Tag Archives: groceries

Seattle rolls out $1.7M grocery plan including security funding to thwart shoplifting — but will it reach Capitol Hill and the Central District?

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(Image: Lam’s Seafood Asian Market)

Seattle will spend $1.7 million in an effort to support grocery stores including a new Office of Economic Development program that will offer one-time facility and facade upgrade grants to grocers powered by Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design standards and Seattle Police Department crime data.

The boost for “local neighborhood grocery stores” is a last minute rollout for Mayor Katie Wilson’s administration of an item from last year’s budget debate as City Hall is preparing to dig in on its new 2027 spending plan. In 2025, West Seattle council rep Rob Saka pushed for the spending over concerns of food deserts taking shape in the city including in Delridge, South Park, and Georgetown in Saka’s district. Seattle was “not gonna bodega our way out of this” when large supermarket chains pull out, Saka said last year.

The $1.7 million might end up being spread pretty thinly. The plan announced this week directs resources across three core areas: Continue reading →

In another multimillion land deal for a Capitol Hill grocery, Hillcrest Market has new ownership

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(Image: Google Maps)

Another of Capitol Hill’s vital neighborhood markets has a new owner amid reminders that Capitol Hill’s relentless waves of redevelopment continue to churn.

In June, CHS reported on new ownership for Bellevue Ave’s much-loved City Market as part of a $7.5 million land deal for the property.

Now, Summit Ave E’s Hillcrest Market also has a new shopkeep.

Randhir Singh has taken over the grocery after buying the property for $3.95 million late last year, according to King County records. The litany of permits required to run a neighborhood market including licenses for cigarette, tobacco, and vapor product retailing, beer and wine sales, and lottery sales finally transferred under the new owner earlier this month. Continue reading →

Wilson takes on grocery affordability with proposed ban on surveillance pricing in Seattle

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(Image: CNBC)

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson made an $8 slice of pizza a campaign issue. Now she is getting ready to do battle with a core tenet of modern commerce, seeking to ban so-called “surveillance pricing” on groceries in the city.

The proposed ban arrives as chains have begun deploying digital price displays at Capitol Hill-area stores though it is unclear if any dynamic pricing is happening. Online is another story with analysis and anecdotes showing algorithmic pricing already commonplace for Seattle shoppers.

While the focus for the mayor is grocery affordability, her administration’s legislation set to begin its path Friday with the Seattle City Council would reach beyond Safeway and QFC and be applied to all large retail chains and online shopping sites selling grocery goods for “offsite consumption.”

“This policy stops corporations from using personal data to squeeze more money out of shoppers,” Wilson said in the announcement of her new initiative. “They’re not compiling all this information about us to charge us less; they’re trying to maximize what they can charge. Businesses are free to set their prices in a fair and transparent manner. The same product, in the same store, should cost the same no matter who’s pushing the cart.” Continue reading →

More changes for Capitol Hill groceries and the neighborhood’s community of corner shops as City Market has new owners in $7.5M land deal

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(Image: King County)

Here’s hoping City Market’s signs will continue (Image: @sarah_f802)

A $7.5 million property deal will further change Capitol Hill’s grocery and corner market landscape. The new owners of 1722 Bellevue Ave at the base of E Olive Way as it curves off Capitol Hill are also taking over the much loved City Market grocery, according to city and state permits.

The changes for City Market line up with a May real estate deal to acquire the 1919-built, 5,073-square-foot grocery building from its longtime family ownership.

The new owners also operate a mini mart in Lacey, according to state records.

None of the involved parties including longtime City Market owner Kurt Vold have responded to CHS’s questions about the changes.

City Market fills an important spot in neighborhood shopping needs somewhere between large scale QFCs and Safeways and convenience marts and service stations. The shelves include grocery staples, along with limited fresh produce, and an offering of prepared foods and sandwiches. In fact, the Daily of Journal of Commerce referred to City Market as a “deli” in its brief on the property sale. Seattle’s City Market has operated independently and was not part of the larger “City Market” brand operated by Kroger.

In 2022, City Market’s closure of its Crystal Clean neighbor brought a deep round of nostalgia to the neighborhood as readers mourned the passing of the last laundromat on Capitol Hill.

The family of a late longtime Capitol Hill grocer will benefit from the sale. Continue reading →

‘The right price’ — How Central Co-op did NOT open above Capitol Hill Station

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(Image: Central Co-op)

By Matt Dowell

A decade ago, the timeline for Central Co-op — and maybe Capitol Hill’s grocery store economy — split.

In 2016, Central Co-op was vocal about its push to be the anchor grocery store in development above Capitol Hill Station. But as it looked to the future and the changes in the grocery business, Central dropped its labor-backed expansion bid citing cost concerns.

Ten years later, Central Co-op is on the upswing and doing fine on E Madison according to new general manager and CEO Sue Spang.

Spang stepped into the role last August following a decade that brought many challenges to the business and to grocery stores in general. But a resilient staff and some surprising grocery economics quirks have kept the days bright at the 16th and E Madison store.

