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Dream turned nightmare for would-be OK Falls grocery saviors ends this fall

When Dahlia and Derek Millington and son Malachite arrived in Okanagan Falls in the fall of 2020, it was with the express purpose of filling a niche -- a grocery niche.

<who>Photo Credit: NowMedia</who> Scene at LIttle Falls Foods in early 2021

The community had been without a true grocery store since September of 2019 and the family had made the improbable decision to play the role of savior. They fully uprooted their lives in Alberta, relocated to the Falls, and began the process.

In hindsight, it was a pretty awful life alteration. Less than two years after making the Okanagan move, the food store they created in an old post office is closing for good.

<who>Photo Credit: NowMedia</who>

But that's not all. The family has dropped hundreds of thousands of dollars on the project and is now massively in debt. Dahlia and Derek have separated, and he's already moved back east. And Dahlia and son are trying to sell what's left of the venture to fund a move to the coast where they plan to launch a similar concept in a new, urban environment.

It's the only way they can think of to begin to whittle down that huge debt.

<who>Photo Credit: NowMedia</who> Dahlia (right) and son Malachite last week

The story of the Millington's Okanagan Falls misfortunes began when the couple swung through town in July of 2020 and heard about the local IGA pulling up stakes. A town without a grocery store. It was all over the news and the Millingtons bit.

They came back for good in October, bringing virtually everything they own with them, and tried to work a deal for the most obvious space in the area -- the hulking ex-IGA building. But the arrangement fell through. The Millingtons said it was too expensive.

Instead, they shopped around for a smaller, less expensive space. Probably one off the beaten path too to help keep the costs even lower. And they eventually found it in OK Falls' ancient post office building. It was just 1,000 square feet in size and it was a mess, but it was affordable.

<who>Photo Credit: NowMedia</who>

The re-routing from the large and highly visible ex-IGA space to an inconspicuous structure one-tenth the size with virtually no drive-by traffic could be seen as the Millington's first big misstep. If you don’t include jumping provinces without a firm plan in place.

Nevertheless, they signed a five-year lease in March of 2021. They'd adopt a warehouse/delivery model where shoppers would order product via Internet or telephone. There'd be no in-person shopping.

There'd be limited selection too, due in no small part to limited space. And meat was a no-go. Stocking and properly refrigerating it was a pricey proposition, and the Millingtons were vegetarians anyway.

Ultimately, Little Falls Foods never really came close to catching on. By the time it opened, local convenience and corner stores had already begun extending their grocery lineup in the absence of IGA.

And of course, the Superstores and Wal-Marts of Penticton -- the very same places that helped doom the IGA -- remained a popular draw for anyone who didn’t mind driving a half hour.

<who>Photo Credit: NowMedia</who>

But it's a pretty safe bet to say the death blow came when lower mainland grocery-industry veterans Mike and Kyle Belich opened a full-service AG Foods in the old IGA space.

By that time, Little Falls Foods had dropped standard grocery items in favour of a specialty and gluten-free menu, but it didn’t matter. Bellich's AG Foods officially opened in May with lots of meat and fully in-person shopping, and at just about the same time Dahlia opted to pull the plug.

"We decided two months ago," she told PentictonNow last Friday. "We need to be out of the building by October 1st.

"We had converted to a specialty food store, but the writing was on the wall. I wish I'd thought to jump ship a long time ago. It didn't occur to me that we could. I thought we were stuck here.

"But our landlord has been really reasonable letting us get out of the lease."

The failure wasn't for lack of effort. The Millingtons took a beaten down postal building and made it viable. They worked hard, and they did all the stuff and the community engagement you're supposed to do when you launch a new business. According to Dahlia, she hasn’t had a weekend off since they arrived.

<who>Photo Credit: NowMedia</who>

And they especially excelled at getting their name and story into the news. The community-without-groceries angle was compelling to begin with, but Dahlia did everything she could to keep Little Falls Foods in the media spotlight.

And today she's flat-out bewildered.

"So we have this really well functioning and efficient system and I don’t see why it can't work," she said. "We just need a larger engaged population.

"Why did they not engage here? I don't know. I tried to understand that ever since we opened. I reached out while we were in Edmonton to ask people to help name the store. We reached out while we were building it to help people have a chance to be part of it.

"We spent thousands to create catalogues to make it easier for people. We've given food away. We tried so many ways to reach out."

<who>Photo Credit: NowMedia</who>

We asked her if she's considered what seems to be the obvious -- that the underlying warehouse-delivery concept, at least as far as grocery goes, is flawed. That people prefer food shopping in person.

She believes it's not, laughingly saying that the traditional grocery store format is "stupid" and pointing to examples such as Amazon.com as a warehouse-delivery model that started small and attained tremendous success.

"Overall I think the model will definitely work," she said. "The overhead is way lower. It's easier to shop online. It's just what percentage of the market we can capture. It doesn’t work in Okanagan Falls.

"But there wasn't a more viable option at the time than what we did. We fed a lot of people. It's important that we came. Even though we're leaving financially devastated, we did a lot of good."

Husband Derek split the scene in June, not long after the store shifted from vegetarian to specialty/gluten-free.

"When we first started going," said Dahlia, "he was great at knocking on doors. After it was running well, his skills weren’t as needed. I eventually said this isn’t a healthy relationship. Let's stop."

Now Dahlia and son Malachite, 26, who writes and assembles the software that make the warehouse-delivery model go, try to sell off everything that isn’t bolted down and then head to the lower mainland.

He's not unhappy to be relocating.

<who>Photo Credit: NowMedia</who>

"I prefer cities generally, he said. "I came here to help my parents. Once it was stable and operating, I was going to go back to Montreal."

To say Dahlia is disillusioned with OK Falls is putting it lightly.

"It's beautiful here and there's a lot of potential," she said. "But this has not been an enjoyable experience.

"There's a low self-esteem here. They need more gratitude for what's in front of them. There's not a willingness to embrace what's great. I don't want to contribute to more negative self-esteem than there already is here."

But will a concept that failed miserably in a small Okanagan town work in a big city?

"I think practically, a 100% gluten-free store in a major urban centre is a good idea," Dahlia said.

<who>Photo Credit: NowMedia</who>

In the meantime, she hopes people will finally show up in the next few weeks to buy whatever's left before Little Falls Foods disappears.

"I put too much credit into what people say," she said. "I should really pay attention to what they do.

"People said they loved this store. But the parking lot was always empty. So they didn't really love it after all."



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