Small grocer closes as Maxi moves in
The Rover has what could have been an informative piece about the closure of a store on Park Avenue because Maxi (a Loblaw brand) is moving into the area: ‘We Can’t Compete’: Small Grocer Shutters as Maxi Moves In.
OK, but they don’t tell us which grocery is closing or moving – even the caption to the photo says “This image has been edited. The store name and contact number have been removed.”
Yes, it’s a story about the bludgeon of capitalism. The new Maxi will also stress kosher goods, competing with existing kosher groceries like Lipa’s, and it has already pushed out the store in the headline. And it’s a story about how the city is powerless to do anything about it.
I know the two stores along there that are run by people from the Indian subcontinent. I’d always shop at one or both if I happened to be in the area, and I’m sorry one of them is gone. But… I don’t know which one.
(I looked on Streetview and it’s Épicerie Mile-End that’s gone, the one closer to Bernard, that was at 5710 Park Avenue.)
walkerp 10:42 on 2025-08-21 Permalink
Yes, that’s the one. A great little store but suffered from being on the far end of the block (for me) from Supermarché Mile-End, which is also excellent. I talked to the owner and they said they had been not doing great since the pandemic but the oncoming Maxi is what decided it for them finally. He said they have a new location in Rosemount.
Maxi sucks. I used to think the Provigo on Mont-Royal was sort of crappy but now it seems luxurious compared to the Maxi. When I go in there, I feel like I have been teleported to Mississauga or something. It’s so gross and inhuman.
walkerp 10:43 on 2025-08-21 Permalink
Would be good to find the new location, but I don’t know their name.
Ian 11:11 on 2025-08-21 Permalink
I suspect walkerp and I live fairly close to one another.
Épicerie Mile-End closed over a month ago, it’s not the Maxi that did them in. It’s that thier fridges kept breaking down, that their produce was often moldy, that the packages on the shelves had often already expired, and that their stock was patchy – sometimes they had soy milk, sometimes not – the kind of thing that makes your reliable local grocery less reliable. They struggled a lot over the last few years and things kept getting worse until they finally shuttered. I thibk the last 3 shopping trips I did there I had to return food that had already spoiled. To be real their main competition was Supermarché Mile End just down the street which has amazing produce and dry goods, and a much larger selection.
TBH I don’t mind Maxi compard to Provigo because although like Provigo they are owned by Loblaws, each location has some leeway on what it stocks. They do have all the discount stuff, but the one on Parc will sell Kosher – should be interesting to see how that works given they are between Lipa’s and Fooderie. The Maxi up at Jean-Talon sells a lot of Indian and related southeast Asian food. Much better selection of rice than Provigo, for instance.
The former 5 saisons on Bernard will also become a Maxi. I’m not sure what their angle will be although the 5 saisons was a lot of amusingly chichi stuff so maybe that will be their schtick too.
Kate 11:13 on 2025-08-21 Permalink
I’ve had a look in the Quebec business registry, and I see that the business has voluntarily dissolved. I also see the name of the owner, but since they did not want it mentioned in the article I won’t post it here. But it’s public info in the government listing.
Kate 11:14 on 2025-08-21 Permalink
Supermarché Mile End is amazing. The store isn’t all that big but it’s got everything. If I lived closer by, I’d shop there all the time.
DeWolf 12:46 on 2025-08-21 Permalink
Ian is right. As much as I’m not a fan of Maxi or big corporate supermarkets in general, you can’t blame it for the closure of the Épicerie Mile-End when it shuttered before either of the new Maxis had opened yet. It just wasn’t as good as Supermarché Mile-End on the same block or PA just a few minutes’ walk down the street. Hate to say it but the Rover story is grasping at straws.
DeWolf 12:50 on 2025-08-21 Permalink
Also, incidentally and anecdotally — for the past three years I’ve been living in a kind of paradise for grocery shopping. I’m a five-minute walk from the Jean-Talon Market and its galaxy of bakeries, butchers, delis and so on. I’m five minutes from two Latino supermarkets and a Chinese-Vietnamese supermarket. Milano is less than 10 minutes away. There’s a crummy Metro and a pretty okay IGA within a few minutes. And there’s a whole bunch of fruiteries, butchers, etc. on top of all that.
And even with this panoply of food, I still often go to Mile End specifically to shop at PA and Supermarché Mile-End.
I don’t think I’m that unusual. Montreal is a city with an abundance of grocery options because we are all used to buying our food at several different places, several times a week. We don’t have the big-box, one-stop-shop culture you see in most other parts of North America and I hope we never do.
Nicholas 13:50 on 2025-08-21 Permalink
People love blaming the failure of their business on some external factor: competition, bike lanes, pedestrianization, black people hanging out in front (no I’m not kidding). But peel back the onion and often enough it’s just the owner is bad at business. Competition in grocery is fierce here, but if you do your job well Montreal is a great place to find a niche. If you do it badly, you’ll be eaten alive.
Joey 16:42 on 2025-08-21 Permalink
In addition to the issues already described, the Rover piece would’ve been a lot better if it had even *tried* to grapple with the idea that more choice is, ceteris paribus, good for the consumer. Mile-End benefits from more than its share of well-run, indie grocery stores. It will be interesting to see if the new Maxi can chip away at the Kosher grocery business elsewhere in the hood (there are a handful of others not directly on Parc) – I’m skeptical, but I imagine Loblaw did its market research. I doubt it will have any meaningful impact on either Supermarche Mile-End or the two PAs.
The Maxi on Mt-Royal that replaced the Provigo seems to offer a little more variety. I’m not sure if they expanded the shelf-space or just focused on growing the product line. It definitely feels like there’s considerably more “ethnic” food options than before. That said, what walkerp describes is real – there is a considerably stronger presumption of guilt than before (especially around the self-checkout), but I wouldn’t say it’s terrible.
DeWolf 23:26 on 2025-08-21 Permalink
I’ve never been impressed by a Maxi, but I have to admit, I do enjoy stopping at the new Super C on St-Hubert, which was until recently a very “why does this exist” kind of Metro. They have some pretty great deals and it definitely feels more Plateauified than your usual Super C in terms of its selection.