Western Grocer Serving the industry since 1916
FreshCo will be opening its first location in Vancouver at West Broadway and Alder Street.
After a ribbon-cutting and the handing of a $2,500 cheque to the food bank, the store will finally open. It first came to light that Sobeys was taking over the location last summer.
The new store will bring a big option to the Fairview/South Granville neighbourhood. With the CityMarket opening a new location at Granville and Broadway, the neighbourhood now has two new large grocery stores.
At 29,000, FreshCo’s location will offer a new option for local shoppers on a budget. The brand was launched in 2010 as the Sobeys discount option.
FreshCo has locations across Canada, but none so far in Vancouver proper.
Sobeys is also behind Safeway and Thrifty Foods in B.C., with 415 stores in Western Canada across all brands.
The Canadian grocery giant owns several banners in Eastern Canada as well, including IGA (B.C.’s IGAs are separate) and Foodland.
The planned FreshCo opening — along with the preservation of the landmark sign from the 1950s on the building — are bright spots on the retail landscape as cities struggle to fill hundreds of shuttered retail locations across Canada.
The West Broadway location would be Vancouver’s first FreshCo store in metropolitan Vancouver. Sobeys, which also operates the Safeway, IGA and Thrifty Foods brands in British Columbia, opened the first FreshCo in Mission, near Abbotsford, in 2019.
The national grocery chain has since opened nine more FreshCo locations across the Lower Mainland, including stores in Richmond, Delta, Surrey, Maple Ridge, Abbotsford and Chilliwack.
Three of the locations are specialized Chalo FreshCo stores that cater to the Asian community, as Sobeys looks to compete with other ethnic specialty grocers, such as T&T Supermarkets, an Asian-focused chain owned by Sobeys’ rival, Loblaw Cos.
