(Image: PCC)
Less than a year after opening at the corner of 23rd and Union in the heart of the Central District with a vow to prevent “retail racism,” Seattle grocery chain PCC Community Markets is facing new demands in the neighborhood as its new CEO has added to the criticism with opposition to mandatory hazard pay for the city’s grocery workers.
In a letter to Mayor Jenny Durkan, company CEO Suzy Monford says Seattle should exempt small, local grocers from the hazard pay law and focus on vaccinating workers for COVID-19.
Last week, the Seattle City Council approved legislation requiring $4 an hour hazard pay for grocery workers at companies with more than 500 employees, some of the city’s most at-risk laborers. Durkan is set to sign the emergency measure Wednesday.
Monford says the profit margin for a grocery chain like the cooperative is too thin. “This ordinance disproportionately harms local, independent grocers like PCC Community Markets, which in 2019 had $1.7M in net income,” she writes. “That may sound like a lot, but to put that in context, PCC spent $3M – or nearly 2X 2019 net income — in COVID-related expenses in 2020, including staff member appreciation pay, bonuses and in-store safety protocols, since the start of the pandemic.”
Meanwhile, King County Equity Now is targeting the chain for contributing to “rapid gentrification of the neighborhood” and calling for a major overhaul to the PCC board.
“As an initial step to address this harm, we’re calling on PCC to expand its board membership to include at least two Black workers and one rooted Black community member,” the KCEN announcement reads.
PCC debuted at 23rd and Union last summer in a space initially lined up for the financially troubled New Seasons chain. The Seattle-region cooperative opened in the Central District acknowledging the history and the culture of the area as a Black center for the city with a vow to prevent “Retail Racism” — “We heard from many people in the neighborhood that they had experienced retail racism. We want our store to be a place where everyone is respected while shopping,” PCC’s opening announcement read. “As a result, we trained all of our staff at Central District PCC on implicit bias and how to prevent retail racism. We are rolling this training out to all of our stores.”
But KCEN says the company has fallen short of its promises and is calling for community support in the demands.
“PCC recently hired a new CEO who’s taking thoughts and questions from community,” the campaign reads. “We need y’all to flood this inbox with your thoughts, questions, and solutions on how PCC can rectify its role in the gentrification of the CD.”
A company spokesperson did not respond to CHS’s inquiry about the KCEN effort.
You can learn more about the KCEN campaign here.
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Much like the eviction moratorium.. Why doesn’t the city offer to fund the program? That’s the number 1 most wack thing about this pandemic is the gov mandates that offer $0 to cover anything thus everyone skirts the rules and we’re going on 500,000 dead.. Well done america.
The City isn’t funding the program for a simple reason….it is already strapped for money as a result of the pandemic, and the feds are so far not offering much help.
If you read the kcen page regarding PCC one of their demands is that the store be transferred over to Black ownership. There’s a lot of things about that that raise some eyebrows but one being that given that only about 10% of the neighborhood is black their demand to have a high number of black representation along with the demand the store be given to “the black community” is more than just a little ridiculous. And it’s a pattern of extortion. How can anyone not see this?
i know you wont agree with any of this but reparations is something we need to tackle in our society and also the idea of equity meaning some people need more than other people; someone making $95k a year getting $600 vrs someone making $25k a year getting $600.. The $25k person would need an appropriately adjusted amount.
PCC owes KCEN reparations?
Re: reparations, what they constantly say is they want to be “respected”. Not so much money per se. it points IMO more to a lost people in search of validation or something more spiritual they’re trying to figure out.
You obviously didn’t read their post about it. They want PCC to give the business to the black community. They also demand the business donate to the black community. There’s nothing spiritual about it any more than the mafia or white nationalists
Lots of people see it. But our current culture, especially in Seattle, doesn’t facilitate anyone (other than anonymous people on the internet) calling it what it is. You get shouted down and cancelled immediately.
Welp, that’s insane, but exactly what you’d expect with tribalism.
PCC has 15 stores, not just one in Capitol Hill.
Will someone explain to me why a nice, local grocery chain moving into a neighborhood is bad for the residents? I thought we were so deeply concerned about ‘food deserts’–are we also here to yell at anyone who tries to fix the situation?
Because we all like to complain about everything that isn’t perfect by our own definition of perfect. It’s much easier to tear things down than to build.
