Two years. A file of documents six inches thick. Ten hours of phone calls. Hundreds of emails.
That’s part of what it took for the Town of Tisdale to attract a second grocery store – a Buy-Low Foods.
“It’s been two years, from start to announcement,” said Al Jellicoe, Tisdale’s mayor. “I’ve still not completely settled in to the fact that it’s happening. It’s here. It’s probably the biggest thing that’s happened in Tisdale since the mall.”
Pilings for the more than 26,000 square foot store arrived the same day it was publicly announced by the Jim Pattison Group – Feb. 28. It will be located on the corner of Highways 3 and 35, directly south of the Beeland Co-op C-Store. The store is expected to open before Christmas.
Determining the need
When Sean Wallace arrived in Tisdale in November 2014 to become the town’s economic development officer, it was made clear to him pretty fast residents wished for a second grocery store. So he decided to find out if there was a market for it.
“Basically, I did a market analysis for a second grocery store and I found out that absolutely 100 per cent there was a market for a second grocery store,” he said. “I figure there’s 60,000 square feet of profitable grocery space available in Tisdale, so Tisdale would have no problem supporting two grocery stores.”
Once Wallace determined there was a market, the town worked to attract a new store.
“After we had done the research, we conducted a campaign and approached a number of grocery companies, some of whom I had contact with in previous jobs.”
Those companies included the Jim Pattison Group, which owns Buy-Low and Save-On-Foods, and Loblaws, which owns Extra Foods and Superstore.
Attracting Pattison
Buy-Lows tend to be built in smaller towns like Tisdale, Nipawin and Melfort, while Save-Ons tend to be built in larger cities like Prince Albert.
“Basically, what happened was I put together a proposal together with the statistics about the market here, I sent those off to Jim Pattison Group and presented a case that Tisdale would be an excellent market to invest in,” Wallace said.
That proposal was sent to the Jim Pattison Group on March 1, 2015. Wallace said the Jim Pattison Group would have confirmed through its own research if Tisdale would be a good market after receiving it.
“We evaluate new store opportunities on many levels, and in doing so, concluded quickly that Tisdale was a just great fit for us,” wrote Dan Bregg, the president of Buy-Low Foods, in an email. “We’ve been very appreciative of the proactive approach the [town] has taken to ensuring that its citizens have all the very best offerings available in their town.”
Tisdale will be the chain’s first store in Saskatchewan. The majority of its stores are in B.C.
“We think Tisdale is a great place to introduce our brand to the province of Saskatchewan and we are excited to do it,” wrote Bregg.
Other developments on way
Once the Jim Pattison Group decided to build, the town sold them the property – something that they had held for a development like that.
Of the 50 to 70 new jobs created, Wallace estimated around half would be part-time.
“I plan on having a job fair, probably in October, here at the Civic Centre, and we’ll be inviting other companies as well,” he said.
Jellicoe said this development is just the start to what the town predicts will be a record year for development.
“This is just a kickoff to a good year,” he said, adding that there will be economic benefits due to construction. “There could be up to 150 people in town working for the next nine months and that helps.”
“There’ll be some other new developments coming to Tisdale that their buildings will be constructed by that time as well,” said Wallace, “so I imagine there’s going to be a number of companies taking part in the job fair.”
One of those developments will be a Sobeys liquor store. The economic development officer said there would also be others, but added it’s the town’s policy to have companies to announce if and when they’ll build, not the town.
Community involvement
In the announcement, Bregg mentioned that Buy-Low would be working hard to get involved in the community before the doors opened. He confirmed that again over an email with the Review.
“Since our founding, a little more than 50 years ago, our company has had a practice of being involved in and, giving back to the communities that we serve,” he wrote. “This takes many forms and is different in each community – so it is difficult for me to say right now what that involvement will be, but we will certainly be looking for those opportunities as we get closer to the store opening and on an ongoing basis once we get up and running.”
