No Frills closure surprises East End community

A number of East End residents were surprised to discover today that the No Frills on Coxwell and Gerrard is closed for renovations — and will be for an unknown amount of time.

A sign was taped to the front door of Rocca’s No Frills this morning notifying the public of the closure. Throughout the day, conversations about the situation on neighbourhood social media groups speculated about the reasons behind the closure and expressed concern about the state of the building and the inconvenience the sudden closure presented. 

In an emailed statement, Kevin Groh, Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Communication, Loblaw Companies Limited — Loblaw is the parent company of No Frills — said that the store was “not closed due to an infraction” and that the closure would not be permanent.

“Rocca’s No Frills has served the community for decades and plans to serve it for decades more. To do that, significant building improvements and renovations are required,” he said.

The company “proactively made the decision to close the store” and “will be making significant improvements to the building.”

Groh said there is not a confirmed timeline for the renovations but they will open the store “as quickly as possible.”

In the meantime, he said that the owner of Rocca’s No Frills and the company are “doing everything possible to identify employment opportunities for employees at other No Frills locations during the closure” and that “in the interim employees will be provided financial support in excess of employment standards” and would be welcomed back when the store reopens.

To reports that some employees turned up for work this morning to find the store closed, he said that “every effort was made to inform employees of the store closure prior to this morning.”

The store will be providing a shuttle for customers from the Coxwell location to the next closest No Frills, Dave and Charlotte’s No Frills on Carlaw. That service will be available daily, starting Friday, every 15 minutes from 8:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. with no service between 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m.