Wal-Mart hard on neighbor

Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, November 15, 2005

EVERETT – Kelly Locking doesn’t hate Wal-Mart. In fact, she was excited when she first heard that the retail giant planned to build a new store across from the produce distribution business she and her husband own in south Everett.

Now, however, she fears that more cars and the traffic alterations planned for Highway 99 could put Shawn’s Quality Produce out of business.

Wal-Mart’s 146,000-square-foot discount store on the west side of Highway 99 is scheduled to open by next summer. It’s the company’s first store in Everett.

“The turn lane for the front-door entrance (of Wal-Mart) will be right in front of us,” Locking said, explaining that road construction and the new lane configuration likely will prevent trucks from delivering goods to her business.

Trucks must back in to the company’s dock, and they stick out into the traffic shoulder. That will be a bigger problem with the Wal-Mart traffic passing by.

“It literally will close us down when they open that turn lane,” she added. “I’m surprised the city would let that happen.”

Shawn’s, however, isn’t within the city limits. The east side of Highway 99 is in unincorporated Snohomish County, said Allan Giffen, the city of Everett’s planning director.

The building that houses Shawn’s at 11603 Highway 99 has been home to a succession of produce businesses for decades, Locking said. Since she and Mike Locking took over Shawn’s in 1993, they’ve grown by providing custom-cut fruit and vegetable products. The business now employs more than two dozen people.

To accommodate the food production, Shawn’s Quality Produce is outfitted with floor drains and large pieces of special equipment that would make moving unfeasible, Kelly Locking said.

One potential solution, she said, would be for the county to allow the Lockings to build a new loading dock onto their warehouse’s north side, near Swamp Creek.

So far, however, the Lockings haven’t gotten far with that proposal. She said calls to City Council members and Wal-Mart representatives have been fruitless. Giffen pointed out that any development rules near the stream at Shawn’s would be the county’s, not the city’s.

“We don’t have any authority over land-use regulation in the county,” he said.

Eric Berger, Wal-Mart’s regional spokesman, said the retailer went through the appropriate processes with the city of Everett and the state Department of Transportation.

Locking said she’s not optimistic about a solution that will keep the business going at its existing location.

“We feel like it’s an uphill battle,” Locking said. “How do you fight Wal-Mart? You don’t.”

Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.

Herald file photo

Russ Bond of Freeland closes a delivery truck on the loading dock at Shawn’s Fresh Quality Produce, 11603 Highway 99.

Ramiro Martinez of Everett dices bell peppers at Shawn’s. The company delivers prepared produce to area restaurants.