Something big is coming this summer to the Prairie Sky Co-op Food Store.

"Right now we're working on converting the former cafeteria area into the new liquor store," shared General Manager Kevin Arthur. "It'll be a full-service liquor store, including a walk-in cooler, and wine and spirits section. It will be approximately 1,500 square feet in size."

He said while the size of the area was spatially deceiving, a portion of the bakery section is also being allocated to this new store-within-a-store.

"What you saw of the cafeteria was only a part of its operation. It had a kitchen in the back that serviced it, and stuff that was of no use once we closed the cafeteria, so all that space is being used for the liquor store," he explained. "You'll enter the building in through our normal entry doors, and then there will be an entrance from the sales floor into the liquor store. We may look at just going back to a two-way door there for convenience." 

Arthur said they it will be a full-service offering, a one-stop shop, with their pharmacy and full food store, fresh bakery and meat store. 

"We expect to be open before the summer, but of course, if there are any problems with getting equipment for it, that could delay us some, but our goal is to be open by summer." 

"Because we're a Co-op, this liquor store is going to have access to exclusive Co-op labeled products particularly, for example, something like the Coop Gold lager that's made in Saskatchewan with malt barley that's grown in Saskatchewan, something we're really excited to bring the Weyburn this one here is really because we're all about local, and it's brewed by Great Western in Saskatoon, and there's a farmer close in the area, and he grows the malt barley. It's quite a story." Read more HERE.

Arthur added this has been a long time coming, and it will be followed by further renovations throughout the entire food store and pharmacy.

"The addition of the liquor store is only the first phase of a much larger renovation that we're planning for the food and pharmacy department. So once the liquor store opens, then we'll work hard on renovating the whole place to make it a much better experience for our customers," he shared. "The age of the refrigeration, some of the other equipment, just necessitates a renovation. But we will be updating our decor, so it's going to be quite a change look of it, deli, bakery, produce areas, it's going to look completely different when we're done, but that's going to take a little longer than this liquor store." 

Coop members can earn cash back and equity on liquor sales in the same way they do for food, pharmacy, fuel, food, and home centre purchases.

DSI Contracting is the general contractor responsible for this project.

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