{"id":8413,"date":"2014-10-08T20:09:28","date_gmt":"2014-10-09T00:09:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=8413"},"modified":"2014-10-08T20:09:28","modified_gmt":"2014-10-09T00:09:28","slug":"grocery-store-returns-to-st-andrews-village-in-december","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/grocery-store-returns-to-st-andrews-village-in-december\/","title":{"rendered":"Grocery store returns to St. Andrew\u2019s Village in December"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Seniors living in Aurora\u2019s northwest corner are expected to get an early Christmas present this December with the return of a grocery store to St. Andrew\u2019s Village.<\/p>\n

Since the plaza\u2019s Foodland outlet closed its doors in 2011, area seniors have struggled to find a way to get their groceries, often having to rely on multiple buses, taxis, and lifts from family and friends to literally bring home the bacon. Soon, they will once again have access to fresh groceries within walking distance. <\/p>\n

Toronto-based grocer Centra Foods has signed the lease on the former Foodland outlet and is due to begin renovations this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to open before Christmas, so we have to work day and night now,\u201d says owner Louie Liu. \u201cThe schedule is very tight and we are looking into an opening between December 11 and 15. It is better one or two weeks before Christmas, otherwise it will be too busy. This is an exciting opportunity. There is so much demand from the local community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking ahead to the December launch, Mr. Liu says he aims to provide 60 per cent \u201clocal\u201d groceries with the remaining 40 per cent tailored to the \u201cethnic\u201d market. This includes traditional grocery store staples, as well as a hot counter of ready-made Chinese, Indian, Korean and even western cuisine, including those ubiquitous roast chickens. <\/p>\n

On a tour of the facility last week with some seniors living in residences across Orchard Heights Drive, Mr. Liu underscored the services they plan on providing to the community, including a grocery delivery service for seniors living nearby, as well as opportunities to whip up that all-important Thanksgiving turkey next fall for their families. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a plan,\u201d he says. \u201cIf there are big snows, they can order by phone and we can send their orders to them within a certain time. I will do my best to help seniors.\u201d<\/p>\n

While these \u201cextras\u201d were music to the ears of seniors last week, their uppermost concern right now is simply having a grocery store within walking distance once again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t wait for this to open because it will be so much easier,\u201d said Carol Playter. \u201cYou can just go right across the road and you\u2019re here. It has been terrible [since Foodland closed] because there are a lot of seniors. All you hear is we don\u2019t have a grocery store and then we have to travel by bus because a lot of us just don\u2019t drive. What do you do? You have to get a friend or take a cab and it can cost over $20 to get to a store.\u201d<\/p>\n

A shuttle service organized by then-MPP Frank Klees with Sobey\u2019s on Bayview Avenue in 2011 was only successful for a time, added Ms. Playter.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are lots of people here who don\u2019t like making dinner,\u201d added Joanne Hatley. \u201cMy sister comes from Don Mills and Sheppard and takes me to Walmart or No Frills or wherever she wants to go. I am very, very happy with this. You can just cross the road. I hope it works out for them because if it doesn\u2019t, they will close it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Carol: \u201cI\u2019ll be here to bug them every day!\u201d<\/p>\n

Helping to make the grocery store happen was Council candidate Arshad Desai, who facilitated talks with Centra and the owners of the plaza, after taking a petition to Orchard Heights neighbours. Now a \u201ccommunity liaison\u201d for the grocer, he says neighbours are \u201cvery excited and just waiting for it to open.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Residents\u2019 feedback was just phenomenal,\u201d said Mr. Desai. \u201cInitially [the petition] was just targeted towards the elderly population across the road, but the further I went down Orchard Heights I understood it is beyond just an age thing, it is part of the local neighbourhood. They are looking for a grocery store that is going to be accessible to them and that is going to be convenient. <\/p>\n

\u201cFrom discussing this with local residents and talking to Louie, I think this is a match made in heaven. Louie has told me on numerous occasions that he understands his clientele is going to be from Orchard Heights and Batson. He is not trying to overinflate or over-attract business and, to me, that is exactly what this community needs. I think it is going to be a welcome addition to St. Andrew\u2019s Plaza, and I am looking forward to it, especially for local residents.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seniors living in Aurora\u2019s northwest corner are expected to get an early Christmas present this December with the return of a grocery store to St. Andrew\u2019s Village.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/2014-10-09-12.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-2bH","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-02 00:19:15","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}