- by Anne Finlay-Stewart, Editor

I know I am not the only Owen Sounder who has stopped in the dark on their way home from the GTA to pick up some groceries at the Foodland in Markdale. It's close enough to home to pick up milk or even ice cream.

These days if you're driving north through Grey Highlands you will see the shape of shopping yet-to-come on the east side of Highway 10. The new Foodland is slated to open on February 6, at the same time as the existing store closes. 

Following a similar model to the Foodland that opened on the Sunset Strip on Owen Sound's west side last year, the thirty-five year old brand wants to serve their current customers while marketing to people its own age and the way they shop and eat.

More and more people order their food from home from the Foodland website, or by phone or email or fax (yes! Owner Bill Graham tells me people still use fax.) Some order to pick up on their way home from work; others get their groceries delivered TO their work.

I had always pictured the primary users of a grocery delivery service as the elderly and shut-in, but I am way out of date.  Parents who don't want to shop with three kids on the way home from hockey, millenials and Mennonites who don't own cars, young professionals who use the app on their phone, as well as those who need the full-service drivers to bring it all right in to the kitchen – all of them use the delivery service.

An impromptu holiday party? Foodland has a wide range of beer and cider - still new to the grocery-store landscape in Ontario - and full catering service from veggie and fruit or deli platters to bakery trays.  If unexpected guests arrive over the holidays or the kids eat more than you thought they possibly could, you can pick up fresh sushi, ready to eat meals and salads, or the specialty cut meats and seasonal veggies for making a feast at home - 24 hours a day. And of course, same day delivery.

Foodland will be open 365 days in 2020 - closed only Christmas Day.