The IGA Opened, 1957
Up to the mid twentieth century, Fenelon Falls was home to many general stores, which sold various food products and were typically independent, owned by a single family. Some were well established and dated back generations. Though most sold household staples like sugar, flour and salt, shoppers might frequent several stores to buy their weekly groceries. Typically, farm wives sold eggs and butter, and used the money to make their purchases.
Ray Wolfe, who grew up in a grocery wholesaling family, partnered with Chicago’s Independent Grocer’s Alliance to found Oshawa Wholesale Limited in 1957. That same year, he granted a franchise to John Sobko, who opened the IGA in a new building located beside the locks (at that point Fenelon Falls had two locks). The original supermarket comprised the north half of the building (later Stokes on Trent, now the Lil’ Wee Quilt Shop) and would be a very small store by modern standards. The entire produce section was smaller than the potato chip section of today. Good luck buying produce that was not in season unless it kept well!
To villagers of the day, the grand opening was an exciting event. Though it was not larger than contemporary general stores, it specialized in food, made an effort to offer a comprehensive inventory, and was associated with a larger company that made it possible to use the same supplier for most of the goods sold—saving a lot of time and money in comparison with general stores.
Before long, buying groceries at the supermarket became the norm and the IGA soon outgrew being a single shop on Colborne Street. In 1966, John Sobko bought the three adjacent stores to build a much larger supermarket, which was again expanded in 1983. The business moved to the south side of the bridge in 2001 and became Sobeys the next year. Over the years, some of the former general stores became variety stores, and today Fenelon Falls has one large and diversified grocery store, replacing the many smaller stores that existed when the IGA opened in 1957. It did not take long after the introduction of the supermarket for the multigenerational general store to become a relic of history.
