A Vancouver Asian supermarket chain is almost ready to open its fourth store on Kingsway, inside the old London Drugs near Joyce Street.
88 Supermarket shared a new behind-the-scenes video on its Instagram, with one line that stood out: “OPENING SOONER THAN YOU THINK!”
No opening date has been announced yet.
The video shows a store that looks very close to opening though.
The blue aisle signs are up for grocery, frozen foods, produce, deli meats, and dairy and eggs.
Staff in 88 Supermarket jackets are stocking shelves, and pallets of rice are stacked in the aisles waiting to go out.
There’s a sushi and banh mi station with its signs already in place, plus a row of seafood tanks and a “Hot Pot Meat” sign over the meat section.
The post calls it “SOMETHING BIG,” and says “the countdown is getting REAL.”
We first reported in March that 88 Supermarket was taking over the building, after a “Coming Soon” banner went up across the front.
The London Drugs there closed on February 2 after about 40 years on that corner.
It had been a neighbourhood anchor since 1985, with a pharmacy, a Canada Post outlet and a grocery section.
88 Supermarket is a Canadian-owned grocer that has been around since 2008.
It specializes in Vietnamese, Chinese and Filipino ingredients, along with other Southeast Asian products, and its stores carry fresh meat cuts and live seafood.
Right now it has three stores, on Victoria Drive and East 49th Avenue in East Vancouver, and on Garden City Road in Richmond.
Kingsway will be its fourth.
For shoppers around Joyce, that means a big Asian grocery run close to home again, without heading to Metrotown.
Until the doors open, the store’s Instagram is where the opening date will land first.
88 Supermarket joins other recent Vancouver openings like Tap & Go Market at the Sheraton Wall Centre, Local Pizza on Granville Street and Pholicious on Dunsmuir Street.
Address
3328 Kingsway, Vancouver, BC
