One of Leaside Life’s writers, who also happened to work part-time at The Sweet Potato on Bayview, shared the news with me today of the imminent closure of the store. This, after not even two years in Leaside (the Junction location is not affected), and not long after Bayview lost local favourite Valumart to make way for a new mid-rise residential/commercial development.
Starting a new retail business is risky at any time. Starting a food business, grocery or restaurant, is an even riskier proposition, especially at a time when shoppers are deeply suspicious of grocers’ profit margins and have raised concerns about rising food prices.
Dalhousie University’s “food professor,” Sylvain Charlebois, was quoted recently in a Globe and Mail op-ed piece: “Most consumers barely appreciate how farming, logistics or even food processing work, but most of us often go to a grocery store. It’s a familiar environment. However, grocery stores are also portals to a very complex food system we can barely see and understand, so promptly blaming grocers for overpriced products is instinctive.”
But what if the situation goes beyond food prices to an even bigger problem: the loss of diverse food retail in a neighbourhood? Fortunately, Leaside is not threatened to become a “food desert.” There are still many good local options, from small fruit-and-veg markets to larger grocers (i.e. Loblaws, Longo’s and the new Farm Boy), but the smaller mid-sized food retailers, like The Sweet Potato and Valumart on Bayview, where consumers can shop without a car, seem challenged. Both retailers are a loss to Bayview.
