Tag Archives: groceries

Meeting Capitol Hill shoppers where they are, low-waste The Naked Grocer arrives on E Pine

Posted on by

Truesdell at The Naked Grocer

The Naked Grocer hopes enough of Capitol Hill will add some new grocery store habits.

“How willing are we to change? I have faith people are willing to meet me in the middle,” founder Jayne Truesdell said Tuesday standing inside the newly open low-waste grocery store at the corner of Pine and Boylston.

Truesdell’s business of bulk bins, spice shelves, and fresh baked goods and produce will survive if only a fraction of the thousands of apartment dwellers who live within a few blocks of the new grocery decided to add the Naked Grocer to their regular routines around buying groceries.

But it will mean new habits and a willingness to stand still while filling your bottle as package-less liquid soap flows from a spigot or scooping just enough coconut flour for your cookie recipe. Continue reading →

QFC welcoming Capitol Hill shoppers with new plexiglass grocery maze, its latest Broadway retail innovation — UPDATE

Posted on by

Thanks to CHS reader Tammy for sharing pictures of the new barriers

QFC, an innovator in unleashing new fresh hells of modern grocery shopping experiences on its Capitol Hill customers, has added yet another indignity to its Broadway retail experience.

CHS reader Tammy posted pictures of new plexiglass barriers installed inside across the front entrance area of the Broadway Market store that show a new maze-like structure for shoppers to channel through when entering or leaving the store. Unlike the installation of plexiglass around many counters during the pandemic to help protect employees and customers from the spread of COVID-19, the new QFC barriers appear to be a security upgrade at the store.

The company has not said publicly what the new barriers are intended to accomplish. Retail theft remains a hot button issue in Seattle and reports of shoplifting at both Broadway QFCs is a multiple times a day occurrence.

The poster’s comments about reporting the situation to the Seattle Fire Department caught the attention of QFC’s parent company’s social media team: Continue reading →

QFC is now locking down ice cream on Capitol Hill — more security including ‘access control gates’ coming

Posted on by

Thanks to a CHS reader for the picture of the mistakenly deployed security shutters

While one company competing for the neighborhood’s grocery dollars is enjoying its Capitol Hill honeymoon on Broadway, a chain with a longer running connection here is experiencing a few bumps in the relationship.

In its latest move alienating customers here, QFC is suddenly putting its most sought after merchandise behind lock and key. With new security systems on the Broadway Market store’s freezers, frozen goods including ice cream and sweets now require a employee to access much like the locked-down liquor aisles at area groceries. Continue reading →

We know why one Capitol Hill 7-Eleven is closed — but not both of them — UPDATE: Reopening

Posted on by

Thanks to a reader for checking in on the 15th Ave E 7-Eleven

Capitol Hill just got its H Mart M2M grocery store. It is not losing both of its 7-Elevens but one of the ubiquitous convenience stores has shuttered.

A few concerned readers reached out to CHS about construction and plywood up at the neighborhood’s two 7-Eleven stores. The scene was especially busy at the 15th and Denny store where fencing went up and the parking lot swarmed with contractors last week.

Both of the Capitol Hill 7-Eleven stores are in the middle of construction.

UPDATE: A spokesperson for the company confirmed both stores are planned to reopen — and it sounds like work at the 15th and Denny bodega is already complete. Along E Madison, the store has been temporarily closed during the intense street construction in the area. According to CHS readers who spoke with people at the store as it was being boarded up, the location will reopen under company, non-franchise ownership. The spokesperson did not confirm those details and did not provide a timeline for reopening.

Original report: At 15th and Denny, the convenience store in the 1974-built commercial building is undergoing a thorough overhaul with permits for new refrigeration and cold case work underway. Last summer it got a full reworking of its telecom and alarm system. The construction was continuing Monday but shouldn’t require a long term closure. Continue reading →

M2M: After years of H Mart dreams, Capitol Hill Station’s grocery finally arrives

Posted on by

It has been 12 years since this block of Broadway gave up its cluster of small, independent retailers to make way for the construction of Capitol Hill Station. Some moved to new locations. Some faded away.

Today, six years following the opening of the underground light rail station, the centerpiece in the project’s mixed-use development on the Sound Transit land above the facility finally served its first customers.

