Downtown Tacoma grocery store welcomes first customers

Almost 40 years after the last full-service grocer closed its doors downtown, Tacoma City Grocer opened Wednesday with enthusiastic support from people who live and work in the neighborhood.

The first customer checked out at 7:15 a.m. with a plum, a cup of coffee and a doughnut. Sara Skillings works at BNY Mellon, whose offices are across South 13th Street from the store. Everyone in her office has been waiting for opening day, she said, remarks echoed by other people in the store early who work at DaVita and in the Wells Fargo Plaza.

“It’s better than I expected,” Skillings said, noting the full-service deli and coffee bar.

Customers also were greeted with about two dozen picketers from a local food workers union, who said they wanted to educate customers on the effects of shopping at a non-union store.

A grocer in the downtown core has been at the top of the wishlist for years. Tacoma City Grocer is the first since Manning’s Market closed in 1972, according to researchers at the Tacoma Public Library’s Northwest Room. Manning’s operated at South 11th and Commerce streets until its building was demolished.

Downtown has changed quite a bit since then, and the home of the new grocer is part of that story. Pacific Plaza was born through a partnership involving the City of Tacoma and an ownership group of 11 private business people. The city parking garage was re-opened in 2009 after a $40 million renovation into a retail-office-parking structure designed to strict environmental standards.

Pacific Plaza is no stranger to controversy. In 2009 the owners asked the City for permission to lease about half of its ground floor to an office user, which many in the downtown business community saw as reneging on a promise to maintain that space for retailers. The ownership group said economic circumstances meant leasing to a retailer was impossible. They also said making the exception would help them lure a grocer.

Early this year they made good on that promise. The Myers Group, which owns four other IGA-branded stores in Washington, signed a five-year lease in February with Pacific Plaza to operate a 16,000-square-foot full-service grocery on the southeast corner of the building. The new grocer employs 35-40 people, store manager Charlie McKissick said Wednesday.

At a ceremony Tuesday night in the store, Dan Putnam, one of Pacific Plaza’s owners, thanked the city for its role in setting the stage for the grocer. He mentioned their push for a new Link light rail stop on Commerce, just north of Pacific Plaza, and changing the direction of one lane of traffic on South 13th Street.

Mayor Marilyn Strickland said the new store will be another amenity to attract more residents and business to downtown.

By noon Wednesday the store was full of customers inside, and the line at the deli was at least 10 deep through the lunch hour. Outside, shoppers were greeted by members of The United Food & Commercial Workers Local 367, who were encouraging shoppers not to patronize the new grocery because its workers aren’t unionized.

Tacoma City Grocer owner and Myers Group president Tyler Myers has said his company deals fairly with workers by offering competitive pay and benefits. He cites low turnover as one measure of his workers’ satisfaction.

Lindsay Garner, one of the picketers, said the protest was about standing up for union workers at nearby grocers, including Stadium Thriftway and the Safeway on the Hilltop.

“When non-union competitors come in, it has an effect. Union workers at other stores have their hours cut, and workers get laid off,” she said. As for Myers’ contention that his workers are treated well without a union, Garner said not all non-union employers necessarily pay lower wages.

“Some do, some don’t. A select few may have health care, but whether it’s affordable or not is a different issue,” she said.

Putnam said Wednesday that he didn’t want the store’s opening to be overshadowed by labor issues, but he was frustrated with the picket line.

“We offered the store location to many unionized grocers, including other local grocers, and they said no,” he said. “If you’re not willing to come in, then hassle the one who did – you can’t have it both ways.”

With the grocer in place, Pacific Plaza now is almost fully leased. The only spot left is a 2,800-square-foot retail space on the north side of the building. The owners are in negotiations with the city to lease that space as a medical clinic, another use that many people don’t consider true retail.

Bob Denny lives in a downtown condo, and he came Wednesday to see what the new store had to offer. He was happy to have a closer alternative for his shopping, which he currently does at the Hilltop Safeway or an Albertson’s in the South End.

Putnam and Myers know success is uncertain, and are counting on the city’s residents.

“Now it’s up to Tacoma to support the store,” Putnam said.

Kathleen Cooper: 253-597-8546

kathleen.cooper@thenewstribune.com