Melfort Extra Foods Makeover

FTLComm - Melfort - Wednesday, July 31, 2002

Melfort's Northland Mall is in the midst of a major face lift as Extra Foods is expanding almost doubling in size and Garry Stoneman has moved his sports bar downtown. Extra Foods in Melfort was already a large food outlet but from the looks of this contruction project is is going to become much larger taking on retail space in the mall which has been unused for several years. Though they are expanding they are not moving into the space vacated by the move by Mr. Stoneman to another larger location. In addition to the changes to the food outlet Extra Foods is opening its own gas bar. FastGas which had occupied a spot on the corner of this parking lot has moved West to a site just across the intersection from the Mac's Shell outlet. Retail food outlets have found that selling fuel is a desirable mix because it gives them an opportunity to use discounts and promotions to attract customers who will do their food shopping then use discount coupons to purchase fuel. Canadian Tire began this type of marketing and it has been picked up by Westfair's SuperStores and now Westfair's smaller food outlets Extra Foods are following this pattern. One of the first such outlets was in Melville where the Extra Foods installed a gasoline outlet on the corner of their parking lot and the ESSO across the street found it just to much competition and closed its doors.