Post Pandemic Trends ~ Corner Stores, Proximity & Aging in Place

Price Tags Reader Ray read my  post on the Return of the Corner Store and reinforces the importance of the neighbourhood store for convenience, independence, and aging in place.

Ray says: I grew up a 5 min walk from McGill Grocery in the 1950’s & 60’s. There were actually three small grocery stores close by, the closest to me was also on McGill, a block west of the McGill Grocery at Penticton.

Having a grocery store on our North side of busy McGill Street, meant that my mother could sent me to get milk, or the odd item of food, or frequently used household supplies. I could also go there when I walked home from school, or when my friends and I were free. My mother walked or took the bus everywhere. She did most of her shopping on Hastings St., unless she caught the bus on McGill Street to go to Woodwards downtown.

In her later years, my mother relied heavily on McGill grocery. Access to that store helped her to ‘age in place’.I feel badly for parents who can’t walk to neighbourhood services as I did, who don’t know most of the people they get their supplies from, and often don’t even know their neighbours.

Now I live in West Point Grey. We moved here because it enabled my father-in-law to live with us. Here he could walk to the Safeway, and to the shops on 10th Ave a few blocks away.However Safeway has now closed, and many other shops on 10th Ave have closed. Without those shops, I fear aging in place will be more difficult for us.

I hope the experiences with Covid-19 will increase the efforts increase the viability of grocery stores and other local shops. They help create the more walkable city we need.”

Images: Fred Herzog & GlobalNews