Mystery store: 225 King St. E., Bowmanville, ON

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Andrew T.
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Mystery store: 225 King St. E., Bowmanville, ON

Post by Andrew T. »

Any guesses about the original disposition of this store? Scouring the web, I can find a few lingering references to a Foodland franchise at this address...but that doesn't mean it couldn't have been built as something else before that. I want to say Dominion, but that may just be wishful thinking on my part.
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Andrew Turnbull
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Re: Mystery store: 225 King St. E., Bowmanville, ON

Post by Groceteria »

Dominion or A&P come to mind for me as well, but either would just be a guess. The black stone(?) below the windows looks very Loblaw-ish but nothing else does.
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Re: Mystery store: 225 King St. E., Bowmanville, ON

Post by Andrew T. »

This store is for sale, and the online real estate listing contains a blueprint of the layout...which may or may not prove anything. 13,250 square feet! (Why are Canadians still measuring things in square feet?)

A more modern Miracle Food Mart/A&P/Metro stands a block from this location. I wonder if this could have been a predecessor store? (Probably not, unless it was in the Carroll's-Grand Union days.)

I'm inclined to file it under "probable independent/IGA" for now.
"The pale pastels which have been featured in most food stores during the past 20 years are no longer in tune with the mood of the 1970s."
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J.R.G.
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Re: Mystery store: 225 King St. E., Bowmanville, ON

Post by J.R.G. »

This was an IGA back around 1999-2000. It likely opened as an IGA originally. It was a Foodland most recently. Here is a Google Streetview image from 2009:

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.9113803, ... 312!8i6656
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Re: Mystery store: 225 King St. E., Bowmanville, ON

Post by Andrew T. »

J.R.G. wrote: 28 Apr 2020 00:32 This was an IGA back around 1999-2000. It likely opened as an IGA originally. It was a Foodland most recently. Here is a Google Streetview image from 2009:

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.9113803, ... 312!8i6656
IGA it is, then.

This stretch of King Street seems to be quite the conduit of commercial development. In addition to the ex-IGA and the massive Metro at Bowmanville Mall, there also seems to be a former A&P three blocks west at 185. When Google drove by in 2007, that place still had a pill-shaped sign carcass out front. It has since been redeveloped as a Staples/Beer Store combination.

Of course, this brings up another mystery: If A&P operated at 185 King St E and also operated at the former Miracle Food Mart location at 243 King St E (verified in a 1978 newspaper ad) ...what was the timeline? Could both stores have been open as A&P simultaneously?
But I'll leave that for another day.
"The pale pastels which have been featured in most food stores during the past 20 years are no longer in tune with the mood of the 1970s."
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Re: Mystery store: 225 King St. E., Bowmanville, ON

Post by J.R.G. »

In 2000, both the Bowmanville Mall and King/Liberty locations operated as A&P simultaneously, with the IGA in-between. I would imagine Bowmanville Mall's (the former Miracle Food Mart) was converted in 1994. That was the hub of Bowmanville until the west end really took off.
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