When Thrifty Foods opened in Sapperton, it was like a little piece of the island life Jen Arbo grew up with had come to New Westminster.
But it may soon be washed away.
Canada’s competition watchdog has ordered Sobeys to sell 23 grocery stores in Western Canada – including the Thrifty Foods in New Westminster – before it will approve a $5.8-billion purchase of grocer Safeway Canada.
“It’s super sad. I got it in my neighbourhood and now they are ripping it away,” says Arbo, who does approximately 75 per cent of her shopping at the East Columbia Street store.
“We do the Costco run, and occasionally, I will hit up Superstore. Save-On is the other place I go to. I actually have a real dislike of Safeway,” says Arbo, who owns a marketing and communications consulting company called Hyack Interactive.
In 2007, Thrifty Foods became a division of Sobeys Inc. There are eight Thrifty Foods locations in Greater Vancouver and 29 locations on the Island as of November 2012.
Arbo questions why New Westminster’s lone, two-year-old Thrifty’s is being shut down, while the city’s three Safeway stores and another on North Road at Lougheed Town Centre will stay open.
“Why are they not closing one of the four Safeways that are in relatively close proximity?” she asks. “I don’t understand why the one Thrifty’s for miles around, which has already done this fabulous job of ingratiating itself into the community, … is the one being closed?”
“It’s not a matter of, ‘There’s four stores, pick one,’” says Sobeys spokesperson Andrew Walker. “(The competition bureau) look(s) at the markets in great detail, and they do an incredible amount of research collecting market information.”
The bureau talks to a variety of stakeholders to understand the market, and its focus is to maintain competition in the market, Walker says.
“The consent agreement is actually very clear with the Competition Bureau, we have to sell them, and we have to sell them to a viable grocery retailer who will operate them as a grocery store,” he says.
But the location will “cease to exist as a Thrifty’s,” says Walker.
“Whoever purchases it, it will become their store and they will operate it as a grocery store,” he says.
Arbo says in Thrifty’s place she’d like to see an independent grocer but acknowledges that is “pretty much impossible these days.” Her other hope would be a co-op model.
“On the Island there are a number of co-ops,” she says.
“If we can’t do a co-op, I’d like to see something like Choices or Donald’s or one of the other smaller, independent local grocers,” she said.
Another idea, which she says is also a “long shot,” is that a Quality Foods, another Island grocery chain, would come in and take over the Thrifty’s location.
“I’d love to see someone like (Quality Foods) decide to do what Thrifty’s did and branch out onto the Lower Mainland,” says Arbo, who previously managed the Royal City Farmers’ Market.
While she acknowledges that the chances of this happening are low, Arbo says she holds out a little hope because she never expected a Thrifty’s to open in her neighbourhood.
When you do the process of elimination, there aren’t many options left, she says.
“Thrifty’s actually was the perfect fit,” Arbo says, sighing.
–Twitter/nikimhope