Your comment is a deep assertion of unwillingness to listen to alternative points of view. The article literally links to an organization that is critical of PCC and wants to do work to improve PCC and its relationship to the community, not simply shut it down. Certainly the group is not pro-food desert. But just calling a business “nice” is your POV based on PCC’s marketing. You have a ready made resource for information and you are asking for an explanation while being focused on ignoring information purposefully. So you’re simply gaslighting. Spend time seeking out information. Go to the meeting and express your POV or just listen.
They want to do work to improve PCC? They’re demanding PCC give the business to Black people. It’s extortion. The idea that PCC needs to be improved upon by KCEN is silly. Maybe it’s KCEN who needs to improve. And you talk about improving their relationship with the community. The only community who has an issue with them is KCEN, who has a problem with anyone who doesn’t give in to their extortionistic demands.
And at this point in time “the community” is a racial code phrase.
PCC does not contribute an iota to food deserts. PCC is for people who make an astronomical amount and walk down the hill to work at Amazon. It’s not an affordable place like Grocery Outlet, and it also went into a space that charged so much for rent that a real small local grocer or market would not be able to afford. That’s not contributing to people who were struggling in the community before they demolished 23rd Ave. PCC’s not responsible for that, obviously, but definitely a symptom of the inequity in CH and CD.
PCC didn’t replace the Grocery Outlet or the Safeway that is only two blocks away…. PCC from what I can see adds another choice and takes nothing away.
It’s certainly a whole lot better than when I moved here and there was a single store (the red apple that grocery outlet replaced) which was so bad that I’d trek up to the Safeway in 15th rather than shop the spoiled items there…
This reads like “stop picking on my gentrified spaces ,I like to pay more than a person should because of atmosphere that makes me feel better than others to me. Gross!
Like the other commentor I’d have to disagree and say that PCC offers an alternative grocery shopping experience. As someone who has a plethora of food allergies, PCC carries a lot of things I can eat.
Obviously it’s more expensive than Grocery Outlet but thats what you get when a lot of their products are organically made and ethically sourced.
As a 20-something who lost a second job during the pandemic and lives independently, I can still manage to shop there. And when I cant, I take my ass to Safeway or some other grocery store.
Sure would’ve been great if Town & Country had taken that space though. They offer a wonderful selection at Ballard Market, all the local stuff, lots of foods allergy and diet-specific folks need -and their prices aren’t absurd. And, they carry THE BEST product in the region. PCC could learn lots from them.
Yup. I like PCC in many ways. They carry real food, tons of local stuff and they do many great works around the environment. HOWEVER. PCC is likely THE MOST EXPENSIVE grocery chain in the region. That makes them tone deaf for a) not realizing as they grow that they need to lower -at least some of- their prices to attract people who aren’t upper-income and/or are easily put off by what they feel is an unwelcoming way of doing business that foregoes the good buys many who aren’t loaded (or minimalist hippies, etc.) seek. B) PCC’s tone deafness is particularly galling because they came into a neighborhood with a different history and culture than where most of their stores are located. Ethnically, this Central District store is their most unique. Yet, they brought their same hiker/soccer mum/well-to-do, well-heeled granola heads (etc.) ethos to the CD without ANY noticeable changes. Right in the middle of the biggest upheaval around bigotry, prejudice and gentrification in at least 50 years! They blew an opportunity to use this store to innovate in ways that truly involved the neighborhood in groundbreaking ways. Can you blame those who see them as nothing more than money-grubbing opportunists instead of enlightened, food desert-ending, non-profit coopers? When it comes to PCC, the food coop model has come far from it’s 1970s blossoming -just, when it comes to inclusivity, it’s moving in the opposite direction. Tragically, it appears that that is PCCs business model. We must demand better. Bringing in BIPOC leadership as part of the mix, offering staples at low prices, etc. -that’d be a good start.
Exactly. One person’s “evil gentrification” is another person’s “improving the neighborhood.” If you don’t like PCC, don’t shop there.
Not many people can afford to shop there. They’re pricing out the community that has been in the CD for decades. If that’s not gentrification, I don’t know what is.
Maybe you can’t afford to shop there but it’s pretty busy. As you stated you also have the option of grocery outlet which is what four blocks away?
Your elitism is sinful.
That message said yes, “revitalization” always sits better with people who enjoy gentrification, and then your elitism is sinful. Not sure why the first part didn’t post.
