Woodside seniors devastated

By Joanne Oostveen - The Weekly News
Although Catherine Stevens has worked at the Pleasant Street Sobeys for barely a month, she said she is going to miss the customers and the neighbourhood that made coming to work so special.
Stevens and 53 of her colleagues at the Pleasant Street store were informed last week that the Woodside Sobeys would be shutting down for good on Feb. 26. The store has been a mainstay of the community for nearly 50 years.
"I love this community, and I am worried now that many people will not be able to make that trip on the bus to other Sobeys locations," said Stevens.
"A lot of people walk to this store and there are mentally-challenged customers that come here from the group homes nearby. I know they will find it tough once we are gone."
The sadness was evident as customers filed through the checkouts on the day after the announcement.
Woodside resident Lynne Pascoe chatted briefly with store staff as she packed up her groceries. She said she is definitely not happy to hear the news.
"I bought my house in this area so I could walk to everything and now I won't be able to," she said. "Maybe we should launch a petition."
All 54 employees have been offered positions within two newer and larger Sobeys that have opened in the past year - one on Baker Drive and one at Tacoma Drive - and at a third Sobeys at Penhorn Mall, which is slated to open Feb. 27.
Sobeys spokeswoman Jill Thomas-Myrick said the three new stores have generated more than 150 new jobs.
"The changes will improve service to the larger Dartmouth area and all the employees at the Woodside store have been offered jobs at other stores," said Thomas-Myrick.
Long-time Woodside resident and former councillor Bruce Hetherington said the closure is the sad end of an era.
"Sobeys told us last year they wouldn't be closing this store," said Hetherington. "They lied to us."
Hetherington said he had been talking with seniors in the area who were devastated.
"Their walk to Sobeys was part of their social life and now that will be gone," he said.
According to Woodside-Eastern Passage Coun. Jackie Barkhouse, the Harbour-East Community Council sent a letter to Sobeys last spring indicating that the community did not want to lose the Woodside store.
"My main concern is for the young families and students who attend the new NSCC campus, and for seniors in the community who frequented and supported this location," said Barkhouse. "It is not so easy to access other locations with current transit routes and connections. It is probably a $10 cab ride to and another $10 cab ride from the nearest grocery store.
"For many that is a hardship, and in difficult economic times, even more so."
joanneoostveen@accesswave.ca