The grocery business is finally building in Centretown as Sobeys is set to open a major new store on Metcalfe Street this spring.
One local resident says he’ll likely keep shopping at Hartman’s at Bank Street and Somerset Street due to the potential for high prices at Sobeys.
“I don’t really care that much because I find Sobeys is typically overpriced – and I resent them for taking over IGA,” says Mitch Jackson, who lives on Gladstone Avenue, referring to Sobeys’ 1998 acquisition of the Toronto-based grocery supplier the Oshawa Group. The buyout included IGA stores which now operate mainly in Quebec.
Housing organizations in the community say they are concerned about pricing – not because it’s Sobeys but because prices in central Ottawa are generally higher than in suburbs.
Meg McCallum of the Centretown Citizens Ottawa Corporation did a price comparison among grocery stores in the neighborhood after a Centretown food co-op fell through
“It would seem to me that having more competition and more grocery stores … it might result in better prices at all of the stores,” says McCallum, manager of the membership and communications department at the CCOC.
The CCOC provide affordable housing for Centretown residents and McCallum says many of its tenants don’t have vehicles to take them to the grocery stores where cheaper goods are available.
McCallum says grocery stores in Ottawa tend to sprout closer to high-income areas, with the exception being Hartman’s at Bank and Somerset – the chain grocer closest to the new Sobeys location. Hartman’s is part of the Your Independent Grocer unit within Loblaw Companies Limited which also controls the No Frills and Extra Foods chains.
While a sign at the Metcalfe Street site says Sobeys is coming soon, McCallum says past experiences make her wary of the promise of a new grocery store.
“There have been a few grocery stores that have talked about moving into the downtown core and then haven’t shown up, so I think we’ll believe it when we see it.”