’s not available everywhere.
“I’m not shocked that Bulk Barn isn’t a global experience but I am shocked that you don’t have an American alternative,” wrote one commenter.
While bulk bin sections can be found at many grocery stores in the U.S., but there is no American equivalent to Bulk Barn in terms of its scale and ubiquity. BB has been around since 1982 and currently has more than 275 stores selling over 3,000 products across Canada.
“I loved experiencing this through your eyes,” commented one TikTok user in response to Tannar’s video. “As a Canadian I just realized how much I’ve taken Bulk Barn for granted.”
“I thought everyone had a Bulk Barn or something similar,” wrote another. “Now I’m proud of our Bulk Barn.”
