It’s been a busy week at downtown Merritt’s new Save-On-Foods — formerly the Cooper’s Foods on Coldwater Avenue.

On Thursday night, the staff of the Cooper’s Foods closed up shop three hours earlier than regular, to begin an all-night effort to change over from Cooper’s Foods, to Save-On branded labels and signs. All told, more than 14,000 labels were changed in one night, said store manger Paul Davidson.

Although Cooper’s Foods and Save-On-Foods are ultimately part of the same Overwaitea Foods Group company, owned by B.C. businessman Jim Pattison, the change over does present some benefits to local Merritt shoppers, said Davidson.

“It means a lot stronger of a flyer… We have more pricing structures in place, more than 2,000 advertised items each week on our shelves. A lot more pricing, and a lot more sales,” he explained

After the store reopened on Friday, things didn’t slow down for an instant as the store hosted a hotdog sale fundraiser for B.C. Children’s Hospital, while the grand reopening of the store continued inside.

“We’ve been involved with children’s hospital for 20 years now,” said Davidson. “As of this year, we’ve raised 30 million dollars through the generosity of our customers in B.C.”

And the events just kept coming, as the store hosted a cake and coffee thank-you event on Saturday, to mark the success of the province-wide hospital fundraiser reaching its milestone.

“The children’s hospital is the number one charity we like to work with — it seems to touch everyone,” said Davidson.

Meanwhile, business at the new Save-On-Foods will continue largely as it did under the Cooper’s banner — as Davidson pointed out that no staff members were let go or changed over with the branding switch.

“Everyone who worked here last night is here today,” Davidson said.