The Sobeys Kipling at 125 The Queensway will be closing for good October 24.
The shelves of a beloved Sobeys grocery store at the Kipling and Queensway Mall are empty as the store will be permanently shut on October 24.
About 60 of the employees, many who have been there for a long time, will be transferred to other stores, be laid off or retire.
Large signs announcing the closure are posted on the huge windows of the store. Inside nearly all the goods on the shelves are gone. The floors are gleaming.
Most of the shelves in Sobeys Kipling are cleaned out and the floors are sparkling clean.
The Sobeys has been a fixture at 1255 The Queensway for decades, and was hugely popular for its large parking lot.
An application is being heard by City Council to demolish and replace the mall with 13 towers up to 65 storeys tall, along with over a hectare of new public parkland and a potential elementary school.
The 7.4 hectare site will also include a large circular ramp that will link The Queensway to the Gardiner Expressway if approved.
A second community Sobeys store is slated for closure at 125 The Queensway plaza, near Park Lawn Road, where seven condos are proposed ranging up to 50 storeys high. The proposal is going through the hearings process.
Two long-standing Sobeys will be gone and new Sobeys-Longo finished construction in a few years.
Sobeys is planning to build a huge new Sobeys and Longo’s grocery stores and shopping centre with other stores at 1061 The Queensway, just east of Islington Ave. Sobeys own a major stake in Longo’s and the stores will be massive and side by side.
The Sobeys Longo store will take years to construct as it too has to be approved by City Council.
Sobeys has said the moves are “part of our strategic plan to enhance our offerings and better serve our customers.”
Sobeys is a proudly Canadian business, which was formed in 1907 as a small meat delivery business in Stellarton, Nova Scotia, and has grown to more than 1,600 stores across the country.
The company is one of the largest grocery chains in Canada, which through its franchise affiliates employ more than 128,000 people.