Thrifty Foods closure in New West spurs community action
Posted October 31, 2013 10:56 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
NEW WESTMINSTER (NEWS1130) – New West grocery shoppers aren’t happy that their local Thrifty Foods is being forced to close by the federal Competition Bureau in order for Sobey’s to purchase Safeway Canada.
Word of the forced closure caused Janice Twiss to start a petition to combat the bureaucracy, and in less than a week she already has over 1,000 signatures.
“People have been really supportive, even at work and in the community that have contacted me and said ‘thank you for doing this.’ I set the petition at 1,200 so I only need 129 more signatures. People are really up-in-arms about it.”
Twiss argues Thrifty Foods offers products and services that aren’t found in other grocery stores like Safeway, and wonders where she will go to get specialty products if her favorite grocer does close.
“I don’t know why Thrifty’s was chosen [to close], but I want them to re-evaluate their process and to listen to what this community is saying. They said they talked to the community, but obviously there are a lot of people in the community that disagree with the decision.”
Twiss explains a possible solution, in that there are three Safeway locations in New West, and one could close to hold off a future Sobey’s monopoly on grocery shopping.
Twiss adds Thrifty Foods actively participates in the New West community, and she doesn’t see an Eastern Canadian company like Sobey’s doing the same as West Coast based Thrifty’s.
