Mike Deans Super Food Store Opens In Sharbot

Jeff Green | May 09, 2013

It was more of a whirlwind at the end that anything else, as crews have transformed an ageing Sharbot Lake Freshmart into a shiny Mike Deans Superstore in 23 days.

On Friday morning, May 3rd, the superstore opens its doors.

Shoppers will be greeted with a full produce section along the sidewall, a full meat sections at the back, dairy and bread to the left, and a limited selection of groceries. For now.

Only the original building has been completed for the opening this week. Two remaining sections are still under construction and plans are to have them opened within a short time frame, hopefully by the May 24th holiday weekend.

The other thing shoppers will notice is a new entranceway, floors and ceilings, and store design. In short, a brand new store.

Gordon Dean has been supervising the construction project.

“This isn’t the first time we’ve done this,” he said, one day last week from site as dozen’s of carpenters, electricians, and other tradespersons were working away.

“We have worked with all of the contractors a number of times, most recently earlier this year in Almonte, where we’ve just opened a new store. So they know the drill.”

The Sharbot Lake store is the sixth store for the Winchester based company, which operates its own warehouse and carries national brands and it’s own Nancy’s Fancy and General Merchant brands.

“We’re not shy about our what our stores offer,” said Gordon Dean, “Our prices compare favourably to a anybody in the region and I will stack the quality of our meat and produce against anybody else.”

The conversion of the Sharbot Lake store is typical of what the company has done elsewhere, taking over older grocery businesses in rural towns, and converting them in short order to the Mike Dean’s model of a store.

“We are a rural store, you can see that from our interiors, it’s wood over steel. And we serve rural communities with quality, fresh food at a very good price. That’s all there is to it,” said Gordon Dean.