A FreshCo grocery store is coming to Mic Mac Mall, and if you haven’t heard of the chain before, you’re not alone. It has more than 150 locations across Canada but has never had a single store in Atlantic Canada. That’s about to change.
What is FreshCo?
FreshCo is Sobeys’ discount grocery banner. Think of it as the Sobeys answer to Loblaw’s No Frills, same idea, different parent company. It launched in Ontario in 2010 as a replacement for the old Price Chopper brand, and has since expanded across Ontario and into Western Canada. The stores are designed to offer lower prices than a full-service supermarket by cutting back on frills like elaborate displays and a wide selection of premium products.
What makes the local arrival a bit ironic is that FreshCo’s ultimate parent company, Empire Company Limited, has been headquartered in Stellarton, Nova Scotia since 1963. The discount banner they built over 15 years just never made it home until now. HRM, with no existing FreshCo was an obvious gap.
Why is this happening now?
Three FreshCo locations are planned for the region. The first is expected to be a conversion of the existing store on Cobequid Road in Lower Sackville. A second is planned for Bedford Place mall, taking over the former Peavey Mart space. The third and most prominent is at Mic Mac Mall in Dartmouth, where FreshCo will occupy roughly a quarter of the space left behind when Hudson’s Bay closed last June.
Discount grocery has been on a tear across Canada. No Frills, FreshCo’s main competitor, has been steadily expanding and is itself reportedly planning two new HRM locations, one at Dartmouth Crossing and one in Bible Hill. Canadians have been trading down from full-service supermarkets for years, driven by the inflation spike of the past few years. Walmart has also been leaning harder into grocery, using food as a way to get shoppers through the door and into the rest of the store. Dollarama and newly arrived American chain Dollar Tree are further signs of just how much appetite there is in this market for value-priced shopping.
Why Mic Mac Mall specifically?
The mall is in the middle of one of the most significant growth periods in its history. Halifax council recently approved the M District development, which will transform the parking lots surrounding Mic Mac Mall into a new neighbourhood with up to 4,600 residential units across towers ranging from seven to 40 storeys. A few kilometres away, Dartmouth Crossing is already under construction on its own residential buildout, with more than 2,500 units planned and the first phase, two towers of 12 and 15 storeys, already underway.
That’s a lot of new residents who are going to need somewhere affordable to buy groceries.
When does it open?
No opening date has been announced for any of the three HRM FreshCo locations.
Haligonia is not a media outlet, and we do not employ journalists. While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, this post is for informational purposes only. This post was aided using AI tools.
