West-end grocery store to reopen using former brand name

IGA will reopen in west Edmonton after it closed two years ago in the same location.

What’s old is new again: residents in Edmonton’s west end will soon be able to frequent a grocery store bearing the same name it had for decades before it closed two years ago and briefly became a high-end food retailer.

A sign stood outside the Valleyview IGA on 142 Street at 91 Avenue on Monday, advertising that the store is hiring. Sobeys’ career website includes several postings for management jobs at an IGA store there.

Signs in the windows of the store that most recently served as one of two L’Oca Quality Markets in the Edmonton area also advertised for job applicants, while another informed passers-by of construction activity inside.

Both the Parkview and Sherwood Park locations of L’Oca closed down suddenly in March, their owners professing the difficulty of their business model. Its Parkview store lasted a little more than a year, the Sherwood Park one two years.

L’Oca replaced Andy’s Valleyview IGA, which had been in business for almost 60 years before owner Andy Taschuk retired. Andy’s was a beloved neighbourhood hub known for carrying a wide selection of kosher products and other fine foods.

CTV News Edmonton has contacted Sobeys – Canada’s second-largest grocery chain, which includes Safeway, IGA and its namesake stores – for more information.