Residents crave old charm of Thriftway Grocery

It started with a pregnancy craving.

Betsy Clark has been wanting a M&M cookie whilepregnant with her daughter from the old scratch bakery at the former Thriftway Grocery on Judson Street. The craving would continue years later.

“It started when I was telling my son how my dad used to take me to the bakery every day before school,” Clark said. “My dad was a teacher so we would stop. I would get a cookie and he would get a doughnut. I don’t think we told mom about those trips.”

“No, we didn’t,” Jan Jensen, Clark’s father, said. “She was the calorie police. Those trips were just for us.”

The Thriftway Grocery in Gig Harbor was originally owned by the Uddenberg family, among other stores in the local strip mall. The store was later sold in the 1990s to Kroger and became a Quality Food Center. It later closed in 2011. Even when Thriftway became QFC, local employees said they enjoyed seeing friendly residents every day. The relationship between customer and grocer is a daily occurrence, supplying food for dinner, cakes for special occasions and more.

“We knew everyone,” Clark said. “It came to the point that I’d come in and it would be like seeing second family. When the cashiers heard I was pregnant (the first time), they had presents for me the next day I came in.”

Jensen visited the store every day.

“I liked to do European grocery shopping,” Jensen said. “So instead of once a week, I’d go in every day to get ingredients for that night’s meal. They had the best local produce. They used to sell a great seafood chowder made from the previous day’s fish. They were known for their meat department.”

Clark said she has been wishing for a taste of her childhood, a scratch-made M&M cookie, for years. Finally she decided to reach out to her community. She posted on a local Facebook page, Gig Harbor Most Wanted Town Talk, to see if anyone had a recipe for the cookies. Suddenly, longtime residents of Gig Harbor crawled out of the woodwork to reminisce on the old store.

Kathy Black, a previous employee of the grocery store, suggested putting together a Thriftway reunion for the employees and customers. The idea generated excitement so Black and Clark decided to start an event.

The reunion will be held at 6 p.m. Feb. 16 at Seven Seas Brewery, which resides in the old Thriftway Grocery building.

Black worked at the Thriftway Grocery for more than 20 years before it became a QFC. She then worked at the store until its closing.

“It was bittersweet,” Black said. “I was always in customer service. I starting as a bag clerk, then became a cashier, then a floor manager. I loved my customers.”

Black said she grew close to her co-workers and has missed them since the last day. She hopes co-workers and customers alike will join her to enjoy some old scratch bakery items, with some brews, to reminisce on the old store.

Jensen said the Thriftway Grocery represents the Gig Harbor of his childhood. He moved to the city as an adult in 1976 with his wife, but his grandparents had lived in town for years while he was a child.

“I want to reach back to that time,” Jensen said. “Before the traffic changes and development.”

Black said she is hoping to reach out to the families of the old bakers to find recipes for the doughnuts, cakes, cookies and breads.

“Everything was so personal,” Black said. “We were busy, busy busy. Everybody knew everybody. I have met so many people from Thriftway from one way or another. The energy of the universe would get smaller and smaller as you would know more people, and then those people would know more people. It was like a Facebook before Facebook.”

Anyone who wishes to attend the reunion is invited to bring a treat and talk about what they miss during the old days of Gig Harbor and reunite with friends.

Seven Seas Brewery is located on 3006 Judson St. in Gig Harbor.

This story was originally published February 2, 2018 at 12:00 PM with the headline "Residents crave old charm of Thriftway Grocery."