| Last updated at 1:04 AM on 07/07/07 |
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Shadi Sahely, who helps run the family's Brighton Clover Farm in Charlottetown, says Sunday shopping legislation has resulted in larger grocery stores taking a bite out of convenience stores like his family-run operation. Guardian photo by Jim Day |
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Food fight 
JIM DAY
The Guardian
Convenience store owner Morgan MacQuarrie feared that Sunday shopping would see the big grocery stores devour the small mom-and- pop operations that dot the neighbourhoods, downtowns, rural settings and highways of Prince Edward Island.
Early signs show his concern has merit.
Corner stores and the like are proving no match for the lower prices and greater variety of food offered in the Sobeys and in the Superstores of P.E.I. since doors started swinging open on Sundays almost two months ago on May 20.
Jill Thomas Myrick of Sobeys Atlantic would not (for competitive reasons) divulge the volume of business Sobeys is doing on Sundays in the province, but she suggested the chain is cashing in on the new legislation.
“Sunday shopping in Prince Edward Island is meeting the needs of our customers,’’ she said.
“We will be following the legislation as it allows for Sunday shopping.’’
MacQuarrie, like many other owners of the 164 convenience stores in the province, is already feeling the pinch from lost business. He closed one of his four Sparky’s Convenience stores in the middle of June, just weeks after Sunday shopping came into effect, putting four people out of work.
His remaining stores — two in Charlottetown and one in Bedford —on average are each down $500 in sales on Sundays.
In the long run, he sees the likelihood of staff hours being reduced and perhaps even an employee cut from each of his stores. He wouldn’t be surprised to see as many as 20 or so Island convenience stores go under in the next year or two.
“Oh yes, it’s definitely going to be a tough haul,’’ he said.
Frank Martin has owned and operated the popular Nick’s Food Market in Charlottetown for more than five years. His store, which sells meats, baked goods and groceries, is open seven days a week from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day.
Sunday had always been his bread-and-butter day, what he termed the apex of the ripple. He estimates the big grocery stores are now taking close to a 30 per cent bite out of his business on this crucial day of the week.
“Certainly our Sunday mornings are quieter now,’’ said Martin.
“It’s been dramatic.’’
Rayona Murphy, who along with her husband owns Dean’s Quick Mart in Alberton, has been battling stiff Sunday competition for more than just a couple of months. A Save Easy located just a few hundred feet from her store has been open Sundays and even holidays, including Canada Day, for the past couple of years.
The Save Easy, like other stores, were able to open Sundays even before the new legislation due to a formula based on several factors, including staff size.
The store, Murphy was quick to discover, was plenty big enough to put the squeeze on Dean’s Quick Mart.
So she split her business into a convenience store and a restaurant in an effort to survive. She believes the move kept the store afloat — at least for now.
Murphy, though, wouldn’t want to hazard a guess on the future of a business that has been in the family for about 60 years.
“I don’t know how many more years I can do it,’’ she said.
When Murphy heard that Sunday shopping legislation had been passed, she foresaw trouble for other convenience stores.
“I said it is going to hurt the rural communities big time,’’ she said.
Premier Robert Ghiz, while in opposition, voiced a similar concern.
In April, the then Liberal leader of the opposition noted that small rural stores and corner stores in urban communities were concerned about losing business if the big grocery stores were allowed to open Sundays.
Ghiz, at the time, said he didn’t support Sunday shopping. However, he said if elected into power, he would allow stores to stay open this year, since plans are already in place.
Legislation as it stands allows for Sunday shopping from Victoria Day weekend until Dec. 24.
It had been widely rumoured under the Tory government, though, that the law would be amended to allow businesses that want to continue opening Sundays to do so.
Ghiz told The Guardian earlier this week that he would like to know where Islanders stand on the issue before his government acts.
He plans to convene a legislative committee to have open hearings to allow people to make presentations on the pros and cons of Sunday shopping.
He hopes the committee will be struck no later than winter.
“I believe that everybody deserves to have their voice heard,’’ he said.
Ghiz said before Sunday shopping was introduced, he didn’t hear much demand for it.
He did hear that a lot of large stores didn’t want to open Sunday while many people weren’t keen about working that day. He also heard that many Islanders strongly consider Sunday to be a day of rest, not a day to shop.
The premier suggested he is sympathetic to the plight of convenience shop owners.
“A lot of the convenience stores that I stop in indicate that Sunday was their big day and (business on that day) really allowed them to get ahead,’’ he said.
“I don’t think we always have to cater to the big stores.’’
Shadi Sahely helps run Brighton Clover Farm in Charlottetown — a family business known for its meats and Middle Eastern food that his father, Norman, has nurtured for 33 years.
Sahely hopes Sunday shopping won’t prove to be the death nail of convenience stores.
“We still want the small stores to exist and be able to survive and provide that extra care for the customers,’’ he said.
Still, Sahely said he remains positive. Brighton Clover Farm, like the other convenience stores, will simply have to play the more competitive hand they have been dealt.
“If that’s what people want, then leave it,’’ he said of the new Sunday shopping legislation.
“And if they don’t want it, then you can get rid of it.’’
Some operators are fighting back with creativity and diversity.
MacQuarrie, for example, is holding yard sales on Sunday in Bedford to create an extra draw to his Sparky’s Convenience store in the small community. He is also considering adding shirts and sneakers to his more common fare.
Doug Davey of Davey’s Grocery in Mount Stewart already had a diverse business in place when Sunday shopping came into place in May. In addition to selling milk and bread, he handles a line of small engines and lawn mower parts.
“We’re a little more unique,’’ he said.
“I don’t think we will be affected greatly.’’
Others hope that their convenience stores will continue to draw people out of, well, convenience.
“We’re getting people that don’t want to go to the grocery store,’’ said Suzanne Gaudet of S&E Grocery in Summerside.
“Somebody coming into our store just looking for one or two things and it’s just more convenient coming to our store than a grocery store.’’
Some convenience store operators, perhaps, could find both comfort and sage advice in the words of Danny Gass’s father.
“Something my dad said a long time ago: ‘You run your own and let them run their own and hope there’s a living for both of you,’’ said Gass, the owner of Gass’s Clover Farm in New Haven.
“If I do my job...I will do OK.’’
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