One of the largest grocery stores in Mississauga on the verge of closing: reports

A grocery store that has served Mississauga shoppers for decades appears to be headed for closure.

Reports persist that Highland Farms, located on Matheson Boulevard East at Hurontario Street, will shut its doors permanently in the near future, possibly as early as next month.

Shoppers say the store has not been restocking shelves and that workers believe the closure is imminent.

Officially, Highland Farms says “no comment” on the matter, but it’s no secret that the 14-acre site has been for sale since June and that owners of the family-run business are eager to leave the site.

Although no one has officially confirmed, Mississauga Mayor Carolyn Parrish revealed at a recent meeting of city council that the property has been sold.

The mayor suggested the operators of Highland Farms are tired of the long delays that have plagued construction of the Hazel McCallion Line light-rail transit route on Hurontario Street, which they believe have hurt customer traffic.

“I just found out that Highland Farms was sold because they are fed up, they are finished with it, and they are closing that grocery store,” Parrish said in reference to the effect the work on the LRT line has had on Highland Farms.

The LRT aside, many say the large, 93,322-sq.-ft. retail space has been in decline for several years and more recently seemed noticeably empty of shoppers.

At one time, the high ceilings, wide aisles, fresh produce and large meat, fish and pastry counters attracted an active customer base from across the city, but that has changed and has led social media users to speculate on the store’s future.

“There are so few people in there now, and it’s such a large space, it just seems so empty,” said one Reddit user. “At one time, everyone went there. The place is huge and you could get everything you were looking for. But everything points to them closing up.”

Even workers at the store are telling shoppers that the shelves are empty because the store is closing.

Others connected to Highland Farms also told INsauga.com they have been notified of a sale and impending closure.

The Highland Farms Mississauga location was built in 1981 and has remained one of the largest grocery stores in the city ever since.

A sales notice says the site is suitable for another retail outlet or for industrial use. The building has a total of 176,338 square feet (which includes the warehouse) of space and 1,100 parking spaces.

While many uses for the site are possible, one that may be ruled out is residential towers because the building and site are in the path of planes landing at nearby Toronto Pearson International Airport.