Build PCC at soon-to-close QFC site

05/29/2009

(Editor's note: This letter was sent to the grocery store operator PCC Natural Markets with a copy to this newspaper.)

Dear PCC:
 
Please consider the site of the soon-to-close Crown Hill QFC for a new PCC. 
 
I trust that PCC is keenly aware of the northwest Seattle gap in your Seattle coverage.  Although another large gap exists in north/northeast Seattle, residential density in the northwest quadrant trumps north/northeast.
 
Surely you have a ton of data on past, current, and future grocery coverage in the area.  Greenwood Market is on borrowed time due to impending Fred Meyer expansion.  Ballard Market is one and a half miles from the Crown Hill site.  Trader Joe's is two miles south, a similar distance from their Queen Anne store as to the Crown Hill site. 

Whole Foods will probably open about four miles south - but Ballardites are loathe to cross the bridge. 
 
Safeway is across the street but caters to a different market and has generated significant distrust within the local community as a result of their foisting an unwanted gas station on the neighborhood and their failure to uphold previous agreements with Department of Planning and Development and the community to maintain landscaping, a transparent facade along 85th, and functional doors during business hours at both the northwest and southwest corners of their store. 

QFC failed because their brand has become indistinguishable from the upgraded Safeway brand, and their run-down store did not stack up against the new Safeway.  PCC would not have that problem.
 
Ballard/Greenwood/Crown Hill is extremely green and surely your membership roles reflect decent numbers in the area, despite the inconvenient-to-Ballard PCC locations in Fremont and Green Lake.  Thousands of area residents would love to have PCC within a short drive, walk, bike, or bus ride. 
 
Crown Hill is a designated Residential Urban Village in a Pedestrian Overlay Zone.  Significant development capacity remains; significant localized residential growth is inevitable.  Transit service is excellent, far better than at any current PCC location, with 18 bus arrivals per hour at 85th and 15th (routes 15, 48, and 75) during Monday-Saturday midday from locations throughout a huge swath of Seattle.  The store site block is slated to receive a Metro bus rapid transit station in 2012.   
 
I urge you to expeditiously evaluate this rare opportunity to develop an anchor location in Northwest Seattle.
 
Sincerely,
 
Bill Bryant
Longtime member

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Comments

A nicely worded argument.

Submitted by Bubbamike (not verified) on Fri, 05/29/2009 - 09:55.

A nicely worded argument. It's a shame that the QFC is closing but with the old Arts QFC just down Holman road it isn't much of a gap. Also when I lived on Crown Hill I didn't find the trip to Greenwood or Fremont that inconvenient. But if you're walking then it is a problem.

I'd like to see a new PCC in Bellevue. There isn't one there now, with the closest being Issaquah or Kirkland. Perhaps PCC might look into the old Red Apple in Newport Hills for expansion. It could serve southern Bellevue, Newcastle, Newport Hills, and Renton. It is on a bus route as well.

Begging for PCC

Submitted by Jacob Spellman (not verified) on Sun, 06/07/2009 - 23:48.

Sending PCC a letter to let them know you would like one of their shops in your neighborhood is fine. You should have stopped after the first sentence. To forward the same flowery crapnalysis for posting to the Ballard News Tribune is just begging for ridicule. PCC certainly got wind of the Crown Hill QFC situation long before you sprouted a chubby on the notion that you might not have to traverse that ridiculous two arterial, two mile gauntlet to the Greenlake PCC. It may as well be in Arkansas, no?
I did though enjoy your dismissal of the plebeian Safeway shoppers. Pay no mind to that ignorant market share, they suffer from green apathy and are far too ghetto. You wouldn't want to sort their food stamps in your tills anyway. Your assertion of QFC as a failure in the neighborhood is equally humorous. The Holman Rd. store, not even a half mile down the hill does a tremendous amount of business. Closing the Crown Hill location (Run-down? Really?) on the heels of the Ballard QFC opening is a fiscally responsible and downright smart decision. Three huge money making stores (Holman Rd, Ballard, and Interbay) in a four mile stretch is hardly the mark of failure. And since your love for Ballard's public transit is so strong you should have no qualms scooping your organic couscous from rustic barrels at Whole Foods. Don’t forget to wash it down with a fruity, elitist white whine.