Joe McWilliams
Lakeside Leader

If you’ve been hearing rumours of changes to the fast food franchise landscape in Slave Lake, they might be true. Here’s what we found out last week from the Ferguson brothers – Brice and Gordie:

Domino’s Pizza is moving and the A&W by the highway is closing altogether.

“We’re relocating to the Cornerstone, where the flower shop used to be,” said Brice. “We’re hoping to be opening in November.”

The reason is the lease was up at the present location, and a renovation was due (per franchise rules). Brice says the move “killed two birds with one stone,” after the Cornerstone offered “a really good lease rate.”

As for the A&W, Gordie said it was a stretch to begin with to have two stores in a market the size of Slave Lake (the smallest in Canada, apparently, to have two A&Ws). So with the lease term coming up for renewal, and business being not as strong as it was a few years ago, the decision was made to close the store next to Domino’s.

“Let’s make it simple,” he said. “Put everything back in one store.”

Some of the staff will transfer over to the A&W on Main St., “but not all,” Gordie said.

Sept. 1 is the anticipated date for closure.

The two restaurants opened 10 years ago, in 2009.