SASKATOON -- Rhonda Kelly knows her way around this store than most. She’s been working at Safeway in Saskatoon for 39 years, many of those years spent at the Mayfair location on 33rd Street West.

“I started at this store in 1981,” Kelly says.

“I think this is a perfect fit for this area. It’s very much a community store and all the people in the neighbourhood really missed this store because a lot of our business was walk-in traffic,”

The Safeway was shut down in March while its parent company Sobey’s worked to rebrand it as FreshCo location, one of four in the planned for the province.

Kelly says the store is a hub in the community that she expects the many regular customers she's formed relationships with over the years will be happy to have a grocery store back in Mayfair.

The store's owner Chris Fowler is also no stranger to working in grocery stores. He said he’s been around produce and checkout aisles since he was a teen.

Fowler moved from Calgary to run the store and says he is looking forward to carrying on the location's tradition of serving the community.

"I’m really excited to serve the people of Saskatoon and the people of Mayfair specifically,” Fowler says.

“It’s been non-stop with people checking in, checking out the Facebook page. Stopping in to say ‘How are you doing? We can’t wait until you’re open.'"

Ronald Reinhart has been living in the area for over 20 years and often travels by bike. 

He says he is looking forward to again having groceries closer to his home and not having to make the trip to Walmart anymore. 

“At that time I was worried but now I won’t have to,” Reinhart says when asked about concerns over the Safeway closing. 

Claire Nelson also lives nearby and says she is happy to see a grocery store return to 33RD and Ave C. 

She says a friend of hers lives just around the corner and has mobility issues from a disability. 

“She usually would come shopping here. I’m sure (when it closed) she was like ‘oh I have to go far out of my way.'"

She said she is looking forward to giving her friend the news that the grocery store is back around the corner again. 

“It was a good place to shop before but it’s kind of cool there’s a new place,” 

The grand opening is set for Thursday morning at 7.

Three of the new FreshCo locations will be in Saskatoon. Mayfair, Confederation, and Market Mall, and one will be in Regina. 

The Confederation location is also set to open on Thursday with the Market Mall location set to open sometime in August according to Fowler.