More Metro Vancouver stores have been hit by COVID-19 cases involving staff members.
An employee at a Coquitlam Safeway has tested positive for the coronavirus. That’s according to the grocery chain’s parent company, Sobeys Inc., which issued an exposure notification for its 580 Clarke Road location on Christmas Day. The company indicated the worker last worked at the store Dec. 22.
It’s not clear if any other staff or members of the public were exposed to the individual at the store s Burquitlam location.
Two employees at a Real Canadian Superstore in Coquitlam also tested positive for the coronavirus in the store’s third exposure notification in less than a month.
“The demographic has changed,” Waite said. “We’re seeing working people, mainly servers.” The pandemic has been brutal on the hospitality sector. “People come in here crying because they’ve never been in a food bank before and don’t know the process.” Yes, well, we’ve heard a lot of that this year, not just from CMS it stands for Cobble Hill, Mill Bay and Shawnigan Lake but from food banks in Sooke, Nanaimo, Duncan, the West Shore, the Saanich Peninsula, the Comox Valley… The good news? All of them, along with the Salvation Army, Mustard Seed Street Church, Victoria Women’s Transition House and a dozen other agencies from Campbell River to Mayne Island, just shared a quarter million bucks that dropped in their laps, unexpectedly, courtesy of the Times Colonist Christmas Fund last week.
E-commerce growth, Farm Boy and FreshCo expansion drive strategy
Spurred by ongoing robust sales growth in the fiscal 2021 second quarter, Sobeys Inc. parent Empire Company Ltd. is ramping up investment in e-commerce and fast-growing supermarket banners to propel market share gains.
For the quarter ended Oct. 31, food retail sales climbed 8.4% to nearly $6.98 billion (Canadian) from $6.44 billion a year earlier, Empire reported yesterday. Same-store sales excluding fuel rose 8.7% year over year.
The Stellarton, Nova Scotia-based food and drug retailer said the sales growth reflects heightened consumer demand amid the COVID-19 crisis, increased grocery retail share and the expansion of its FreshCo value supermarket chain in Western Canada, partially offset by lower fuel sales during the pandemic and temporary closures of stores converting to the FreshCo format.
Sobeys parent Empire ramps up e-commerce expansion as pandemic drives online demand theglobeandmail.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from theglobeandmail.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.