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Edmonton’s latest MEC store hopes to rope in extra customers with a wider assortment of clothing and bicycles as well as traditional climbing, skiing and camping equipment.

MEC, formally known as Mountain Equipment Co-Operative, last weekend closed its original Edmonton location in a former Safeway store at 102 Avenue and 124 Street and moved about six blocks north to a $14-million two-storey outlet in the Brewery District.

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“The old store wasn’t meeting the needs of the roughly 250,000 (members) in the Edmonton region,” store manager Craig Binch said Tuesday during a tour, adding MEC doesn’t own the building it is vacating and it’s for sale.

The new 3,800-square-metre flagship, holding a grand opening Sunday, is almost double the size of the old one and slightly larger than the other local outlet in South Edmonton Common.

This allows the 165 staff, 45 more than the former location, to offer more selection and expand such increasingly popular areas as children’s products and bicycles, where customers will be able to ride on rollers to test bikes that can cost up to $10,000.