'It started with Grandma's jars'

Turn off Glover Road onto Mavis Avenue in Fort Langley and look for the blue storefront between T.A.P. and Little Donkey. Inside, the shelves hold jars: clear ones, blue ones, tall ones and squat ones, with lids to match.

The woman behind them is Marie Bregg, who calls herself the shop's “Chief Jar Enthusiast” and goes by The Jar Girl online. On the shop's home page she tells the origin story in one line: “It started with Grandma's jars. When my husband's grandmother passed down her mason jars, I fell for their history.”

From rented jars to a 600 per cent week

Marie and her husband, Jesse, started out using jars for everything. “Eating. Drinking. Storing. Decorating.” By 2013 they had “amassed a rather large collection” and began renting jars out for special events. Marie crocheted sleeves and designed glass tumblers, selling them at markets around the Lower Mainland.

Somewhere along the way the hobby became a low-waste mission. The couple say they have been “swappin' plastic for glass since 2014.” In their words, “In 2015, Mason Jar Merchant was born,” and the online shop followed two years later.

Then came 2020, when home canners across North America could not find lids. Marie told CNN that October that demand jumped in mid-August: “Our sales basically went up 600% that week and haven't dropped since.”

Vintage glass, checked for chips

The shop's boldest claim is about scale. The home page calls it “The world's largest vintage jar collection, from the 1880s to brand new.” We can't verify the world record part, but the in-store shelves make the point.

Every jar is “hand-inspected, washed, and labelled with the lid it fits,” and the listings promise jars “Checked for chips, cracks and rust.” Old Canadian Gem jars get their own lid size, which is the kind of detail that sends people here with a mystery jar in hand.

Tumblers with opinions

The other half of the business is the tumbler. A mason jar gets a printed straw lid, and the lids are “printed in-house, applied by hand and drilled in Fort Langley.” Designs run from book lovers to pet people to teachers, and the shop says it has made its tumblers in-house for 11 years.

Customers write back. One review on the shop's site reads simply: “I use it everyday and think of my grandmother.”

Bring the jar nobody can find a lid for

Hours are simple: every day, 11am to 5pm. Online orders can be picked up free at the shop.

Got an odd jar in the cupboard with no lid? Bring it to Mavis Avenue. Every jar on the shelves is labelled with the lid it fits, so someone there will know.

Photos: Mason Jar Merchant.