McKeen Metro now just Metro
By Roger Smith
The first family of groceries in the Glebe is out of the business.
More than a century after his grandfather set up shop on Bank Street, Jim McKeen sold McKeen’s Metro, surprising legions of loyal shoppers in a neighbourhood that has benefitted so much from the store’s charitable support.
Though the deal was more than a year in the making, the news only started filtering out as Metro advised the Glebe Report that McKeen, who’d owned and operated the store since the late ‘80s, was about to “transition ownership” to the company. The sale closed on November 26. Though some McKeen signs remain for the time being, the store is now owned by Metro and is being run by a corporate manager.
“Retail’s different now, it’s exhausting,” McKeen said in a phone interview a few days before the official handover. “We’ve been around for a long time, and we just hit our best-before date.”
Rebecca, Jim’s daughter and business partner, who’d been running the store for several years, was seen by some as the fourth-generation heir apparent to keep the dynasty alive, but with COVID, increased shoplifting and inflation, her father said the past five years have been even more challenging.
“It’s probably why she said she’s had enough.”
McKeen called back later to say he wasn’t ready to say more about the sale. He said the fire in March at the Glebe Apothecary (part of the building he owns, which makes him Metro’s landlord now) negotiating with Metro and leaving a business “I was born into” had put him and his family under incredible stress.
“I want time to think about what I say to the community,” he said.
The Glebe Report is sensitive to McKeen’s situation and has offered space in its next issue for him to tell his own story. Metro also provided a statement (see sidebar) that McKeen gave to the company, thanking his family, his staff and the community.
“The Glebe has given us countless fond memories,” he said, “and we are deeply grateful for the support and warmth we have received over so many years.”
He also said he’s known the new manager, Chris Shaeen (pronounced “Shane”), for many years, “and I am confident that the store is in good hands.”
James McKeen, the grandfather after whom Jim is named, opened his store in 1910 at Bank and Clarey, where the Running Room is now. His son, Harold, Jim’s dad, took over a store at First and O’Connor in 1931, then moved to the current location in 1955 to run an IGA franchise that would later become a Loeb and finally a Metro. From that first store until the recent sale, the McKeen sold groceries in the Glebe for 114 years.
Of Metro’s 230 stores in Ontario, Jim McKeen was one of the last three franchisees; the rest of the stores are corporately owned and managed. A franchisee has more freedom than a corporate manager to order different products and set different prices. In the days after the sale, headquarters staff met with every department to see how the McKeens did things and to determine what works and what doesn’t.
“We’re here to make things run according to how Jim ran it,” said Shaeen while also acknowledging there may have to be some changes to “integrate the franchisee system into the Metro system.”
His first move – handing out new Metro uniforms during a Staff Appreciation Day on December 12. And the next may be to spruce up the store.
“We have some ideas to make it a little more inviting,” he said, “and that’s what we’re planning to do.
The new manager grew up on Echo Drive and had a part-time job through high school at the Loblaw’s on Pretoria. After graduating from the University of Ottawa in 1984, he worked at and owned a couple of Loeb franchises. When Metro bought Loeb, he became a corporate manager and ran half a dozen Metros in Ottawa. He clearly loves his work.
“Every day is like a two-hour movie,” he says. “That’s how great my job is.”
Shaeen is divorced, lives in Orleans and has two kids, 36-year-old Tristan, a pilot, and 34-year-old Regan, a nurse. When they were little, the family lived for several years on Fifth Avenue in a house that Shaeen still owns and rents. Knowing the McKeens’ legacy in the Glebe, Shaeen admits he has big shoes to fill.
“I applaud the challenge,” he says. “I am a community guy to begin with.”
The McKeens set a high bar by allocating up to 10 per cent of annual profits to support local charities and events, like the Great Glebe Garage Sale, Taste of the Glebe, Abbotsford galas and so many more. Metro admits it’s a hard act to follow.
“We’ll definitely be matching them in spirit,” said company spokesperson Stephanie Bonk. “I don’t know we can match in numbers.”
While Metro is hoping for a smooth transition, customers and fans of the McKeens will be watching closely in hopes the future lives up to the past.
Roger Smith is a retired journalist and the Glebe Report’s copy editor.
