Downtown Shopping

Big talk in the city has been about building a downtown grocery store that would service the thousands of downtown residents.  Since the mid-to-late eighties, there hasn't been anything, unless you included the little grocer that existed a couple blocks north of the City Hospital.

The morning radio crew, whom I listen to as much as I am able, were discussing this subject this very morning, peppering their report with jokes, as per the usual.  That's when another long lost memory suddenly flashed into my mind. I suffered a TBI a few years ago and lost most of my childhood memories along with...  Well, to be honest, I've lost a lot of memories, so when something, anything pops into my mind, I celebrate it. This is one of those memories.  I hope I can do it justice.

I remember as a small child, getting up on Saturday mornings and if I wasn't allowed to stay home and watch the pathetic collections of cartoons that our local TV station would air, I'd be dragged into the city to go grocery shopping with my mom and my great-aunt, Chrissie.  The grocery store of choice was at the Midtown Plaza.  The Dominion was the grocery store located at the Midtown.  It was great.  My mom would do the shopping and following her purchase, they'd put everything in large tote bins, place it on a cart and sent down to the basement where we could drive up and pick it up later.

I remember, as a tiny kid, climbing on the chromed barrier that separated the front of store from the rest of the mall, filled with bustling crowds.  The mall seemed much more busy back then.  It's busy now, but not to the capacity it was then.

After my mom paid for everything, we'd tour the mall, visiting many of the stores, before finally stopping for lunch at one of three locations.  There was a restaurant at the (then) Simpson-Sears (later it was shortened to just Sears) or an Orange Julius that was located directly across from the Dominion or the Smitty's that was located to the north of the Orange Julius, just around the corner.  It faced the (then) Bank of Nova Scotia (later renamed ScotiaBank).

I remember if we, my sister and I, were especially well behaved, we'd get a chocolate cigar from the Laura Secord chocolatier that was located kitty-corner from the elevators that connected mall shoppers to the underground parking and up to the (then) CN Towers, which at the time, was apparently Saskatoon's highest skyrise, which is kinda sad by today's standards.

When it was finally time to depart, we'd make our way down to the underground parking.  My sister and I would race to see who got down there first.  One took the stairs (me) and the other would take the elevator.  After locating the car, we'd drive around to the pick up area for the Dominion store, hand over the placards that identified our grocery bins and the young lads would pack everything away in the trunk.

Another memory I have of this experience is when we'd arrive at the mall, my mom with us kids in tow, would head up the back entrance into the grocery store, which in retrospect, may have been an Employees Only route, as I don't recall seeing any other traffic moving up and down those steps other than store employees.  Also, it was dark and dingy, not something that a prestigious shopping facility would be proud to present to the general public.  🤔 Hmm. Shortcuts.

As time pressed on, over the years, the trek to go downtown to shop was too congested and we'd find shopping closer to the farm, namely the Safeway at the newly minted Confederation Park mall.  I never liked it as much, though.

As stated above, I heard the Cruz-FM morning crew, Stacie and Clayton, talking about the possibility of building a downtown grocery store, further discussing possible locations, one of which was the Midtown Plaza.  I texted in and commented on the "Safeway" that was located at the Midtown Plaza of my youth.  Clayton replied to my text with a comment that made me feel ancient, "Little before my time! Sorry bud! - Clayton"  I know that he didn't intend the comment to be as snarky as it sounded, but boy.  That one sent me for a loop. 😟

I was mistaken in thinking it was a Safeway grocer at the Midtown.  It was actually the afore mentioned Dominion.  Safeway was located down the street and one block over at the Hudson's Bay Company department store (aka The Bay) and there was an OK Economy located at the old Army & Navy Department store, a couple blocks east of the Midtown Plaza.  All long lost memories now. 😔

Another report came out stating that over half of the people living in Saskatchewan are under the age of 40.  That being said, all these memories from my infancy and youth are going to disappear completely.  I was able to find some stuff online, via Wikipedia, which means someone gave a shit at some point, and the Saskatoon Library, which unless someone is looking for that information specifically, no one will ever discover it's history.  Sad isn't it?