Happy Valley-Goose Bay mayor calls loss of grocery store blow to community
The mayor of Happy Valley-Goose Bay says the loss of a local grocery will have big effect on the community — but the store will come back.
Early Saturday morning, fire gutted NorthMart on Hamilton River Road.
"They are one of the two largest grocery stores in our area, and to have them shut down, it's a blow to this community," said Mayor Wally Andersen, who added NorthMart has provided a service and been a part of the heritage and culture of Happy Valley-Goose Bay for a long time.
The mayor said the store served a lot of people on low and fixed incomes who often have no transportation.
"NorthMart was their store. That's the store that they would go to," he said.
Sunday morning saw a fire at the former Cozy Corner building, about a quarter of a kilometre from NorthMart, on Grand Street.
The buildings' proximity to each other has fuelled speculation that the fires are related, but the mayor wouldn't comment.
"There's a process here that we go through, and the RCMP and whoever they get, other people to do the investigation, they do their job," he said.
The mayor said NorthMart management met with employees on Sunday to reassure them that the store would be restored.
"Ever since Saturday morning, many people that I talked to said, 'Look, make sure that they keep their store going. We want NorthMart to keep on going,'" he said, adding that cleanup has already started.
"To know that they're going to go ahead and put the store back to where it was is good news for this community."
Cozy Corner started as Jim's Restaurant in the '60s. The restaurant and bar recently closed, but a barbershop was still active in the building, said the mayor.
"Whether or not the building was being run as a business or not, it's still a part of our heritage," he said.
"That building, Jim's Restaurant [was] one of the first established restaurants in Happy Valley. To lose a building that holds a lot of heritage and culture, certainly is sad that a building goes in this manner."
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