Tofino Shopping: Groceries, Essentials and Local Crafts

The Tofino Co-op Food Store at 140 First Street (phone 250-725-3226) is the only full grocery store in town. It has a bakery, a deli, a meat counter and a produce counter, and it covers the everyday basics you would expect: bread, milk, eggs, fresh fruit and vegetables, pantry goods, snacks and drinks. It opens seven days a week and closes only two days a year, Christmas Day and New Year's Day, so you can shop on arrival even on a weekend or holiday.

Two things to know before you go. First, the Co-op does not offer plastic shopping bags. Bring reusable bags from home or buy a reusable or paper bag at the till.

If you are driving in, keeping a couple of bags in the car is the easy answer. Second, because this is the only full grocery store in a remote town, selection is smaller and prices are higher than a city supermarket. Tourists, surfers and residents all shop the same aisles, and summer weekends can thin out the shelves by evening.

Shop early in the day if you want the full choice.

Be realistic about what the store will stock. Standard groceries, yes. Wide ranges of international ingredients, bulk discounts, large-format packaging or a big health-food aisle, not stated, and not something a store this size can promise.

If your trip depends on a specific diet staple, bring it with you. Our tofino costs page has more on what a Tofino trip generally costs, and the plan hub covers the rest of your pre-trip prep.

There is no second supermarket. No large grocery chain operates a second full-size store in Tofino, and no big-box retailer or shopping mall is documented in town. If you are used to choosing between three supermarkets, adjust your expectations: one store, one trip, done.

On the way in along Highway 4 you pass through Port Alberni, which has larger stores, but that is outside the scope of the sourced facts for this page, so check current options yourself before counting on a stock-up stop.

Pharmasave Tofino operates at 131 First Street, phone 250-725-4949. It is directly across the block from the Co-op, so a grocery run and a pharmacy run are the same stop. Tourism Tofino also lists Epic Pharmacy as a Tofino business, giving you a second pharmacy option in town.

No address for Epic Pharmacy was confirmed in the listings used for this page, so ask locally or check the Tourism Tofino directory for its current location.

If you take prescription medication, bring enough for your whole trip plus a margin for delays. A town of this size has pharmacies, but refills of specific prescriptions can depend on stock and prescriber availability. The same logic applies to items like sunscreen, insect repellent and specific first-aid supplies: buy what you can in advance and treat the town stores as top-up options.

For alcohol, Maquinna Liquor Store at 120 First Street is the option in the downtown core, on the same block as the Co-op and Pharmasave. If you want to try local beer instead, note that the Tofino Brewing Company has been pouring since 2011 and pours at its own brewery rather than through the liquor store. For eating and drinking out, see where to eat.

One more essential worth flagging: cash and cards work normally in town, and the essentials listed here are all within a few minutes' walk of each other. The tofino map page shows how compact the downtown core is, and getting around tofino covers walking and parking if you are arriving by car.

Per Tourism Tofino's own shopping guidance, the independent shops and galleries concentrate along First Street and Campbell Street and along the waterfront. That makes browsing simple: park once or walk from your accommodation and cover the core in an hour or two. The streets are close together, and the waterfront side adds an ocean backdrop to the walk.

Tofino sits within the traditional territory of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation, and the wider Clayoquot Sound region is shared among the Tla-o-qui-aht, Ahousaht and Hesquiaht First Nations. First Nations art and design are part of the local craft scene here. The best-known gallery name in town is the Roy Henry Vickers Gallery.

We cover it in full, including its own hours and details, on our Roy Henry Vickers Gallery page.

What kind of things can you expect to find along these streets? Local and regional art, photography and prints, handmade jewellery and crafts, clothing and outdoor gear aimed at the surf and rainforest lifestyle, and small gift and souvenir shops. This is a town of independent storefronts, not chains.

Hours vary shop by shop and are not documented in the sources behind this page, so treat any particular store's opening times as something to confirm on the door or by phone.

If you are shopping for gifts with a local angle, a few honest tips. Buy work made or designed by regional artists where you can, and ask sellers about the makers. Expect resort-town pricing: this is a remote destination with a short, busy season and high shipping costs, and prices reflect that.

And if a gallery or shop looks closed mid-afternoon in the quiet season, it probably is. Winter in Tofino runs on reduced hours across the board.

Summer is the busiest window for downtown Tofino, which is also when most shops keep their longest hours. Tofino sees its driest, warmest stretch of weather from roughly June through August, and that is when the sidewalks along First Street fill and the galleries stay open latest into the evening. Outside that window, particularly from November through February when the town's annual rain falls heaviest, expect shorter posted hours and a few storefronts closed on weekdays.

If a specific gallery or craft shop is the whole point of your visit, a quick call ahead before you walk over saves a wasted trip, since none of the individual shop hours are published in the sources behind this page.

Bring from home: prescription medications and anything your trip depends on, specific dietary staples, reusable shopping bags, sunscreen and insect repellent in season, spare batteries and chargers, and any specialty cooking ingredients you plan to use. Rain gear deserves its own mention. Tofino records about 3,271 mm of rain a year (ECCC climate normal), and the coastal rainforest climate means you will use rain layers year-round, so arrive with them rather than shopping for them at resort-town prices.

Buy here: everyday groceries at the Co-op, beer and wine at Maquinna Liquor Store, toiletries and pharmacy basics at Pharmasave, and gifts, art and crafts from the downtown shops. If you forgot something ordinary, the downtown core will almost certainly have it. If you forgot something specialized, you may be out of luck until you can reach a larger centre.

Plan your timing too. Do a main grocery shop on arrival day rather than counting on late-evening stock, especially on summer weekends when the single store serves a visitor population far larger than the town's 2,516 residents. The where to stay page can help you pick accommodation with kitchen access, which changes how much you need to buy.

If you are cooking at a campsite, our tofino camping guide pairs well with this one.