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P.A.’s newest grocery store is open

Apr 20, 2018 | 2:00 PM

Prince Albert’s newest grocery store is open.

Hundreds of people got a look at the upscale Save On Foods store at a special preview event Thursday night. The brand is already well known in British Columbia, where it was founded over 100 years ago.

“We wanted to make sure we brought a world class supermarket to the City of Prince Albert because quite frankly they deserve a world class supermarket,” Save On Foods president Darrell Jones told paNOW after the ribbon cutting. “I believe you could take this and put it in New York City and it wouldn’t be out of place.”

The store is the company’s fifth in Saskatchewan and they plan on building 23 of them as part of an aggressive expansion plan.

Among the store’s major attractions is its high-end look and focus on quality prepared food, deli, fish and fresh produce sections. But Jones said they also pride themselves on being a strong community player and becoming part of the fabric in their expanding list of locations.

“That’s part of the reason we’ve been around for over 100 years because when we go to towns, we go there to become part of the community not just to sell groceries,“ he said.

Prince Albert is already highly competitive in the grocery store market but General Manager Warren McGlone said he is confident the new outlet will bring its share of followers.

“The offerings we have here people are going to love, “he said. “The wing bar is something most places don’t have and as well as our 12-foot seafood case which has an amazing selection and our meat section.”

Mayor Greg Dionne was in buoyant mood in welcoming the new player to town and said he was delighted with the speed at which the entire start-to-finish process went.

“Save On Foods told me this was one of the quickest store approvals they’ve ever had so that says quite a bit about our city staff,” Dionne said. “And you listen to the people who walk through the door here and the first word they say is ‘Wow.’”

Dionne added the presence of a major grocery player would prompt further development interest in the city.

“People come to our city and they drive past this shopping district and say ‘Boy there must be something going on here,’ and look at all the investment we have. You must remember [the city] markets to 195,000 people,” he said.

The new Save On Foods store is open for business today although its grand opening is slated for tomorrow.

paNOW is a subsidiary of the Jim Pattison Group which also owns Save On Foods.

 

glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow