Shop Easy in Saskatoon's City Park area closing

Word of another core area grocery story closing in Saskatoon has touched off a flurry of reaction.

Jane Reibin has started a petition to "keep our community grocery store".

She learned Wednesday morning that the Shop Easy on 7th Ave. N in City Park will close in November.

"One of my co-workers ran across the street just to go pick up milk and he saw the sign on the door," Reibin said. "Panic ensued for us. And then I started thinking about myself as well and the rest of the community and how a lot of people don't drive, myself included, and my brother as well, and how everyone is going to be getting their food from now on."

Next closest store far outside neighbourhood

She lives less than a block away, and said the Shop Easy is her main food source. 

Reibin said the next closest grocery store for her is the Safeway on 33rd St. W. in Mayfair. She'll have to bike, bus or get someone to drive her there.

The store's parent company Loblaw confirmed in an email that it is closing the store because it "has been unprofitable for many years".

Reibin said she doesn't really expect her handwritten petition to influence Loblaw's decision, but she does want to stir discussion.

Community co-op talked about

"I know now a whole lot of people are talking about it, so hopefully that's going to get a lot of people thinking maybe a lot of people could get together and start their own grocery store," she explained.

She has heard a group wants to replace Shop Easy with a community co-op, and is trying to organize a meeting. Reibin said she wants to get involved with that.

Meanwhile, her city councillor Darren Hill is checking on whether the city can offer a tax abatement to keep the store from closing. He also wants to prevent Loblaw from putting a caveat on the sale of the building that would prevent another grocery store from opening there.

Mayor wants to see another store downtown

Mayor Don Atchison said it's unfortunate the grocery store is closing. 

"It just goes to show you that we need to continue to have higher density populations in the downtown areas," he said. 

Atchison said he hopes an independent grocer might set up at the same location. 

The mayor said a tax abatement is something the city could explore. But he said the city may not have the power to stop a grocery store chain from putting in a caveat on the location to prevent another store from establishing at the same spot. 

"Being able to put caveats on someone's property sounds rather draconian to me," Atchison said. "They do that sort of thing and that's unfortunate. But I don't know if we have the legislative authority to be able to do that or not."

He added that he would "desperately" like to see another store in City Park or downtown.

"It's a chicken and an egg situation. People say they'll move into the area if there's a grocery store. And the grocery store people say they will come if there's more people there."

The mayor said the city will continue to work on attracting more people to live in the downtown area.