Monday November 4, 2024 | LANGFORD, BC
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Closure of one more grocery store is a sign of the times.
Fairway Markets opened their store in Langford at the Westshore Town Centre (WSTC) in 1987 and now 37 years later it has closed. It was the third Fairway Market store to open for the chain that now has nine locations. The first Fairway Market store opened on Gorge Road in Victoria in 1963.
The lease was up for renewal in July and Fairway Markets decided not to renew. Triple Crown Foods Ltd, a licensee of the Fairway market grocery store brand, did not renew the lease it has held at 2945 Jacklin Rd since 1988.
Westshore Town Centre has told Island Social Trends today that they have “a lot of interest in the space and is working on terms with a potential tenant now”.
Fairway’s community focus:
Fairway Markets prides itself on ‘Community Focused. Community First’. They also have a Fairway Markets store in central Langford on Goldstream Avenue, which may in fact now cover their chain’s reach in serving the Langford area (that store location was purchased in 2018 from Western Foods).
Upon closing, Triple Crown Foods Ltd and Fairway Markets thanked their customers and their loyal staff.
West shore competition:
More grocery sector competition had already built up in the suburban areas of Langford over the past several years. There is Quality Foods on Langford Parkway (across the road from the Westshore Town Centre mall) which opened in 2014 and Thrifty Foods in Belmont Market on Jacklin Road (a stone’s throw from Westshore Town Centre across Kelly Road) which opened in 2019.
If you walk into the southern-most entrance to Westshore Town Centre today there is no evidence there was ever a grocery store there. They had prices suited to affordability which many locals will miss.
The Canada Post outlet that was in the Fairway Markets at WSTC had already relocated back in April 2021 to the Shoppers Drug Mart store next door (due to floorspace logistics that caused a clash between grocery retail and post office service).
Grocery sector competition:
As is known across Canada, there are three major grocery chains that control the majority of the sector’s business activity: Loblaw, Empire and Metro.
It’s tough for smaller grocery store chains to compete. Small independent grocery stores of the ‘corner store’ nature are almost nowhere now.
People rely on the discount pricing that is possible only with the big chain stores due to their massive supply chain management. Store flyers are part of the large chain marketing culture (mostly online now but the print versions still contribute to blue recycling boxes).
Increasingly more people are successfully growing fresh produce at home, which makes a weekly grocery store shopping trip less essential.
===== RELATED:
- NDP focuses on grocery component in cost of living (October 1, 2023)
- Langford focus on Xmas dinner bird supply (December 3, 2022)
- Lottery win 60K+ with ticket purchased at Fairway in Langford (May 21, 2021)
- Canada Post on relocating retail outlet within Westshore Town Centre (April 19, 2021)
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