Peavy Mart Closes All Stores in Canada, Two in Winnipeg

Peavy Mart started in Winnipeg in 1967. It presently has five stores in Manitoba, two in Winnipeg. The company head office is now in Red Deer along with their flagship location. All this year they have been struggling and it looks like this week it ends. The 22 stores announced for closure so far will not be enough. The entire company will shut down.

The National Grain Company of Minneapolis  set up National Farmways, a "super farm market" based in Winnipeg with their first store in Dawson Creek. In 1975 the company became Peavy Mart, a subsidiary of Peavy in Minneapolis. In 1984, the company was bought by Canadian owners and remained as such till 2025.

The Peavy Marts in Winnipeg were former Zellers locations on Pembina Highway and Nairn. They are a mix of farm supply and do it yourself shop. They had grown in size in company by taking over TSC stores a few years back and their association with Ace Hardware.

It would be appear that the association has failed and the expansion has left them with underperforming stores. It will be saw for the Winnipeg locations but the pain will be felt a lot harder in many of the rural locations where stores are closing.

Pony Corral to Close at Grant Park

Pony Corral Grant Park has had a long run of 28 years but the restaurant that took over the spot of the former Bombay Bicycle Club in 1997 could not get improvements on their leased property to continued on. The classic cars shows that ran on the property will move to their owned and operated location on Nairn. They also have their location on Pembina Highway.

For restaurant starved people of River Heights and Fort Rouge and for those wishing for a bite before or after a movie, for those wanting live music or to enjoy the classic cars on Sunday Cruise Nights, the Pony was the place to go. The Ginakes family have always staked a huge contributing effort into wrestling, classic cars and live music and it has been bestowed a love that comes from people gathering, eating and enjoying each other's company.

When the Pony Coral first moved into the corner restaurant, it shared the lot with Zellers. Then Walmart. Then Zellers again. Then Target. Then Goodlife Fitness and Canadian Tire. It seemed the only consistent thing was the Pony Coral. The Grant Park Mall has gone through a lot of changes.

The last time there was a major renovation of the restaurant was under the Bombay Bicycle Club in 1984 when they added space and re-did the interior and exterior. Before that it was Barnacle Pete's, a seafood restaurant. Even back then, the restaurant needed plumbing and sewer work and apparently still does. Today, it is need of roof repairs.

From 2000 to 2020, Pony Corral operated a restaurant downtown at 444 St. Marys Avenue in a former Keg location. The intention was to build on Donald Street but Covid put a damper on that. Oddly enough, it is The Keg that is building a Donald Street location.

There will be many people sad to see Pony Corral leave the Grant Park area. There will certainly be concern about how Sunday Cruise Night will be affected. Portage Avenue has been the site of cars cruising and while Grant Park is not super closer, it is closer than Pembina or Nairn locations. However, given the issues of cruising on Portage in recent years, perhaps a change will be good.

The restaurant business has always been a tough one but there have been a lot of closings so far. Rent is too high in some cases, restaurants are downsizing and patrons are not going out as late as they did pre-Covid. Even big national chains are still not back to full lunch service as were five years ago.

It is hard to imagine a restaurant that served so much of the community in a variety of ways besides besides serving food. They will be missed for sure. And it will be curious what comes next. It could be that only a national group like Earls or Joeys can afford that corner.