Long-time Port Moody grocery store, IGA, is closing later this fall due to "business" reasons and decisions about what to do with the space have not yet been made.
Store owner Georgia Main Food Group has confirmed the closure of the grocery store in Heritage Mountain Shopping Centre (221 Ioco Rd.) in a statement to the Tri-City News but has not said what happens next.
"Please note Georgia Main Food Group remains the owner. Once the store closes there will be a major clean-up, re-assessment and review of additional market factors that will determine future business decisions with regards to this space," stated senior marketing manager Julia Hwang.
In statement, she said the decision to close the IGA store in Port Moody is a "business decision based on current market factors, primarily due to the fact we operate two IGA stores within four kilometers of each other."
Hwang further thanked customers for their more than 30 years of patronage and employees for their hard work and dedication.
"We are so grateful to our employees at our Port Moody IGA for all their amazing work serving our customers in this neighbourhood for the past 30 years.
"We are offering bonuses to staff who stay on with us until the store closes and we will also be providing long-term employees with resume/cover letter writing assistance and coaching support in their employment search."
Westwood Plateau IGA is regularly hiring and so staff will be encouraged to apply at this location, she added..
Earlier today, a spokesperson for the Heritage Mountain Shopping Centre told the Tri-City News the store would re-open after an upgrade.
"It's just basically upgrading to another name; that's all I can say," said a representative of Intercity Investment Corporation, who didn't provide his name.
Intercity Investment Corporation, is a family-owned company that has been operating in British Columbia since 1972.
Georgia Main Food Group was formerly named H.Y. Louie and has been operating in B.C. since 1903.
Loblaw Companies told the Tri-City News in an email that it doesn't have plans to open a store in that location.
Many residents wrote on a social media page about their disappointment at learning the store will close permanently on Oct. 23, 2023.
"Well, this is heartbreaking. Heritage Mountain Village location, I've been shopping here for 30 years," wrote Jake Blunt, who posted a photo of the store's closing sign.
The sign directs shoppers to another IGA store in Coquitlam, located at 1410 Parkway Blvd., in the Westwood Plateau neighbourhood.
Dr. Stan Heinrichs, who owns a dental practice in the shopping centre, also expressed sadness at the IGA's imminent closure, noting that he and the store opened for business the same weekend 37 years ago.
"The IGA is a nice community style grocery store with some old style service — like helping carry groceries to the car."
He said staff were told last night and many were in tears at the news.
Port Moody's only other grocery store is a Thrifty Foods in Suter Brook Village.
However, a developer has proposed building a Bosa Foods store in a six-storey development on the south side of St. Johns Street — just west of the Shell gas station.
