Yellowknife (Feb 09/05) - Yellowknife's Winks convenience store will soon be no more.

The location is under new management and has become a part of the Mac's Convenience Stores Ltd. corporate family.

Abdullah Al-Mahamud, general manager of the new Mac's store that's replacing Winks in Yellowknife, said $1.5 million worth of renovations are planned for the location. - Stephan Burnett/NNSL photo

Abdullah Al-Mahamud, the new manager for the store, said Mac's actually bought the Winks chain six years ago, but the local owners continued to operate it as an independent franchise until now.

Now the store is corporately-owned with Al-Mahamud acting as the dealer in charge of day-to-day operations through his company, Mohau Rasiklal NWT Ltd.

"I recently acquired a dealership contract to operate this store," he said. "I'll run it for them and do maintenance for the store."

Al-Mahamud has four years experience with Mac's including two as a manager.

Currently the four full-time employees are all new to the city having made the move to Yellowknife with Al-Mahamud.

"This store is going to sell $70,000 a week when we're done," he said. "So we'll hire at least two more people from the community soon."

Approximately $1.5 million will be invested in store renovations between now and this summer, said Al-Mahamud.

He also said everything from the coolers to the fast food service will be upgraded.

"We'll have a sitting area for coffee and we'll be introducing new bakery products," he said.

Mac's will also introduce five Seattle-based coffees in the near future.

Eventually the look from the street will change with the addition of a new sign and computerized gas pumps.

Although quite new to the city, Al-Mahamud said he's been very happy with his new home.

"For me, being from Winnipeg the temperature is not a big difference," he said. "The people here all seem to be very friendly."

-- with files from John Curran