(Images: CHS)
The last dingy bodega on Broadway appears to be out of business.
The Super 97 Cent Store remained dark Friday morning and its doors locked to customers stopping by for everything from cigarettes to “cheap Scotch tape” — one saddened shopper explained to CHS that tape down the street at Rite Aid is “too darned expensive.” A letter documenting nearly $18,000 in missed rent and late charges hung — taped, we’ll note — from the glass door in the building adjacent the Dick’s parking lot. Inside, shelves remain fully stocked, the fake eyelash rack at full selection, beer signs still illuminated.
We tried to contact the store’s ownership this summer to report on rising rents along Broadway as the street seems to continue to emerge from the economic downturn funk and a busy slate of transit construction. The grocery mart’s new neighbor Phoenix Comics moved into a space vacated by a longtime Broadway retailer in April. Our calls went unanswered and we were told nobody was available to talk when we stopped by the store. We have been unable to reach the owners, again, this time around.
The apparent closure could add another empty space along Broadway where there continues to be a steady churn of open retail units even with some large tenants like Office Max moving in. The end of Super 97 also means the last of Broadway’s small markets has closed. In 2009, we documented the end for Broadway Grocery at Broadway and E Harrison. Service stations at Roy and Pike provide facilities that can help fill any mini-mart gap.
Some Broadway longtimers have told CHS that implementation of the city’s “Alcohol Impact Areas” banning the sale of high-alcohol beverages helped to kill the little markets. A changing Broadway has also had a lot to do with it. Meanwhile, you’ll still find a few bodegas scattered around the Hill. Enjoy Benson’s and the others while you still can.
AW…such a nice Mom and Pop store with a genuine Mom and Pop. Good luck and best wishes from one of your long-time customers/friends and that includes Winnie! And thank you again for insisting I borrow that umbrella this Spring. You will be missed.
It’s sad to see hard working immigrant families get shut down. They were so friendly too. They probably couldn’t handle “the market” and the ridiculous price of rent on Capitol Hill..It seemed like they were doing good everytime I walked in. Well, I’m sure there will be a condo there in a few years. Say goodbye to the post office and print shop too :(
Sad to see it go. The soda cans smelled funny and the selection was… eclectic, but it was convenient and friendly.
Whoa! Did anyone else happen to check out the photo of the overdue rental document? Those poor people and that tiny little place was getting charged almost $4,000 per month rent! Small wonder they got into arrears, especially with the outrageous late charges that were incurred.
I am genuinely sorry to see this family and little shop go because I stopped in there as often as I could in order to purchase items — and could find things there that nobody else on the Hill bothered to carry. I wish these business-owners well but can’t say the same for their greedy landlord.
Hate to break it to you, but that rent is ridiculously cheap by Broadway standards. I can’t exactly recall the size of the space, but I’m betting it’s on the order of $3-4/sqft … which is basically about a tenth of anywhere else on Broadway.
Base rent may be 4000 but there are also triple net fees which are about 1000 per month or more. For a mom and pop selling soda and cigarettes, that is a lot of Mountain Dew.
These were truly good people and the new property management company and landlord who thought raising rent for doing absolutely nothing on a crumbling building in a terrible spot, this is karma biting them in the ass. Broadway boutique left saying they had a huge rent increase and bad people and it’s clear these guys had the same problems. I hope the copy center and new comic shop makes it but knowing what their rent is, it’s economically impossible to last long unless they have magic beans. I thought about relocating my business into the comic spot but the rent was ridiculous for the extra management fees they wanted to tack on for providing nothing. These are slum lords so I decided to renew where I’m at. Morris Phia is the property company and you want to ask for jay Azose.
Maybe a couple of months worth of vacancy will teach the landlords something. OTOH, you have to wonder what the assessment is on the land, and the resulting taxes. That might figure into it also.
Vacancies don’t evidently matter. The former M Street Grocery at 8th and Madison has been vacant for at least a year and no one is moving in there either.
That block is so rough, Africa Mama’s has been going been going out of business for a year.
I wish it would wrap it up, I hate the overwhelming smell of incense and being hassled by touts whenever I walk past.
Ahh newbs. Africa Mama is never going away. It’s been going out of business constantly for at least 15 years in different storefronts. They had a gap of a couple years but they’re a Capitol Hill staple. Enjoy the incense and drums!
It did not occur to me until reading this this was the same people moving over and over again. I thought I just witnessed the closing of 3 African importer stores since I moved to the hill.
CHS wrote about here
http://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2013/05/capitol-hill-developments-can-also-mean-bargains-for-retailers-looking-briefly-for-space/
Yes, it’s true that the “Alcohol Impact Area” legislation helped to kill certain sleazy bodegas on Broadway (and elsewhere), but that’s a good thing. Such businesses were preying on street alcoholics by selling cheap, high-alcohol beer…and thereby enabling their addiction. They were also thumbing their noses at the citizens of our neighborhood, who had to put up with all the antisocial behaviors of the alcoholics. We still have problems with panhandling, sleeping in doorways, vomiting, litter, etc…but there has been a noticeable improvement since the AIA was instituted.
wow, broadway and cap hill are changing!!! I guess it remains to be seen if the grander plan will work. Whatever happened to the idea of a high-wire gondola tram from broadway over lower cap hill to downtown and waterfront? I like THAT idea. Y’all take care of cap hill. Imma in Norfolk VA thru Aug 2014 and want to come back to a safe, sane broadway and cap hill. Rembr, freedom requires responsibility. Pick up your litter and pet poop. Smile. Be kind. Give til it hurts!
Oh! One of the really cool things about the 97 cent store is that it really WAS inexpensive. The mark up they did was really low, just judging from the stuff they sold from Costco. They could’ve jacked up all the prices and kept above water if it’d been their nature, but I don’t believe they wanted to run a store like that. Gosh…how rare. Heh…and I already miss ’em! I need some notebooks and gum and stuff today and now I’m at a loss. HAR…off to Safeway, which, BTW, is not the same Safeway I knew way-back-when [on 15th]. The original store was super-funky and I pined after it and mourned the loss for too long. I’ve lived on the hill since 1976, off an on. It’s been changing fast since forever, although because of the age of some of the buildings here there has been a move to bring a lot down and rebuild. Change. It happens. Here’s to cool new businesses taking the place of the old! But gosh, I’m really going to miss that Mom and Pop on Broadway.
sorry to see them go. i enjoyed the unpredictability and randomness of their stuff, kind of entertaining. always found something to buy and a pleasure dealing with the individuals, seemed like very nice people.
for fellow cheapskates: try the $1-store or dollar tree or whatever it’s called on univ.wy betw/45th+47th. lacks the ramshackle charm of super 97, but great selection. black olives always $1/can–can’t beat it.
[…] 97 Cent Store era has ended. Tipster says its OfficeMax era has begun. The new store in the Lyric building at 230 Broadway E is […]