Grocery store won’t be the same without Irma

Irma Goulet, retiring from Phi’s Independent after working for the Niagara Stone Road grocery store for 50 years, wanted to go quietly.

When she arrived at the store for her shift late last week and saw the large sign announcing her leaving, she knew that wasn’t to be.

“I thought that was a bit of an overkill,” she laughed, after having asked that there not be a fuss made of her decision.

She told The Local she has been saying for a year that she was going to retire when she turned 65. “I wanted to give this to myself as a birthday present, and it’s really happening.” 

She says she wasn’t sure store owner Phil Leboudec believed she was really going. “A lot can change in a year,” she said, but with her birthday looming Monday, her last day was Friday.

“I don’t feel like I’m 65,” she says. “I feel really good. And I’m in good health.”

That was a goal of hers, to make sure she retired with her health, so she and her husband, who stopped working four years, would have time to spend together — so many people make retirement plans, and then aren’t healthy enough to enjoy them, she says. She didn’t want to wait too long. “I want to have time to enjoy life while I still have my health. Not everyone does. If I wait another five years, I might not.”

Goulet says they aren’t planning on doing anything right away, although they are talking about travelling across Canada, but no decisions have been made about when or how.

“I’ve been working for 50 years,” she says. “It’s going to take a lot to get into the retirement mode.”

Goulet started working at MB Foods when she was a high school student living in Virgil. Wally Bogusat had taken over the store from his father, who was still working in food storage, using the building across the parking lot.

She spent three years as part-time staff, going to school and sometimes helping her mother with farm work, and then 47 years full-time. 

When she retired it was with the title of front-end manager, a job that has brought some challenges during what she calls a “strange time.”

Although part of her job has been dealing with customer complaints, a challenge during the pandemic, working with people, customers and the staff, “was the best part of my job. I’ve seen customers come in with their babies, and they aren’t babies any more.”

Those who have problems want to talk to somebody they know, she says, “so they talk to me.”

She has become attached “to quite a few of the customers. That’s what’s going to be hardest. I’m going to miss them.”

She will still be doing her grocery shopping at Phil’s, though, so she will be able to keep in touch with staff and will undoubtedly run into some of her former customers at the store.

And she will have lots to do to keep busy, she says.

“I knit, I read, I like ceramics painting. I’m not concerned about being bored. I’ve got quite a lot of interests. Now I’ll have time to do more of the things I enjoy.”

As much as she’s been a fixture at the store for a long time, she says, “I know they’ll manage. Phil has good help. That’s all he needs.”

She loved her job, and feels especially fortunate to have worked in this community.

“The people I work with, the people I meet, they’re like family to me. I’m very thankful I was able to stay on for so long.”

Leboudec says Goulet will not be easy to replace. “I know I will learn very quickly how much we perhaps took her for granted,” he says. 

“I’ve been reflecting on this day for a while. From day one, when I took over, Irma has always had my back. That is something I will always appreciate. This store has been her baby for a very long time. She’s very modest about it, but over the years she has had a profound impact on the community. It’s going to be difficult not having her around.”

Leboudec says for the 17 years since he took over the store, “we’ve worked very closely together. She’s seen my kids grow up. We have had many good conversations, some about work and some personal. We can sit down and talk, unload to each otters. There aren’t many people you can do that with.”

He agrees the staff feel like family, and sometimes exhibit family dynamics, including the occasional disagreement. But they always get worked out, “and at the end of the day, you’ve had a good day.”

Goulet, he says, deserves a rest, especially after a difficult two years, and he’s glad she’s going to get it, although she will be missed at the store and in the community.

“I might own the place,” Leboudec continues, “but she’s been the face of it for a very long time. More people know her than know me. We’re going to miss her for a whole lot of reasons.”