Two small grocery stores in east Edmonton are set to close in the coming months.
The Grocery People (TGP) announced the Gold Bar and Ottewell retail locations are nearing the end of their lease terms, and will not renew them.
“With the increasing competitive landscape in the Edmonton area, and really with the grocery industry as a whole, combined with the declining sales year over year and the increasing operational costs, we decided at this point that both locations were no longer viable,” Michael Hunsche, corporate operations manager with TGP said.
The Gold Bar location will be closed as of November 19, 2018 and the Ottewell location will remain open until May, 2019.
Hunsche said both stores had been open in their areas for about 30 years.
“We took over the stores in 2014 and been operating them since,” Hunsche said.
Despite the falling sales in the city, Hunsche said the same store format is doing well in other communities.
“There is a shift to a more aggressive and more price-focused format in terms of what the grocery industry is moving into,” Hunsche said. “We do have a number of rural locations that do very well with this size format store.”
About 60 employees will be impacted by the closures.
