You may have seen her truck around town.
Bernadette Robicheau, also known as The Fish Lady, has been selling seafood in various locations out of the back of her vehicle, since 2019.
She not only sets up shop in Cole Harbour but Turo, Brookfield and Musquodoboit Harbour and says her success is “quite, something”.
“I don’t think I fully understand how much it’s grown,” says Robicheau in an interview with Acadia News. “But when I go places and I hear other people talking about it, then I kind of get the gist that …they know where to come for good seafood.”
Wherever she goes, there are lines of customers waiting to purchase what she has.
“We’re busy all the time,” says Robicheau. “Before, we’d have a day where it would be pretty slow, but we are consistently busy now.”
How it all started
Robicheau used to have a career with the Halifax Regional School Board as an administrative assistant.
She would visit friends in West Pubnico and admired the “booming” fishing community they had.
“Everything revolves around the fishery,” explains Robicheau. “I just thought it was such an independent, beautiful community. I thought…’I want in on that’.”
That’s when she took the leap to sell fish.
“When I told my husband, he thought I was crazy,” says Robicheau. “But I did it and he’s been with me every step of the way.”
She says that they started things out slow, but the business grew very, very quickly and they were rather surprised.
“Then we started investing more and more. I think slow and steady is the way do it. So, you’re not at too much risk”.
What does she have on the menu?
What The Fish Lady supplies, can change depending on the season but at the moment, there are more than two dozen products available.
Robicheau calls haddock and scallops, her “steadies”.
Other products include halibut, Atlantic salmon, mussels, soft shell clams, lobster meat, fish cakes, shrimp, smoked fish, yellowfin tuna steaks, chowder mix and more.
“Sometimes I get fresh swordfish steaks in the summer,” says Robicheau. “They’re quite popular when I get them in because I may only get them once or twice a year.”
And her suppliers are from all over the province.
“The fish coming in is mainly through Digby and Pubnico. But I have one in Sambro too.”
Last weekend, she drove to Cape Breton to get crab which sold out in Brookfield and Dartmouth.
“It’s a full 24 hours. But those are special days. We only do that twice a year and won’t do it again until next April when the season reopens,” explains Robicheau.
What’s next?
The Fish Lady has five locations but if there were “more hours in the week” she would add more.
“People are asking us all over the province to go to their communities to sell,” says Robicheau. “I’d love to have another truck and people working on it but that’s not an easy task.”
She explains it involves a lot of background work that customers don’t see. Right now, they are fulfilled.
“When you get to serve the customers, that’s the best part.”
