Ste-Anne to lose grocery store again
It was news last year when Ste‑Anne‑de‑Bellevue was to lose its only grocery store, then someone swooped in and reopened it. Now it’s closing again.
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Kate
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Ian 10:27 on 2024-04-08 Permalink
A particular shame because for Sainte Anne that’s the only real grocery store in walking distance.
Chris 10:44 on 2024-04-08 Permalink
It’s Sainte Anne, I doubt many walked. Indeed, owners point to Ile-aux-Tourtes Bridge, suggesting their clients mostly drive.
MarcG 10:48 on 2024-04-08 Permalink
That doesn’t change the fact that the people who *did* walk are now rather fucked. How is food not considered an essential service? Nationalize the grocery industry.
Chris 11:10 on 2024-04-08 Permalink
Are you arguing that it should be a *right* to have food stores within walking distance? Seems a bit extreme to me. How would that work in rural areas? Seems to me there comes a point where certain places are just not dense enough to support that, like say a cottage on a lake. It’s a spectrum, and it seems Saint Anne has just fallen off that spectrum.
Kate 11:45 on 2024-04-08 Permalink
I suspect the store may have been undermined by delivery services. I haven’t seen any articles studying the trend, but the guys who run the local fruiterie tell me that, since the pandemic, their sales are down because more people have acquired the habit of getting groceries delivered. And this is in a fairly dense central residential area with no major grocery store for blocks in any direction, a spot that was profitable for several years before Covid, not a marginal suburb.
Josh 11:53 on 2024-04-08 Permalink
I tend to agree with Chris. In many parts of Quebec and Canada this is simply not a realistic idea.
dwgs 12:35 on 2024-04-08 Permalink
No, of course it’s not a right to have a grocery store within walking distance. However, if one chooses a place to live based partly on the ability to find the necessities of life within walking distance and then one of those places goes out of business that is unfortunate. It makes that neighbourhood less desirable to some.
Ian 14:25 on 2024-04-08 Permalink
@Chris
So let me get this straight, you don’t think people in West Island towns should have cars, but also don’t think they should be able to get groceries in walking distance. That’s some real galaxy-level urban planning there.
As I’ve mentioned before, even Baie d’Urfé has a higher population density than Sherbrooke. The West Island isn’t a “marginal suburb”, and Sainte Anne really is a walkable town for many people that live there.
Sure, lots of clients came from off-island to this grocery store but there are lots of older folks that don’t drive in Ste Anne and lots of students that don’t have cars. This isn’t in the middle of nowhere, it’s right downtown across from the library. Literally the only other place to get anything remotely resembling groceries in Ste Anne is the Couche-Tard.
Kate 17:32 on 2024-04-08 Permalink
OK, marginal suburb is a little unfair. But presumably that store is in a location where profits are marginal, or else it would be worth keeping it open.
Ian 18:37 on 2024-04-08 Permalink
It does make you wonder, as there are several large grocery stores in île-perrot, just over the bridge.
Philip 23:01 on 2024-04-08 Permalink
I just find it regrettable because when I lived in Ste-Anne, the store felt important. Or at least that the quality of life would not have been as great had it not been for the store. It was centrally located to the whole village and easily walkable from anywhere. Great operating hours. It was a blessing to be able to just walk over to the store to grab nearly everything I needed, whenever I needed it – I was probably there 2 or 3 or 4 times a week.
I’m a bit nostalgic, but living there was great. I was a student and while a lot of my friends lived downtown, I chose to live there. It wasn’t a particularly easy choice, because I loved living downtown and having everything in walking distance. I did not want to live in a suburb where everything would require driving and parking. I was happy to find that living in the village had everything I needed only a few steps away.
I also am a bit curious about what the books looked like. Grocery margins are notoriously slim, but are they that slim that a store like this can’t exist (or can’t exist anymore in 2024)? Is it that they can’t compete with the big chains at the autoroute exits east and west of there? Is the commercial rent prohibitive? Is it a labor thing?
In any case, the family who stepped in and tried to save it a few years ago should be applauded for trying to make it work. It’s a big loss to the town and that more than one iteration has failed makes the outlook bleak.
Chris 20:43 on 2024-04-09 Permalink
Come now Ian, I didn’t say any of that. I asked MarcG to elaborate on his comment, and didn’t even give my own opinion (beyond saying I thought his extreme). Don’t put words in my mouth, please. I would love for Saint Anne to keep this store (and have others), but that doesn’t mean I support nationalizing it, let alone the whole industry.
Ian 08:41 on 2024-04-10 Permalink
I didn’t mention nationalization, don’t put words in my mouth.
You DID say this :
“Seems to me there comes a point where certain places are just not dense enough to support that, like say a cottage on a lake. It’s a spectrum, and it seems Saint Anne has just fallen off that spectrum.”
You are literally handwaving the closing of the only grocery store in Ste Anne, as you don’t think west island boroughs matter. Not very civic-minded of you.