By Rachel Fraser
The new owners of one of Valemount’s most essential institutions – the local grocery store – have been working non-stop to serve the community they’ve committed to. When the Valemount IGA reverted to corporate ownership last fall, it offered Blake and Lenora Dunphy an opportunity. Georgia Main Food Group, the parent company for IGA stores in BC, needed someone to take over who could tackle the issues with stock and staff that had become a chronic community complaint.
Purchasing their own store wasn’t on their radar, and they had to Google Valemount because they didn’t know where it was, but a former colleague of Blake’s thought they’d be a perfect fit. “We had honestly never thought of buying our own store prior to it being offered to us,” Lenora said.
Blake has had to adjust his city high-rise preferences, but Lenora has always wanted to live in the mountains. “For me it was a dream!” she said. They gathered their adult children, those children’s partners, and a nephew, and came as a family. One son stayed in Edmonton, but daughter Jade and her fiancé Ethan, son Matthew and his girlfriend Jenna, daughter Amber, and nephew Logan, have all relocated and pitched into the new family enterprise.
The change in title won’t come with any major shifts in operations since Blake and Lenora took over management. IGA is very community minded already, which reflects the Dunphys’ values. The couple enjoy helping out with community events and have had the opportunity to partner with local organizations, supplying groceries for events.
Blake says he appreciates the support of the corporate structure, and while they have accountability to the IGA brand, there’s also a lot of freedom. “There’s not a lot of oversight, so donations and stuff are my call. Local products, you know, we’ve had a few in, they don’t seem to mind. Vale Coffee is in our store, we had Scooters Pizza for awhile, we have the Village Greens.”
They also offer a 10% discount for local businesses using charge accounts as a means of mutual support. They have been very pleasantly surprised at how diligent account holders have been in keeping their accounts in the black. “People here are really on top of things,” Lenora said.
With the sale finalized, the two continue to tackle the twin challenges of keeping the store stocked and staffed.
When they took over management, one of the goals they had set out included a renovation of the back of the store for increased storage. The renovation, which will include a new freezer, a new cooler and a baler to compress their own cardboard, is running a bit behind schedule, but they hope it will be complete by the end of the summer, as it promises to be a “game-changer” in being able to store the volume of product demanded by the community, particularly produce.
They’ve added a third truck of deliveries every week to the two that were coming previously, but they say sales continue to increase, and it’s difficult to keep up. “We didn’t expect sales to pick up so quickly,” Lenora said, “but I guess we can attribute that to the community being so supportive.”
“It’s good,” Blake said, but staffing continues to be a challenge, and requires them both to work long days keeping stock on the shelves. “We don’t want to disappoint anybody.”
They are very thankful for the community that Lenora said has been very welcoming and supportive. “It’s been very easy to integrate into the community because everybody’s been so nice.”
