New digs

A locally owned grocery store officially opened the doors to its new location on Golf Links Road Thursday, one week after it permanently closed its County Fair location.

"We were trying to keep all three of our stores," said Quality Market manager Dan Stezenko. "We didn’t want to close County Fair. It didn’t work out in our lease negotiations with the landlord. We’re glad that we still have two stores in Thunder Bay."

Construction on the new store began in October 2009 and the first customers walked the aisles Thursday morning.

"We were busy right from the get-go," Stezenko said. "There were people right at 7 a.m. when we opened the doors … When we were doing construction, there were people coming to the doors every day asking ‘when are you open?’"

Stezenko said it felt great to see all the people streaming in through the door Thursday morning.

"We’ve been working very hard to try to get open as quickly as possible and we’re very excited because the sore turned out pretty much exactly how we had envisioned," he said.

The new Quality Market highlights all the areas of a grocery store that offer fresh items: produce, bakery, deli and butcher shop.

"We really specialize in that part of the business," Stezenko said. "That combined with the floral and other parts that are fresh. I think we’ve done a pretty decent job of coming up with a really good store that shows off all that side of it."

The store still carries most regular groceries, but also offers more unique, imported types of items like spices, sauces, soups and jams.

While the building of the new store wasn’t completely smooth sailing, Stezenko said he’s happy with the way everything turned out.

"We worked with some great people; the contractor was awesome," he said. "We’re very happy with the way the building turned out. It’s very functional and I think people are really going to enjoy shopping here."

A grand opening is planned for sometime in September.