STANWOOD – Twin City Market &Deli will close in a few weeks, its co-owner confirmed one day after Brown &Cole Stores announced its intention to sell a nearby Thrifty Foods grocery store.
The closures will cut in half the number of grocery stores in Stanwood, leaving only the larger QFC and Haggen locations.
Roger Burns, who has co-owned Twin City Market for the past five years, said the business already has begun its closeout sale and is expected to go out of business by April 1. In its place, the Dollar Plus variety store chain plans to open a new location, he added.
The 9,000-square-foot space at 8820 Viking Way has hosted a grocery store since the early 1960s, Burns said.
In the western half of Stanwood, the Twin City and Thrifty stores had little competition until two years ago, when Kroger-owned QFC opened a new 50,000-square foot store on 92nd Avenue NW.
At that time, Cameron Powers, Twin City’s co-owner, said he hoped to keep customers who preferred a smaller, more easily navigated store. But he made it clear the competition would have an effect.
Since then, business at Twin City has definitely “slowed down,” Burns said.
Bellingham-based Brown &Cole is selling its stores at 8901 271st St. NW and seven other locations, including the Food Pavilions in Smokey Point and Arlington.
The family-owned chain pointed to higher employee health care costs and competition with Wal-Mart in the areas it is closing stores.
Wal-Mart has not announced definite plans in Stanwood, but the nation’s largest seller of groceries is considering a site there, a spokesman has said.
Stanwood Mayor Herb Kuhnly said he knows many residents who remember when Stanwood had only the two small grocery stores. But even once staunch customers have switched to QFC or the Haggen store on Stanwood’s eastern edge.
“Many will be sad to see them go,” Kuhnly said, adding he’s glad the Twin City space will have another tenant immediately. “Nothing’s worse than a lot of empty buildings downtown.”
Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.
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