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The Observer | Saturday, August 30, 2008
Weather of summer ‘08 puts a damper on market offerings.................... »11 Pitching her way to the title
»13 VOLUME 13, ISSUE 35
SATURDAY, AUGUST 30, 2008
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LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION Hugh Weltz and cal cressman want the public’s input about Sobeys inc. plans to move the downtown Foodland to the old Price chopper building in elmira’s south end. Both are convinced the PHOTO | marc miquel HelSen change will be more than just an inconvenience for core residents and businesses.
Move afoot to keep grocery store in Elmira core Residents, BIA and township all have an interest in convincing Sobeys to put off moving Foodland MARC MIQUEL HELSEN Sobeys Inc.’s decision to close its Price Chopper in Elmira and transfer the Foodland operation to the south-end location is meeting with some resistance. Downtown residents and businesspeople are looking to launch a petition campaign, and Woolwich officials are concerned about the move’s impact on the core.
The flurry of activity follows the grocery chain’s decision to close the two-year-old Price Chopper store Sept. 9, replacing it with the Foodland store currently located at Church and Arthur streets. “The biggest negative impacts … are going to be [on] the seniors; those people who can walk and those people who still drive horse-and-buggies, who still have to come into town and then drive two-anda-half, three kilometres down
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the road to get their groceries,” said Cal Cressman who, along with Elmira BIA chair Hugh Weltz, is working to start a petition to assess public opinion about the move. “I think through the logistics it’s not going to be as good a move as Sobeys thinks it is. It’s going to affect a lot of other businesses in downtown Elmira more than it’s going to be a benefit,” said Weltz. The relocation leaves the future of the building now home
to Foodland in limbo. Rumour has it a Giant Tiger store is in the works, but nothing has been decided. Sobeys recently renewed its lease of the building, owned by Ken and Naomi Freiburger, for another five years. The Freiburger family has owned the building since 1946 when it was called Freiburger’s Meat Market, and owned the business until they sold it ten years ago, when Freiburger’s IGA became Elmira IGA before adopting
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the Foodland banner. The business anchor in the area for more than 60 years, the store will be missed mostly by those residents who do not drive, said Weltz, adding that a shuttle bus, of which there is now talk, is not an adequate alternative. “It sounds great, but people would like to shop when they want to shop, not when you want to bus them there.” The fact that Mennonite See SOBEYS »06
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