Co-op planning second liquor store

New location to be in Rosewood

The Saskatoon Co-operatives Association says it will open a new liquor store on Saskatoon’s east side before the end of the year.

The 10,000-square-foot store — Saskatoon Co-op’s second in the city — will be built at the Meadows Market in Rosewood, the association said Friday in a news release.

“We see a tremendous amount of traffic past our door (in Blairmore) and of course it’s a similar situation over here,” Saskatoon Co-op chief executive Grant Wicks said Friday morning.

“It’s another large regional shopping centre and we’re very excited about the potential for sales there,” Wicks said of the store, which is expected to have a walk-in beer cooler and a large selection of products.

Despite opening the city ’s first private liquor store in 2014, Saskatoon Co-op was shut out of the Regina and Saskatoon markets when the Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority issued 11 new permits in late 2016.

Many of those permits went to Sobeys, which has since opened a store at Preston Crossing, leading Federated Co-operatives Limited to suggest the government was “tilting the playing field” away from local businesses.

That changed last summer when Liquor Stores North America, one of the companies awarded a permit in Saskatoon, changed its mind and told SLGA it would no longer open a retail outlet in the city, according to the Crown corporation.

SLGA then offered the permit to Saskatoon Coop, which was the runnerup in the initial request for proposal process, SLGA spokeswoman Stephanie Choma said Friday in an email.

In addition to Costco, which opened in 2016, the Meadows Market is also expected to house a Visions Electronics, a Marshalls and a McDonald’s — all of which are scheduled to open this year.