Fairway Market in Westshore Town Centre is closing permanently on Saturday after 36 years of operation in the Langford mall.
Triple Crown Foods Ltd., a licensee of the Fairway market grocery store brand, said it will not renew the lease it has held at 2945 Jacklin Rd. since 1988.
Staff at the store confirmed the impending closure, saying some were told late last week after banners went up showing prices of most of the remaining stock were being reduced.
The Fairway brand remains in Langford with a store on Goldstream Avenue in downtown Langford that opened in 2018.
“We have enjoyed servicing the Westshore community in this location since the late 80s,” Triple Crown Foods said in an emailed statement to the Times Colonist on Tuesday. The email was signed by Triple Crown Foods Ltd. and Fairway Markets.
A call to executives at Fairway for comment was not immediately returned.
“Triple Crown Foods Ltd. would like to thank all our customers for their support over the years,” said the statement. “Most of all, we would like to thank all the staff who have been our strongest supporters through the years.
“We appreciate and value the years spent with all who have worked with us. We wish them the best in their future endeavours.”
The Fairway Market chain goes back to 1963, when Chinese immigrant Don Yuen opened the first store on Gorge Road. Yuen started working at his uncle’s Duncan grocery store and then in the Honeymoon Bay sawmill before going into the grocery business on his own.
The company, still operated by the Yuen family, has nine stores today and bills itself as Vancouver Island’s largest independently owned grocery chain.
