Pitt Meadows is losing one grocery store and gaining another.
Marketplace IGA will be closing its doors on July 11, and has been running a stock reduction sale for weeks.
That has led residents to question what store will take its place.
The store has been an important retail anchor tenant for the Meadowvale Shopping Centre, at the corner of Harris Road and the Lougheed Highway. Meadowvale is also home to a McDonald’s restaurant, Hollywood 3 Cinema and Rooster’s Country Cabaret.
City hall was anxious about the change in the business community, but Major John Becker said the municipality has been reassured that a new tenant is coming.
“We are, of course, concerned with any business leaving the community,” said Becker. “We’re a small, shallow pond, so it doesn’t take a very big rock to create lots of ripples.”
A new grocery store will be moving in, although the Overwaitea Food Group couldn’t confirm if it will have any involvement.
The IGA closure comes after Sobeys completed a $5.8 billion takeover of Safeway Canada in 2013, and last summer closed 50 underperforming stores across Canada – some of them operating under the IGA banner in western Canada.