Betting their lucky streak will continue

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This article was published 10/11/2009 (6037 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg’s ethnic-foods sector, made up largely of mom-and-pop stores, is about to get a big shakeup.

The Edmonton-based Lucky Supermarket chain plans to open a new 32,000-square-foot store next February near Notre Dame Avenue and McPhillips Street.

The store, under construction, will include 20,000 square feet of retail space, making it the largest Asian grocery store in the city. Industry insiders say the Sun Wah Supermarket on King Street is probably its closest rival in size, and it’s about 13,000 square feet.

Sun Wah manager Louisa Young said Monday it’s too soon to predict what kind of impact Lucky’s arrival will have on Sun Wah and other Asian grocers in the city.

But a past chairman of the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers (CFIG) and another Asian grocer said Lucky is bound to steal business away from existing retailers. "Any time a large store drops into an area, it affects everybody in that area," Keith McDougall, owner of the Sobeys store on Dakota Street, said. "That’s just the nature of competition."

"It’s already very competitive even without that store," said Quen van Duong, owner of Van Loi’s Market at 417 McPhillips St.

But van Duong and University of Manitoba marketing Prof. Robert Warren said they don’t expect any stores to close because of Lucky.

Van Duong estimates there are more than a dozen Asian grocery stores in the city, concentrated in the central and northwest areas. He said many of them could see a drop in business in the first few months after the Lucky store opens as shoppers check it out.

"But every store in Winnipeg is run by a family and every store specializes in different things. So I think we’ll all be able to survive."

Existing grocers also know the market better than Lucky, van Duong said.

"People in different cities eat different things. I have lived here for 30 years, and I know the city well and I know what people like here."

Warren said Lucky’s arrival won’t have the same impact on neighbourhood grocery stores that Home Depot and Rona’s arrival had on neighbourhood hardware and lumber stores.

"Those guys came in with much bigger stores and more of them, and they had much deeper pockets. So they could build up their market share."

Ethnic shoppers also tend to be more loyal to their ethnic stores than mainstream shoppers were to their neighbourhood hardware stores, he said.

Lucky Supermarket spokesman Linh Nguyen said Winnipeg needs a larger-format Asian grocery store, and its new $5-million outlet can fill that void.

He said Lucky’s target market is Chinese, Vietnamese and Filipino shoppers. And because of its size, it should be able to offer them a wider selection of products at cheaper prices than its smaller competitors.

Nguyen said Lucky had been eyeing the Winnipeg market for about three years because of the large Filipino community here. It was just waiting for a property to become available in the northwest area of the city.

He said the company will go with just one store for now because it also wants to open new outlets in Calgary and Edmonton. But if the Winnipeg store does well, it could add another later.

Lucky isn’t the only Asian grocery chain that wants to set up shop in Winnipeg. The largest such player in Canada — B.C.-based T & T Supermarket — is also on the lookout for a property.

"We don’t have any time line at the moment," marketing manager Sandra Creighton said. "But we are… exploring opportunities in Winnipeg and elsewhere."

Van Duong and Warren said T & T will likely wait to see how the Lucky store does. Because their stores are about 60,000 square feet in size, Warren said they may want to wait a few years until the market grows bigger.

"(Asian foods) is a fast-growing market. But they’re going to need even more immigrants, plus they need more people like you and me," Warren said.

 

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca