The Loblaw group of companies will be closing one Whitehorse store only to open another – in the same location.

Extra Foods, the yellow grocery store in the Qwanlin Mall, will close Sept. 6.

Your Independent Grocer, another Loblaw company, will open in the same space in the late fall, Loblaw officials confirmed to the Star in emailed correspondence this morning.

“With the transition of the Extra Foods in Whitehorse to a Your Independent Grocer, our goal is to bring a great overall shopping experience to our customers in Whitehorse,” officials said.

“We will increase assortment and variety in the store and focus on new fresh programs such as our salad and juice bar, full-service bakery and deli departments, fresh in-store cut and prepared meat and seafood and easy meal solutions both hot and ready to heat.”

Your Independent Grocer website alludes to its expansion into the territory on its website stating: “YIG has also expanded into Western Canada with 11 stores in the provinces of BC, AB, SK & NWT with more growth in the horizon.”

Continuing on at the store will be franchisee Mark Wykes, who has been in the grocery business for 25 years.

Loblaw described Wykes as “passionate about customer service and committed to offering his customers the best possible shopping experience.

“He looks forward to continuing to service the Whitehorse community as his store transitions from an Extra Foods to a Your Independent Grocer,” Loblaw stated.

Another 30 full- or part-time staff will be added, raising the number of employees to 120.

The current staff at Extra Foods have the option of moving over to the city’s other Loblaw store – the Real Canadian Superstore – while the Loblaw location at the Qwanlin Mall is closed for renovations.

“The support of our colleagues and an increase in product ordering will help the Whitehorse Real Canadian Superstore prepare for the Extra Foods closure,” Loblaw officials said.

Extra Foods has published coupons in the last two Friday editions of the Star offering percentage discounts at the till.

Some items have had their prices reduced to help clear out the inventory.

Other grocery stores around the city are also preparing for a potential increase in customers with the closure of Extra Foods, which was known as SuperValu in the late 1970s and ’80s.

Management at both the Riverdale Super A store in Riverdale and Bigway store in Copper Ridge said they plan on bringing in more stock, though neither plans to hire additional staff for the brief period the city will be down one grocery store.

“We have a pretty good staff,” Scott McCarthy, who owns the Riverdale store, said this morning.

He noted he doesn’t think it would be fair to hire additional staff for such a short period.

Extra Foods’ three months of marketplace idleness “will have a huge impact” on grocery stores around town, McCarthy said.

His store will bring in more stock for the period Extra Foods closed.

At the Bigway store in Copper Ridge, manager Ash Jurovich said the store will probably “bump up” its orders.

While there are no plans to hire more staff at that store either, Jurovich said that may be reconsidered if there’s an increase in customers that gets to be overwhelming for staff.

“We’ll see (what happens),” he said.

Management at the Super A in Porter Creek declined to comment this morning.

Before the Superstore opened, choices for Whitehorse shoppers included Food Fair and Fair Value Foods, both of which closed years ago.