Article by Louie Rosella
Originally posted on Mississauga.com
May 30, 2018
A new grocery store is opening on the former site of a legendary community grocer in Mississauga.
The News has learned that Iqbal Halal Foods, with its one location in east Toronto billed as “the largest halal South Asian grocery store in Ontario,” will be opening in July at 4099 Erin Mills Pky., in the plaza that housed the “legendary” Michael-Angelo’s grocery store until last fall.
Michael-Angelo’s, a longtime grocer and staple in Mississauga for 30 years, closed and Four Seasons Marketplace, which was being operated by the Starsky Fine Foods family, who assumed the lease from Michael-Angelo’s, opened in its place.
However, Four Seasons management confirmed in an email to The News Tuesday (May 29) it’s closing its doors by the end of June and everything in-store is now being offered at a 50 per cent discount.
Signs advertising a liquidation sale and closure were up on the store’s website and the building itself, for weeks.
Four Seasons has sold the store to Iqbal Malek, president and CEO of Iqbal Halal Foods.
The new store has been subleased to Malek, he said, and will be known as “Iqbal Foods Halal Superstore” when it opens in about six weeks after renovations.
“I’m excited and the community should be as well,” Malek said in an interview. “We’re extremely unique and different and we will offer customers some different products and quite a new experience.”
In addition to carrying a plethora of mainstream grocery items and produce, the Iqbal store will also offer unique products and cuisine focused on South Asian culture.
“We have done a study of the (western GTA) and found that there is a huge South Asian community in Mississauga and other municipalities,” he said.
Malek said the new store will include about 35,000 square feet of retail space, a hot foods section and a meat department and will be committed to “quality, freshness and reasonable prices.”
The new store will employ about 125 people, all of whom will be from Mississauga, Malek said. He also didn’t rule out hiring a few employees from the Four Seasons store.
Many of those employees will be out of a job, they say, while a few others are being relocated to other Starsky locations in the GTA.
As for concerns from residents that the new store will not meet the needs of the surrounding neighbourhoods, Malek said people should keep an open mind, come into the store and have a look at the products and prices.