Capitol Hill finally has its H Mart — though it comes in the form of the company’s “urban convenience” concept M2M. To start, the “morning to midnight” grocery will operate on 8 AM to 9:30 PM weekdays, 9 AM to 9:30 PM on weekends. Capitol Hill is not yet fully awake from its pandemic slumber.

The selection in the 11,000-square-foot grocery is tightly packed but doesn’t lack in H Mart-style snacks and goodies. There are fruits and vegetables, frozen goods, and fresh meats. Upstairs on the mezzanine, a new food court is coming. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill’s H Mart M2M will open Friday

Posted on by

From the CHS Facebook Group, a neighbor posts: “HMart AKA M2M is opening on April 15”

Breaking news from the CHS Facebook Group — the Capitol Hill H Mart is finally ready to open Friday, April 15th next to the Broadway entrance to Capitol Hill Station.

“So hyped to have a variety of food this neighborhood wouldn’t offer previously,” said one excited… comm.. ent… er… hey, wait, is that a backhanded slap at Capitol Hill? Never mind.

But here’s the deal — you’re not getting an H Mart. You’re getting a M2M, H Mart’s “urban convenience format” the company has been rolling out in select markets.

“So fresh! So smart! Gateway to the authentic Korean cuisine,” Canadiangrocer.com reports about the M2M “tagline” adding that the format seems to have most of the things Hill shoppers have most anticipated about the new grocery — “a wide selection of Korean cuisine mainstays such as pickled cabbage (kimchi), Korean laver/seaweed, Korean cold and frozen noodles as well as baked goods.” Continue reading →

Number one question CHS readers have about Capitol Hill: Why isn’t H Mart open yet?

Posted on by

H Mart opened its grocery store near Pike Place in 2019 (Image: H Mart)

In March of 2018, CHS first reported the rumor.

By September 2019, we had confirmed the news.

In summer of 2021, CHS reported the construction in the space creating a new 16,000-square-foot grocery along Broadway was underway.

But we can’t tell you why — exactly — the Capitol Hill H Mart isn’t yet open in the spring of 2022. Continue reading →

What Capitol Hill’s new eight-story, mass timber City Market building — with corrugated steel and Japanese climbing vines — will look like

Posted on by

(Image: Juno/Ennead Architects)

The eight-story, mass timber redevelopment of City Market will make a new home for the stalwart neighborhood grocer. It continues on its path through Seattle process this week with what could be the final design for the planned mixed-use project and new home for the longtime Capitol Hill grocery. The plan is slated to come before the East Design Review Board on Wednesday, February 23rd.

San Francisco-based property owner Juno has hired New York-based Ennead Architects to design the new building at the corner of E Olive Way and Bellevue. The existing City Market building, which dates to 1919 according to property tax records, will be demolished, along with its adjacent parking lot.

The new building will feature ground floor retail, topped with 98-residential units, including 58 studios, 21 “deep” one-bedrooms, 13 one-bedrooms and 5 two-bedrooms. The building will have the typical complement of amenities, including a rooftop deck. Continue reading →

CHS Pics | ‘Capitol Loans is now across the street’ — Changes at Boylston and Pine

Posted on by

There is a corner of Capitol Hill that pretty much encapsulates this moment in the pandemic for the neighborhood’s businesses. You’ll find lots of shuttered spaces around Pine and Boylston. Inside, there is a plan for each of them. And in the middle of all that, there is a glossy new shoe store.

The biggest of the empty spaces might take the longest to fill. Continue reading →

Early design for Capitol Hill Safeway development gets review board OK

Posted on by

A view of the basic massing proposal for the project. With Wednesday’s approval, the development is on track for a review of its final design plan later this year (Image: Weber Thompson)

It probably won’t take three years of design review to approve the redevelopment of the Capitol Hill Safeway. Wednesday night, the East Design Review Board agreed the project to create two new five-story buildings including a 50,000-square-foot grocery, about market rate 400 apartment units, some new, smaller retail spaces, and an underground parking lot for about 350 cars should move forward in the city’s public development process, signing off on the early design proposal in a more than three hour meeting.

CHS reported here on the design proposal from developer Greystar and architect Weber Thompson for the project that will replace the single story grocery and large surface parking lot currently resident on the 15th and John site. The early plans showed two residential buildings rising along the 15th Ave E side of the project mixed with first-floor commercial spaces separated from the grocery by an internal plaza. Continue reading →