Previous Issues
It's not easy being a monopoly
For the last several years, Zehrs has (mostly happily) borne the burden of being the only supermarket in town. While specialty shops like the Meat Merchant, Bredin’s Bakery and M&M Meats have maintained their share of the food dollar with consistently quality products, and while convenience stores and places like WalMart and Rexall have stolen the occasional impulse penny from our wallets, and while a few Uxbridgers are known to even regularly patronize stores in Port Perry or Stouffville, for the most part, when folks from any part of the Township, and from many parts beyond our boundaries, head out to do the weekly shopping, Zehrs is their destination. It’s fair to say that if we were to analyze where our budget goes for the necessities of life, the local Loblaws affiliate probably pulls in considerably more than 50 per cent.
Not that its customers haven’t done a fair amount of grousing as they emerged into the parking lot. Complaints about high prices, quality of produce or meats, slow stocking of the shelves have often been heard over the years. And you have to wonder if the store hadn’t wandered into areas like electronics or toys or children’s clothing or financial services, whether they couldn’t have done even a better job of food. When you’re the only game in town, you have to take the abuse along with the profits.
At the same time, Zehrs has done an admirable job of serving the community, making its meeting room available for various events, and allowing dozens of different organizations the opportunity to sell things to their customers. Not to mention the employment opportunities given to dozens of local people, both full and part-time. So we thank the management and staff of Zehrs for being there for us, when nobody else has been.
When Vince’s, the popular independent grocer from Sharon and Newmarket, holds its long-awaited opening next week (see pages 9 and 12), there’s no doubt that Zehrs will take a major hit, at least in the short run while we check out the new kid in town, and undoubtedly even in the long run, when Vince’s settles down to the market share it deserves. Inevitably, most of us will pick and choose, going to Vince’s for some items, to Zehrs for others, to the specialty shops for even others. That’s the beauty of living in a small town, all the markets are within minutes of each other.
And of course, as you learned in economics class, or within days of when you began to go shopping for yourself, the greatest glory of competition is lower prices. When Mr. Vince and Mr. Zehr are offering the exact same item, and you’re going to both venues anyway, whoever has the lowest price will persuade you to drop it in his cart.
So even if No Frills never opens on Brock Street East (and it certainly seems to be bogged down in the mud for the moment), for now, it’s enough of a blessing that we finally have one alternative; IGA seems so long ago.
So thank you, Zehrs, for keeping us so well fed and watered in the new millennium. But welcome, Vince’s, and vive la différence.
