Port Moody’s first Asian grocery store is coming in like a lion.
Meiga Supermarket, to be located in the former IGA at 221 Ioco Rd., will open Saturday, Feb. 3, with a lion dance at 10:30 a.m. and other festivities through the day, including a $20 gift card giveaway to the first 188 customers and food samplings.
The store will also feature works representing Vancouver’s Asian culture by artist Mikayla Hong.
The concept is a first for Georgia Main Food Group, that also operates the IGA and Fresh St. Market brands in B.C.
“We look forward to offering the community a new and exciting option when it come to shopping for Asian foods,” said Gary Sorenson, Georgia Main’s CEO, in a news release.
The company closed the IGA next to NewPort Village last September and since then has been renovating the space to accommodate a new open kitchen featuring ready-to-serve hot foods like dim sum, congee, BBQ duck, pork belly and ribs, as well as roast chicken and soy sauce chicken on rice.
As well, the store will offer fresh produce, meats, a bakery and juice bar.
The Port Moody location will be the flagship for Georgia Main’s planned expansion of its new Asian brand over the next three to five years. The company said the name, Meiga, means “beautiful family” in Chinese.
Georgia Main was formerly known a H.Y. Louie. The company has operated in B.C. since 1903.
The new Meiga supermarket will return Port Moody to its previous complement of two full-service grocery stores. The only other is a Thrifty’s in nearby Suter Brook Village.
But Bosa Foods is planning to include a 9,400 sq. ft. specialty food shop in a new four-storey rental building on St. Johns Street, Vancouver-based PCI Developments has proposed a 40,000 sq. ft. grocery for a project its pitching for Spring Street and Wesgroup Properties just applied for a development permit to begin construction of the first phase of its new Inlet District that will also include a grocery store along Ioco Road.
Meiga will be open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week.