They’re a “reflection” of the gentrification that occurred in the 80s, 90s & early 2000s – not a cause. And if they’d replaced the Grocery Outlet or Safeway, both a few blocks away, then perhaps they’d be “pricing out” longtime CD residents. That’s not the case in this instance
It’s exactly gentrification.
Yes, “revitalization” always sits better with the people who enjoy gentrification. Your elitism is sinful.
Given PCC’s premium prices, it’s hard to understand why they can’t find a way to pay their workers temporary hazard pay?
One of KCEN’s demands is “How can PCC partner with the community to turn the store into Black-owned co-op?” Seattle is 6.8% black and the Central District is less than 20% black now. Seems like it would be reasonable to ask PCC whether the Central District store has 20% or more black employees and members? If KCEN wants to develop a fully black-owned grocery co-op they should go for it, I’d love to see one! but it’s not on PCC to hand them one.
https://www.seattle.gov/opcd/population-and-demographics/about-seattle#raceethnicity
It’s also blatantly illegal to hire for racial quotas.
But all the redlining can continue as long as disguised in clever language? Can someone please get all these NIMBY elitists who are so frightened of a more just future out of our backyards? Fundamental change now.
Premium prices because they don’t get the same cost of goods the big chains do. They only have 15 stores. Which explains the smaller gross profit margins. They also give back to the community 65 percent of their pre tax net profit. It’s a legit CO-OP.
Why is the CD less than 20% black now? Key word being now. Don’t be afraid. There’s still 80% set aside for I don’t know, what, white yuppie type people?
Just ask Sawant! She grocery shops there. She should have no problem backing the city on this one.
Sawant got a bit ticked when the man confronted her in PCC. There she was being filmed in a place she said would be the undoing of the neighborhood. What a hypocrite.
The city of Long Beach passed a similar “hazard pay” increase for grocery workers, and Kroger responded by closing two stores there.
Good
The Kroger corporation stinks IMO. PCC needs to pay their staff, thereby keeping their money where their mouth is. You can’t put the food on a higher pedestal than the people. Lastly, I don’t think anyone from the old neighborhood that could PCC’s prices.
Boycott Kroger! If you have done nothing but profit from this pandemic and can’t get on board with doing the right thing you should be left behind.
PCC is a co-op, which means the members own it. But I wouldn’t know thing one about how to reach out to other members. It seems like PCC has arranged things so that the membership is really not able to function as a group, allowing them to ignore the members’ input since the members can’t do anything to control them.
People in the neighborhood will vote with their dollars on whether they want this PCC in their neighborhood or not.
I used to live in a pretty economically depressed & diverse neighborhood in South Everett with what might be the shortest-lived PCC store inside a closed down Terry’s Thriftway on Evergreen Way/Hiway 99. Guess why the PCC closed? People in the low income neighborhood that wanted the store there couldn’t afford to shop there, and others were pissed about gentrification. So the PCC didn’t last more than a year or so, I wanna say. Ever since that grocery closed the supporting shops nearby, like a bakery and a home brewers supply shop, closed too and there’s been nothing but furniture liquidation stores in that storefront since. There’s an old Fred Meyers nearby so I can’t say it’s created a bobafide food desert, but it’s created a hole in the neighborhood nonetheless that’s been there for decades. I feel like PCC learned a lot from that expensive experiment or experience & won’t stick stores where they won’t be valued, and I learned that jerks better be careful what they wish for.
I personally don’t shop at PCC because all the locations around here have lines like a new Disney ride. How about PCC open some extra checkstands and generate jobs for our community?
These are really two different issues. KCEN made these demands on PCC before the $4 an hour hazard pay issue came up. KCEN is demanding PCC do an enormous amount of specific things just for black people that no other racial group of people is getting
It’s interesting to see PCC be positioned as the enemy here – the simple reason why their costs are higher are because they are sourcing their products in a more equitable and sustainable way. Safeway and Grocery Outlet are cheaper because they aren’t paying their staffs or suppliers adequately. PCC is a Co-op, which, if you know anything about grocery margins (typically about 1-3% profit for a regular store, let alone one with higher costs) they may not be profiting at all, especially with all the costs of recent expansion. I can’t be sure, but it’s possible they can’t even afford the hazard pay, even if they wanted to.