Borden Mercantile Co. Ltd. - Victoria, British Columbia

Chris

Borden Mercantile has a great selection of products to suit my various hobbies, from candle making supplies to soap supplies and garden equipment. Their pricing is quite reasonable and their staff are helpful when I have had to return some items due to issues on my end.

To the previous reviewer who gave Borden Mercantile a one star review, I would like to submit that you please take note of a few ideas. While I don't know you personally, you did mention that you are an experienced beeswax user, however I wanted to confirm if you are experienced primarily with pellets or with bricks. The pellets have a much different smell than the bricks. The bricks have a pleasant beeswax smell however the pellets have virtually no smell, or a slight chemical smell. This is by design due to how they are processed and if you are looking for the classic beeswax smell, please buy the bricks. Additionally, it appears in your photos that the beeswax candles may not be fully set, and from my experience with the pellets, they do look quite white before they set and even when they do set they are slightly less yellow than beeswax candles made with the bricks.

I do not work for Borden Mercantile. I am just a customer. However, I have worked with them long enough to know they would love to make things right for you if you would just reach out to them. They will set you up with the correct product.

I quickly reviewed your review history and the majority of your reviews appear to be one star reviews. Please consider the impact your review has on small local businesses. Had you reached out to them, I am positive they would set you up with what you need, regardless of whether they mislabeled a product or if it was due to inexperience working with pellets versus bricks.

Thank you,

Chris

S. W.

I have been working with beeswax for years. The smell is a dead giveaway, and when I melted my pellets this am I was highly disappointed to notice lack of honey, but another was odor ( soy, I think ) in it's place.
As you can see in the photo it's a creamy colour. It is likely this is mislabeled blended wax.
I'll never buy a bag here again without cracking it open to smell it's authenticity!
What a bummer on Christmas, it's the main reason I make beeswax candles.
Buyer be aware.
Bees wax should be a mustard yellow, and smell like honey. 😞

S W.

Update: still coming here happily to get my supplies. Found another hard to find product I had been looking for, for some time. Now I have one stop shop, Borden is awesome!!! 👍😃

Asked about a product, but they didn’t carry it at the time. Months later they emailed me to tell me they started carrying the product, and gave me all the details on the on it via email. I went in to get some and the employees were very helpful and friendly. The product was very good quality and reasonable in price. Overall I’m impressed with the stock they carry, the great customer service, and that they followed up after so long, I had forgotten! I will be back 🙂👍

Rodrigo F.

Too be honest I was a bit confused. Is this a pet shop or a garden store? Seems to have a mix of both. I went for the gardening stuff and I was able to find what I needed. However, store was very dirty and a lot of the items had a thick layer of dust in them. Staff was very friendly.

Jericho

Excellent staff, and excellent products. Jeff is incredibly knowledgeable and very helpful. He makes it a pleasure to shop here every time.

Susan B.

We go here for supplies for our pet and for assorted nuts and seeds and Suet blocks for the birds and squirrels. Got lots of material on gardening too. Good place.

Dylan B.

Always surprised by what I can find here. Great for pet supplies and hobbies. Lived here a long time and never knew they existed.

Rocky G.

This place has products for farms and gardens that can’t be found anywhere else. The staff know the inventory and have always been able to answer my questions The 3 store cats were a nice experience for my girls.