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| Two hours after the new Stong's store on Dunbar opened, John and I paid a visit. It's still being stocked, but Dunbar residents were so eager to get their feet in the door that it was opened for a few hours. Photo by John. |
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| The vegetable selection looks about the same as in the previous store a few blocks up the street. |
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| Word about today's opening flashed around the neighbourhood, and little groups of neighbours were re-establishing themselves at one of their favourite meeting places. |
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| Store president Cori Bonina talks to a customer at the front door. |
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| John captures the busy scene inside from the outside sidewalk. |
The blue fences are down, the port-a-potties are gone, and after months of construction, the new Dunbar Stong's store just a block up the street from us opened this afternoon. For those of us who are car-less and stick as close to home as possible for our groceries, a major event.
The new store seems airy and is bigger than the old one three blocks further down Dunbar, which closed earlier this year. It has a few new features, including a little coffee shop; John was eyeing the equipment to calculate the potential quality of its offerings. The mood was jolly, Christmas trees were up, and company president Cori Bonina was talking to customers at the front door. I'm not the only one happy to have "my" store back -- two hours after the doors opened, the crowds were thick enough that we decided to put off buying anything for another day.
The biggest plus? It takes 3.5 minutes to walk from our front steps to Stong's front door. No excuses for running out of milk now.
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| I had to take a picture of some of the colourful fruit and vegetable displays. |
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| The produce section seemed quite well stocked. |
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| The new front door, with Christmas trees and window cartoons already up. |
Wow...it looks wonderful! And how great to have a store so close to you! And they made it well before Christmas for opening...good on them. With neighbours talking and the wonderful fruit and produce displays it seems like market day in France. Only you're not allowed to touch the fruit and produce in France. They don't want anyone messing up their displays so you have to point to what you want. When Monique first came to Canada she was horrified to see people touching, poking, squeezing fruits and vegetables before choosing. I asked why they are so concerned about it when hoards of flies hover around the fish and meat. She replied that these products are cooked so germs will be killed but the fruit and vegetable seven with washing won't necessarily be safe after being touched by numerous grubby hands. It makes some sense. No flies now as EU regulations make it mandatory to have fish and meat under refrigeration and in enclosed spaces which mean huge refrigerated trucks are now part of the market scene. I prefer the flies.
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