Thornbury Foodland is no longer offering a delivery service due to a shortage of staff.
Brian Leduc, owner of the Thornbury Foodland announced over Facebook that the store has been overwhelmed with the volume of deliveries and curbside pickups and they simply can no longer continue the service.
Leduc explained that the store does not have enough staff to accommodate and suggests that residents rely on neighbours, family and friends to help shop.
When asked about stopping the service, Leduc told CollingwoodToday to direct its questions to Sobeys’ head office. At press time, Sobeys’ media relations had not responded to inquiries.
In mid-March, as the COVID-19 craze began hitting the local grocery store shelves, Leduc reached out to the community for assistance in managing the increase in business.
Both the Thornbury-Clarksburg Rotary Club and the Town of the Blue Mountains reached out to help organize volunteers to assist in delivering and sanitizing store carts.
Bruce Paterson, Thornbury-Clarksburg Rotary Club president says since that time, the local Rotary group was able to organize more than 140 community volunteers.
“Thanks to Rotarians, John and Beth White, members of the club and more than 140 community volunteers provided cart and basket cleaning as well as an unprecedented number of deliveries since March 18,” said Paterson in a written statement.
Paterson stated that Foodland would be installing enhanced safety infrastructure in the store this week and that staff would take over the cart sanitizing on April 20.
“As our efforts come to an end, I would like to thank the community for their support of Thornbury-Clarksburg Rotary. Without the community volunteers none of this would have been possible,” Paterson said.
Thornbury’s two other grocery stores - Gather Grocery and Goldsmith’s Orchard Market have confirmed that they will both continue to offer delivery service in the community.
“Yes, we are continuing to offer delivery and pickup,” said Debby Oakley of Goldsmith’s Orchard Market. “We are changing our store hours as of Wednesday to 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. to allow us extra time to fill orders but as is, we are currently booking 48-hours out.”
Gather Grocery is currently providing next-day delivery, throughout area including Collingwood, Town of the Blue Mountains, Meaford, Ravenna, Heathcote, Kimberly, Eugenia, Nottawa, and Wasaga Beach.
In late March the Town of the Blue Mountains announced that it would be temporarily assisting Thornbury Foodland and Goldsmith’s Market Orchard with grocery delivery.
“Our focus is of course on maintaining the essential services of the town but I think it is also important to help out the community when we can,” said TBM Mayor Alar Soever. “We have also had council members take a very active role in helping out. Whoever wants to sign-up and contributes a bit of time.”
Oakley confirms that town staff have been actively assisting the grocer in making deliveries to the community.
“Yes, they’ve been doing the deliveries Monday to Friday and we are so grateful,” said Oakley.
