TORONTO — Participants of this year's Canadian Produce Marketing Association retail tour, here, visited four supermarkets April 17, but after the first two stops somehow found themselves walking around a 100-year-old locomotive repair shop and Toronto's historic Maple Leaf Gardens, which was home to the National Hockey League's Maple Leafs for nearly 70 years.

The old Maple Leaf Gardens now houses a tremendous Loblaws supermarket. The store's prepared-food section — including a fresh-squeezed juice bar and a salad bar — draws many customers into the store for lunch. Néma McGlynn, the store's dietician, said that the produce department's wide selection of unique and interesting fruit and vegetables, such as green and purple cauliflower, is alluring to children and parents alike.

Baskets of Ontario-grown produce greet customers as they enter Longo's Leaside store, which occupies a building that was once a locomotive repair shop.

Néma McGlynn, the dietician at Loblaws’ Maple Leaf Gardens location in Toronto, explained how the store’s star system helps customers make healthy food choices, including selecting produce.The store's designers built upon the location's rustic look and have won three international design awards since the store opened Aug. 22, 2012. Exposed beams, incredibly high ceilings and creative lighting enhance the produce department, which features exotic and domestic product.

A Metro location in Toronto's Liberty Village neighborhood featured produce displays just inside the store's entrance. One wall contained a wide selection of fresh-cut fruit and value-added products, including ornately designed vegetable trays.

The store uses lighting and new produce tables to present product in an upscale fashion that caters to young professionals — the stores main demographic. The large organic section led to a shopper grabbing her friend and remarking, "Do you see those hothouse tomatoes? I just want to bite into one."

Another location was a well-stocked Costco in Otobicoke, ON, just outside of Toronto. The store has a walk-in cooler with an air curtain to maintain a constant temperature and keep produce fresh.

Walk-in coolers are now part of nearly every Canadian Costco, according to Brenda Nickle, country operations manager.