The southside of Port Alberni will soon be without a postal service as the closing of Fairway Market approaches.
The 10th Avenue grocery store, equipped with a Canada Post outlet, will be closing Jan. 28.
Canada Post spokesperson, Phil Legault said in an e-mail that Canada Post is evaluating options to ensure they continue providing the best possible postal service to customers in Port Alberni after Fairway Market closes.
“We are continuing with our efforts to secure a permanent location to provide postal services near our current postal outlet in the Fairway Market,” Legault wrote to the Alberni Valley News on Jan. 6.
“We would like to remind customers that postal services are also available at the post office located at 3555 Johnston Rd., only 4.4 km from the Fairway Market, and online at (website) CanadaPost.ca.”
Port Alberni Fairway employees received a Working Notice of Termination of Employment from Westport Foods Ltd. on Nov. 2.
The letter, obtained by the News, states that the company will not renew their lease that is up at the end of April 2017 for the Port Alberni store.
Close to 40 employees will be affected by the closure of Fairway.
Robert Jay, vice president of operations for Fairway Market, said the company is providing reference letters to those who request it.
“I know that some people have already moved on to other positions at other businesses and from what I hear they’re doing well, so that’s terrific,” Jay said.
Inventory clearout has begun at the store to prepare the building to hand back to the landlord.
“We’re having some good deals. We’re discounting all our products while supplies last,” Jay said.
“We would like to thank the staff and the customers that supported us over the years, it was a sad decision and a hard decision not to renew our lease. We still have nine other stores on the Island with the closest one being in Nanaimo.”
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