South Okanagan family business grateful for community support after break-in on the heels of arson

Photo: Contributed

A local family-owned grocery store is grateful to the community for an outpouring support after a devastating long weekend break-in.

Global Grocers, which has stores in Oliver and in Penticton, had a smash-and-grab incident at their Penticton location just before the weekend began.

The thief only stole lighters, but caused severe damage to the front door and caused the family — who had been hoping to have a relaxing weekend celebrating a family wedding — to scramble around repairing and cleaning the store, and dealing with RCMP.

They posted about it on social media, and the support came flooding in.

The family posted an update Monday.

"We would like to say thank everyone with our hands joined and head bowed. Thank you for offering us the support, kind words, cheering us up with positivity and being there with us when we needed you," they wrote.

"We had one attempted break in and two break ins at our Penticton store over the span of eight months. Even though we like to always look at the positive side, all this has put us on the edge and we sometimes feel exhausted. We are trying our best to keep our focus on being a productive member of the society, helping others in need, serving our community, knowing our customers, making our stores a fun place to visit."

The latest break-in comes on the heels of an attempted arson at their Oliver store in March, and they are still dealing with that clean up.

"Penticton city council and courts, take action, businesses are suffering! We want to see local economy growth and cities/towns flourishing," the family wrote.

They finished their heartfelt post with a thank you to Total Restoration Services and the RCMP, plus a final shout out to their customers.

"Our lovely customers bring us so much joy, pride and a reason for us to keep going."