Sad news for the community of Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, on the island of Montreal, as the only grocer in the village is closing its doors following more than 85 years of service.
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The Richelieu Market was a local business well appreciated by residents of the area, while customers came up once morest closed doors in the morning.
For decades, the grocery store was owned by the Richard family before being sold to a cooperative in the Capitale-Nationale region, Solidarité de Bellevue.
The company in the Quebec region had the misfortune to announce the closure of the establishment on Friday. Employees, like customers, learned of the news via the social network Facebook.
“It’s like a bomb that fell on the city. It’s the only grocery store left […]“, was surprised a municipal councilor of Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Jean-Pierre Cardinal. According to him, a lack of funds would be the cause of the closure.
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Met by TVA Nouvelles, citizens of the city located in the West Island said they were dismayed to see this institution go out of business.
“They’ve been there for so long, it’s a family! We don’t know where they will go. We will hope for another store in Sainte-Anne which will reopen, ”underlines a citizen.
According to information obtained by The newspaper, the phenomenon surrounding these closures is quite widespread.
In 2021, 95 municipalities in Quebec did not have a retail business.
The president of the Federation of Quebec Municipalities (FMQ) shares the fear felt by several actors in the municipal sector.
“We made a choice at the Quebec level to occupy our territory. If we want to occupy this territory, more and more people are saying that we have to be self-sufficient in terms of food […] People shouldn’t have the impression […] that the services are not there,” explains Jacques Demers of the FMQ.
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