“A lot of us have been here a long time,” said Spang of the Co-op staff. “Coming out the other side in a positive way is great.” Continue reading →

Capitol Hill butcher Rain Shadow Meats loses lease at Melrose Market

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(Image: Rain Shadow Meats)

 (Image: Rain Shadow Meats)

The end of 2026 will bring the end of neighborhood butcher Rain Shadow Meats inside Capitol Hill’s Melrose Market.

One of the original tenants of the famed Capitol Hill market, Rain Shadow has lost its lease and plans to close its Melrose Market butcher shop — and hopefully find a new home – before its deal runs out in December, founder and owner Russ Flint announced Sunday night.

“Almost to the date I opened for business—April 23, 2010—here we are, 16 years later, at a crossroads. My lease is expiring, and the landlord has chosen not to allow me to re-sign and remain a tenant in Melrose Market,” Flint said in the announcement.

“When I opened the shop, I was 30 years old, and the thought of losing my lease never even crossed my mind. Alas, here we are.” Continue reading →

Shoplifting, guns, drugs, and ribs: 13 arrested, two trespassed in latest Capitol Hill ‘retail theft operations’

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(Image: CHS)

The East Precinct reports it has made more arrests, drug and firearm seizures, and trespasses in its “retail theft operation” activities at Capitol Hill’s busiest grocery stores.

The Seattle Police Department and its General Investigations Unit say recent operations at the Harvard Market QFC last week and the 15th and John Safeway in February targeted rampant shoplifting and organized retail theft, resulting in multiple arrests and a small haul of recovered weapons and narcotics.

The most dramatic moment of the recent operations occurred in February at Safeway, where plainclothes officers reported they were monitoring a couple at the self-checkout. While the pair paid for a few items, they allegedly bagged nearly $90 in unpaid merchandise. When the arrest team moved in, they discovered the male suspect was wanted on a felony warrant out of Snohomish County for narcotics distribution. Police say a search of his cross-body bag uncovered 4.6 grams of fentanyl and a stolen Polymer80 Glock handgun, which had been previously reported stolen in a separate Seattle incident. Continue reading →

A decade later, Madison Valley is close to welcoming 82+ new neighbors and a PCC grocery store — UPDATE

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The Arbory development (Image: Studio Meng Strazzara)

No apples at the Madison Valley PCC, yet, just paperwork (Image: PCC)

Ten years ago this month, CHS first reported the plans in Madison Valley for a new grocery from PCC Natural Markets to be part of a mixed-use development replacing the neighborhood’s City People’s Garden Store.

This week, the permit paperwork is finally ready to begin the process of building out the 25,000-square-foot grocery store as construction of the 82-unit Arbory mixed-use development has reached its “tenant improvement” phase. Continue reading →

Amazon Fresh’s end at 23rd and Jackson: $171M property deal, 92 Central District workers, Council member calls for Trader Joe’s

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(Image: Jackson Apartments)

Buried in the news that Amazon is closing its Amazon Fresh grocery store at 23rd and Jackson is one of the largest Central District real estate deals in recent history.

The six-year-old mixed-use development where the grocery is closing just sold for $171 million.

“As you know we just acquired Jackson Apartments on December 30th, so we don’t have any comments at this time,” a spokesperson for Seattle-based real estate development firm Timberlane Partners tells CHS.

It is unclear if Amazon’s exit was a known factor in the sale by project developer Vulcan Real Estate but the Amazon Fresh grocery was touted as “the marquee tenant” in the development in industry reporting on the deal.

“This is the first time Jackson has transferred ownership, and highlights Timberlane’s commitment to investing in communities that combine sustainability, connectivity and curated retail for residents and neighbors,” firm principal Dave Enslow said in a statement on the sale.

Vulcan, meanwhile, will continue to own the shopping center across the street where a similar redevelopment could someday take shape.

Despite providing information on its other recent area shutdowns including the E Pike Amazon Fresh shuttering in April 2024 that turned out to be a harbinger of things to come, Amazon has not responded to CHS’s questions about the 23rd and Jackson closure and whether locations like it in neighborhoods at risk of becoming “grocery deserts” are being considered for possible conversions to the company’s Whole Foods subsidiary. Continue reading →

Seattle City Council to decide on emergency ban on ‘negative use restrictions’ for grocery stores and pharmacies — APPROVED

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Plywood at 1001 Broadway after the sudden closure of Whole Foods earlier this year (Image: CHS)

The Seattle City Council will vote Tuesday afternoon on the mayor’s plan to prohibit “negative use restrictions” as Seattle faces ongoing big chain grocery and pharmacy shutdowns.

UPDATE 3:22 PM: The council has unanimously approved the legislation saying in a statement that the ban comes “in direct response to several store closures including Whole Foods Market on Capitol Hill and Fred Meyer in Lake City, recognizing that neighborhood grocery stores and pharmacies provide essential goods and services for community members throughout Seattle.”

In addition to the ban on the lease restrictions, the legislation also declares a public health emergency due to the recent number of store closures, the council said Tuesday.

Original report: The emergency legislation is skipping the council’s regular committee process as officials look to get in front of more closures.

CHS reported here on the proposal from Mayor Bruce Harrell that would “prohibit the use of restrictive or negative covenants preventing a property from being used as a grocery store or pharmacy” his administration says could be a growing problem as stores close.

The proposal comes amid an ongoing wave of closures including several major retail spaces around Capitol Hill. Continue reading →