This store right here is where the love story of me and Jimmy began.
Back in 2002 this store began an extensive renovation to go from an Overwaitea Foods to a Save-On. I was hired to work at the deli when the reno was just ending and the new staff was being hired. Jim had worked at the store since 1998 and was lovingly known and referred to as Jimbo...he even had a name tag with that name on it!
Just a few days after our most recent visit to Nanaimo in early January we found out through some old Save-On friends on FB that this store was sadly being closed, and our friends would be transferring stores throughout the island or offered buy-outs. When we found out that the store would be closing on February 5, long before our next visit we were sad that we had not stopped in there on our visit. It was very rare for us to go to Nanaimo and not stop in there to say hello to whoever was there that did actually still remember us!
Here is the deli, on the closing day. So many great memories I have of working in there...and of falling in love with Jimmy there too. Many times when we were supposed to be working we would find reasons to wander over to each others side of the store. I worked there from the fall of 2002, through my 10 months of school at VIU, and right up until I started my job at the health unit in the summer of 2004. I hated being called Kimbo but once we became a couple it just became inevitable. Some of my funniest memories include paging back and forth together "Jimbo, call the deli" or "Kimbo, call dairy". Oh to be young and falling in love again!
Here is an old photo that our friend Sharon posted on FB the other day. This was Jimmy in his dairy aisle back in the day. For most of the 2 years that Jim worked at the store once we got together he worked in this department, usually working from 7:00 - 3:30.
Apart from a few drunken bar photos that are hiding downstairs in our photo albums, this is the first photo that I remember having of us together. This was taken in November of 2003 when we came to Powell River to visit the first time, which also happened to be Jim's birthday weekend. We had a joint party for him and my childhood friend Diana.
Another one posted by Sharon...I'm pretty sure this was taken at a very late Christmas party for the store that was held much closer to Valentine's Day! This would have been in early 2004 just a few weeks after we moved into our first place together...although we joke that we never lived apart after the day that we got together (he just never really went home again!). I lived on my own in a little 1-bedroom place right across the street from the store which was way more convenient than being at his dad's trailer in Harewood!
And now here we are, fast forward 12 years from when I started at Save-On and coming up on our anniversary in the summer. On the day of the store closing we pulled out our old Save-On uniforms and took some photos for fun, and to post to the 949ers group on FB. I wish we could have been there for the party they all had but did enjoy the comments some of our old coworkers left on our photo on the page! We'll always remember store 949 with love and good memories and wish all of our old co-workers success and happiness in their new stores or life paths.
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