The Adonis Experience

A journey through the land of flavors

Shopping for your groceries in ADONIS supermarkets is an experience in itself. Visit our supermarkets, inspired by Middle Eastern, Lebanese, and Mediterranean influences, and experience the warm welcome you will receive from our employees. Our exotic variety of foods will make your taste buds salivate as you stroll through our aisles full of flavors and experience our counters filled with culinary delights.

If you are not a connoisseur of Greek feta cheese, it is not a problem. The advice of our staff and perhaps other customers will amaze you. In the fruits and vegetables section, our staff will inform you of fresh flavors and spices. Our experts in the nuts and olives section share their culinary skills with a friendly and genuine attitude. Our meat counter and deli staff will inspire you and guide you in the preparation of delicious recipes. Come taste the freshness of our pastries. Discover our variety of ingredients from the grocery store, carefully chosen to enhance all your favorite dishes.

You will experience ADONIS through the quality of the products offered in our well-stocked grocery shelves, but mostly, thanks to our warm staff, you can experience a true gastronomic journey that will inspire the senses. Let yourself be captivated by their friendly personality, charm and warmth. Experiencing ADONIS is a bit like discovering a Middle Eastern "zouk", a grocery store with a thousand treasures; a treasure trove worthy of Ali Baba!

The company’s philosophy is to continually improve customer service while promoting interaction between customers and employees in various departments. Our food experts are happy to cultivate long-term relationships with you, our valued customers.

Our Values

Since its creation, ADONIS’s team has been inspired by the same passion and the same values. Throughout time, our enterprise’s culture was developed based on these convictions. Since the early days, every new team member would be included in a work environment where values are human and harmonious.

Quality relations

The authenticity of human relationships with customers and co-workers has been the key to ADONIS’s quality service. In each branch, all employees are driven by passion and honesty in their work relationships. Food is a basic need, which is why every customer deserves to be served in a warm environment. Therefore, it is ADONIS’s duty to ensure that each customer experiences great service, in every grocery store.

A Taste for Excellence

The management team and personnel at ADONIS are driven by a taste for excellence in all aspects of their work. Our natural penchant for a job done to perfection reflected in the products that we offer, the service that we provide and even the architecture of our stores is our trademark. We strive for perfection in the quality and freshness of our food products. We strive for excellence in our service by employing dedicated and passionate personnel. In order to welcome our clients to our stores, ADONIS does all that it can to create a warm and inviting atmosphere with its impeccable decor. Over one hundred employees in every store are trained on a regular basis by experts in customer relations who accompany us in our objective to offer superior quality customer service while surpassing the highest hygiene and safety standards. The training of personnel at ADONIS cultivates this drive for excellence.

Innovation and transcendence

Every employee, every expert and every director is motivated by the idea of always doing better, of improving and surpassing themselves. We are always looking to expand our know-how in the food industry. We explore the marketplace on a regular basis with the goal of adding new, original and exclusive products to our shelves. We are developing new production technologies in order to offer products with an international flavor made here in Quebec. At ADONIS, we always want to improve our stores and enhance our clients’ visiting experience. We passionately encourage new ideas and concepts. Our employees improve and surpass themselves day after day allowing us to offer superior quality products and service.

Sharing & community

As success knocks at our doors, it is equally important to share that success with the community around us. At ADONIS, we understand the importance of giving back to society, be it in the form of financial support, a helping hand or food products. We are attentive to the needs of the people who have supported us throughout our history, such as cultural and community associations, foundations and community organizations that we warmly thank.

Our Mission

In all of its actions and decisions, ADONIS strives to set the highest standards in terms of variety, quality and freshness.

Offer clients a wide variety of fresh and superior quality products, at the best price

ADONIS features a large assortment of products on its shelves and countertops. Our personnel continually explore international markets with the goal of identifying original products as well as new and exotic flavours for our clients. In order to bring the best possible freshness to these exclusive products, our partners produce foods here in Quebec based on international recipes. For example, cheeses unique to Greece and Lebanon.

We are there at every stage, from choosing foods abroad to the selection of suppliers, transport, inventory management, and furnishing the shelves and countertops. ADONIS pays attention to maintaining the best quality and freshness of its products all the way to your plate.

Our Story

1976: From the land of cedars to "la belle province"

In 1976 brothers, Elie and Jamil Cheaib arrived in Montreal with their friend Georges Ghrayeb. Originally, from Damour, a coastal town in Lebanon, they are entrepreneurs at heart and certainly have a good head for business. Although being newcomers to the country, the Cheaib brothers were not new to the food market. In Lebanon, the Cheaib family owned a business in their small village, about twenty kilometers from Beirut, in addition to operating a farm where they grew bananas, oranges and onions. From a young age, the nine children in the family had learned to work hard. Due to the Lebanese civil war, it became vital to find a more hospitable environment in which to live. Canada would become the land of hospitality and business development.

1978: On Faillon Street

Inspired by their roots in the Middle East and the idea of bringing their culture to a new world, the Cheaib brothers and their friend Georges Ghrayeb developed the idea of trading typical food of the Middle East, right here in North America. The first milestone that truly marked the beginning of their adventure in Quebec is the acquisition, in 1978, of a small 1000 ft² store on Faillon Street, at the corner of Lajeunesse Street, in Montreal. It was in the apartment upstairs from the store where the two partners had lived the first years after their arrival. Only a table, three mattresses and a refrigerator would furnish this apartment at that time. The three young men worked tirelessly, 7 days a week. It is from this moment on that the store was renamed ADONIS.

1984/2004: Expansion

  • 1984: The store’s surface area grows from 6000 ft²to 10,000 ft² (enlarging the warehouse)
  • 1991: The central store on Acadie Boulevard grows from 12,000 ft² to 20,000 ft²
  • 1991: Opening of a new 6000 ft² store on des Sources Boulevard, Dollard-des-Ormeaux
  • 1998: Early opening of the 18,000 ft² store on Curé-Labelle Boulevard, Laval
  • 2002: Relocation of the 24 000 ft² ADONIS on Sauvé Street, Ville Saint-Laurent
  • 2004: Opening of the 29,000 ft² ADONIS on des Sources Boulevard

2011: Partnership with Metro

On October 26, 2011, ADONIS signs a partnership agreement with Metro. Elie Cheaib, Jamil Cheaib and Georges Ghrayeb continue to manage ADONIS independently in order to maintain the family business philosophy established. The markets continue to be administered by the family: cousins, aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters. The family now extends well beyond Cheaib and Ghrayeb. It now includes more than 1,000 dedicated employees in five locations. Among ADONIS’s staff, you will find employees who have been working with the company for 10, 20 and even 30 years. The founding family occasionally welcomes specialty grocer’s families coming from abroad.

Today: The recipe for success

ADONIS’s remarkable success in such a demanding market surprised an entire industry. The quality of products and services increased the popularity of ADONIS at all locations. Some say that the excellent customer service and the exquisite tasting shish-taouk have been the basic ingredients of ADONIS’s success.

The promise

Backed by a team of careful management, ADONIS continues to excel and makes every effort to distinguish itself with a warm welcome, unparalleled customer service, and diverse and high quality products offered at competitive prices.