Anniversaries are usually happy occasions, but an upcoming one is bitter for Emily Ramdas.
September will mark 40 years since her parents opened Ramdas Foods, a West Indian grocery store in the Montreal Borough of LaSalle. But it closed permanently the last day of August.
“There’s like nothing going on in my head because I think I’m numb” she said.
The store was the first West Indian store in the city. Over the span of four decades, it served as a home away from home for Montreal’s Caribbean community.
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It sits in a strip mall on the south side of Dollard Avenue, not far from the LaSalle fire station. Business had been difficult for years, but last year it suddenly got worse.
“The businesses on this side of the street have been doing very badly because of how they did the renovations on the road,” explained long-time client Veronica Webster.
“It’s very difficult to get into the businesses.”
The borough of LaSalle recently reconfigured a section of Dollard Avenue. Borough mayor Manon Barbe told Global News in the spring that there were just too many accidents.
“So we decided politically that that street would not allow any left turns when you leave a business,” she said.
That meant drivers heading south on Dollard could no longer turn left to get to the stores.
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Ramdas says the change has made things complicated. Many of her clients who drive to get to her store had trouble accessing it, so they wouldn’t show up.
As a result, business has plunged.
Drivers have the option to do a U-turn to access some stores, but not everyone finds it safe. Merchants complained to the borough, but they say officials refused to budge.
“People are driving a car so they have to develop a new way to get to where they want to go,” Barbe told Global News last April.
A pillar of the community
Ramdas said she tried, but her loved ones couldn’t save the store.
“It’s hurt the family emotionally and financially,” she said. “Emotionally in the sense of this has been home for us for a long time.”
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Clients are in shock about the sudden closure, said Webster.
“Everybody is very sad,” she said.
“We can’t believe it.”
Ramdas is hopeful they can re-open somewhere else and they are looking for investors — but clients fear this might be indeed the last of Ramdas Foods.
“This place has been like a pillar in the community,” said Webster before walking out the door for the last time. “We’re really going to miss them.”