Article content continued
“It was very important to us to put that value on local,” Keelor said. “And I think, overall, customers are embracing the newness.”
Keelor said while sales at Co-op grocery stores and liquor stores spiked during the early days of the pandemic, that was offset by a sharp decline in fuel sales at Co-op gas bars as Calgarians stopped commuting to work and generally stayed closer to home.
“I believe fuel will continue to struggle for some time because there are some people who are going to be permanently working from home now. It could be months, it could be years. So, for our petroleum business there is, I think, a permanent alteration,” he said.
Keelor added that for anyone working in the grocery business, the first six months of the pandemic have been a learning experience — from navigating the ever-shifting supply chain to new safety protocols to “learning the value of compassion and communication.”
Compassion and communication have come in especially handy since the introduction of Calgary’s mandatory mask bylaw, Keelor said. While he said there have been some instances of customers becoming confrontational when asked to wear a mask by staffers, they are becoming less and less frequent.
“I think other businesses are also having the same issue from time to time. But, for the most part, I’d say Calgarians have got it (the mask message),” he said. “We’re really in a better spot than we were a few months ago.”
Twitter: @AmandaMsteph
