Sobeys closing Burrows store

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This article was published 13/10/2016 (3431 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE Sobeys store at Burrows Avenue and Keewatin Street is closing Dec. 3.

A company spokeswoman said the decision was made after a review of all the stores’ performance.

“We regularly look at store operations, and in this case the decision was made to close that location,” said Keri Scobie. “It has been an underperforming store for quite some time. It made the most sense to close.”

The 85 full- and part-time employees were told of the closure Tuesday.

It is not yet clear what will happen to the 31,000-square-foot building.

Scobie said the closure did not necessarily have anything to do with the fact a Sobeys-owned Safeway store is located on the other side of Keewatin Street.

“We were able to keep both locations, even after the Competition Bureau review,” she said.

As part of the regulatory considerations when Sobeys acquired 213 Western Canada Safeway stores in 2013, it agreed to sell four Winnipeg Safeway locations and one Price Chopper store.

At the time of the acquisition, there were 11 Sobeys stores and 24 Safeway stores in Winnipeg.

Scobie said Sobeys regularly opens and closes stores, pointing out the company opened a Sobeys Extra store on Pembina Highway earlier this year.

“It is important for us to have the right stores in the right format in the right market to makes sure we are meeting our customers’ needs,” she said. “Because of a whole bunch of factors, it was the right decision (to close the Burrows store), as hard as it is to close a store.”