ARLINGTON — Grocery Outlet plans to open in Arlington next week, partially filling the void left after Food Pavilion and Haggen closed last year.
The store at 123 E. Burke Ave. will employ between 35 to 40 and will be owned by husband-and-wife team, Michael and Melonique Simpson, who are both from Arlington.
“I know the town’s really excited about it,” Mike Simpson said. “We love that kind of momentum coming into our opening that people are excited about us being here.”
The store, with hours from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., plans to open Thursday. It will share part of the former Food Pavilion building. The Dollar Tree opened in the other portion of the building in September.
Many of the Emeryville, California,-based Grocery Outlet stores are independently owned by local families. Michael Simpson’s family has long been in the grocery business. His great-great-grandfather operated a grocery store in North Dakota. His family have also operated a chain of stores in Eastern Washington.
His uncle owns a Grocery Outlet in Wenatchee and his cousin owns one in Fresno. Simpson, who graduated from Lakewood High School, is a former general manager at the Gleneagle Golf Course.
He went to work for his uncle a year ago to see if he would be interested in the Grocery Outlet program.
“I knew after the first week it’s what I was meant to do,” Simpson said. “It was just the place to be.”
He and his wife jumped at the chance to run a Grocery Outlet store in their hometown of Arlington.
“We just felt like it was meant to be for us,” Mike Simpson said. “We both love Arlington.”
Melonique Simpson has worked for 15 years in the service industry, most recently as a bartender at the Tulalip Resort &Casino. She graduated from the University of Washington with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology. The couple have a 9-year-old daughter and are expecting a second child.
Grocery Outlet markets its store as “extreme bargain retailers,” buying products only at low prices because the manufacturers have excess inventory, packaging changes or mistakes. The stores have also started NOSH sections, the company’s acronym for Natural, Organic, Specialty and Healthy foods.
The Grocery Outlet plans to hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10 a.m. Thursday where the Simpsons intend to donate $1,000 worth of food to the Arlington Community Food Bank.
On Saturday, the Grocery Outlet plans to hold a grand opening celebration where shoppers will have chances to win prizes such as a $500 gift card to Arlington’s Hardware and Lumber Shop or $50 a month of free groceries for a year.
A free frozen turkey will also be given to each of the first 100 families to arrive that day. The first 500 customers will also receive reuseable grocery bags.
Grocery Outlet mascots, Lois Prices and Ben Saven, will attend the grand opening celebration. For more information, go to www.groceryoutlet.com.
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