Exploring Brandon’s foodscape

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/06/2017 (3134 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It remains unclear as to whether Brandon will attract a Save-On-Foods supermarket, but there’s much to consider in discussing the possibility — namely, where might a new grocery store be located?

Responding to a rumour that Brandon was getting one of the Vancouver-based grocery stores, the Brandon Sun left a few messages with the company’s media line earlier this week, which remained unanswered by press time.

It’s possible that the rumour’s seed was planted by comments that Save-On-Foods president Darrell Jones made during a press event in Winnipeg two years ago, during which he said that the chain planned on opening 40 new stores in Manitoba and Saskatchewan during the subsequent three to five years, creating more than 4,000 jobs.

At the time, he said that this would include as many as 12 stores in Winnipeg and an undetermined number in rural centres outside of Manitoba’s capital city, citing Brandon, Steinbach and Portage la Prairie as potentials.

“We would definitely be interested in areas outside of Winnipeg because once you’re in Manitoba, you’re interested in the whole province,” Jim Pattison said during the event —CEO of The Pattison Group of Companies, of which Save-On-Foods is a part.

City of Brandon director of economic development Sandy Trudel said that comments such as these speak to Brandon’s role as a regional hub shopping and service centre for people throughout Westman.

Drawing from a trading area of approximately 180,000 people, she counted 61,000 as being within the primary trading area, meaning those who travel to and from Brandon on a near daily basis.

Approximately 70,000 are in the secondary trading area, representing those who come to Brandon on a less frequent basis, with the balance considered part of the tertiary trading area.

While those in the tertiary trading area might come into Brandon less frequently, while they’re in the Wheat City they’re likely to do some extra shopping while there.

On the possibility of Brandon welcoming a new grocery store, Trudel said that there aren’t really any bad locations in the city for one to be located.

“If you picked the worst point in time from a traffic perspective, you can get from the furthest extent of city to the other in about 12 minutes,” she said.

Brandon Chamber of Commerce president Tami-Rae Rourke said that as long as a new grocery retailer offered something unique, pretty well any location might work.

Taking the Corral Centre as an example, at which both Safeway and Walmart grocery store retailers are located, she said that their proximity has only ensured that they remain competitive.

The nuances of grocery store locations is an area the Brandon Neighbourhood Renewal Corp. has been looking into alongside Brandon University for the past few years.

Brandon University geography department chair Derrek Eberts said one of their initial areas of focus was the idea of “food deserts” in Brandon, wherein residents’ access to grocery stores are limited.

Given Brandon’s physical size, the only population of concern would be those without vehicles, who are primarily of a lower socioeconomic status.

While the city’s downtown area boasts the greatest concentration of lower-income households, it is also served by Superstore, which Eberts considers a lower-priced grocery store that serves its population well.

Of the city’s grocery stores, Superstore is perhaps Brandon’s most socially important, he said, adding that without it, Brandon’s lowest-income neighbourhood would be without a full-range grocery option.

Although there are some large swaths of the city without grocery store options, Eberts noted that they are on the outskirts of the city, where area residents are primarily of a higher income.

“At the end of the day, I would probably say that there really aren’t any serious concerns in Brandon,” he said. “Wherever a new food store goes, it won’t fundamentally change Brandon’s foodscape.”

This doesn’t mean to say that there isn’t anyone in Brandon who is currently facing food access difficulties, he said, adding that the seniors who lived near Stan’s Fine Foods on First Street at the eastern edge of the city’s downtown core were hard hit by the longtime grocery store’s 2014 closure.

While some areas of the city might merit a closer look as it relates to grocery store accessibility, Brandon is much better off than many other cities, Eberts said, adding: “We’ve got a nice balance.”

In other, confirmed, grocery store news, the Sobeys at the south end of the city is scheduled to shift across the street at Shoppers Mall as an expanded Sobeys Extra by mid-July. The 62,500-square-foot store is expected to offer many amenities not currently offered at their existing space.

» tclarke@brandonsun.com, with files from the Winnipeg Free Press

» Twitter: @TylerClarkeMB