Cynthia Pester stops by the Haggen supermarket in Marysville about twice a week to buy fresh produce, deli items and baked goods for her family.
She likes the store’s atmosphere and loves the quality of the food.
“Some things I care about quality on, some things I don’t,” Pester said.
For staple items such as canned goods or cereal, she stops by her local Safeway. Then, about once a month, her family treks down to the Costco in south Everett to buy household products and bulk foods that store well.
Pester said she didn’t always go to that much trouble for her shopping. But as she has more time and as shopping choices are growing, she can be more selective about price and quality.
As Snohomish County grows, residents are finding a growing choice among supermarkets. The fastest growth, both nationally and locally, is among the chains that focus on price -Wal-Mart or Costco – or specialized selection and quality – Haggen or Central Market.
“The growth formats in the country are the ones that are more specifically defined,” said Bert Hambleton, a consumer researcher and president of Hambleton Resources Inc. in Issaquah, “those that are aimed at pleasing specific segments of the market instead of just trying to treat everyone like the average shopper.”
But the reason behind the growing number of stores hasn’t changed. It’s all about being close to where people live. As the population grows, especially north and east of Everett, more stores will arrive.
“Convenience is still really is No. 1 for people picking a food store,” Hambleton said, adding that price and quality are strong secondary factors in most surveys.
During the past two years, QFC opened a new store in Stanwood, Ranch 99 opened a new Asian-oriented supermarket in Edmonds, the Wal-Mart on the Tulalip Indian Reservation expanded to add groceries, Haggen opened in Arlington, and in September Central Market opened in Mill Creek. A chain new to the area, WinCo, has begun construction on a huge store in north Marysville, and Costco has a store planned south of Maltby.
Additionally, a new supermarket has made it through the approval process in Lake Stevens. There’s probably room for another one there. Approximately 31,000 people live within 2 \x miles of the three large chain stores that already serve the Lake Stevens and Frontier Village areas, according to a Herald analysis.
Despite the new stores being built here and elsewhere in the Puget Sound region, Hambleton is not convinced that the concentration of stores is increasing too rapidly. For every new name entering the local competition for supermarket dollars, there are many that have largely faded away over the past 20 years, such as Thriftway.
“Puget Sound really isn’t any more heavily stored than the rest of the country,” Hambleton said.
Instead, national chains specializing in items such as organic foods, including Whole Foods, which recently opened in Bellevue, are arriving along with Wal-Mart and WinCo, which both focus on the lowest price.
At the same time, regional chains such as Town &Country Markets Inc., the Bainbridge Island-based company that operates Mill Creek’s new Central Market store, are capitalizing on their niche.
“The stores that don’t do enough to differentiate themselves from the competition … those are the ones who are going to suffer long-term,” Hambleton said.
Earlier trends in the grocery business have played out before. As supermarket chains built stores during the 1970s and ’80s, the family-owned and run independent grocery stores began dying out. Then many of the smaller chains were bought by larger chains. For example, the local Olson’s chain was purchased by QFC, which was purchased by Fred Meyer, which in 1999 was purchased by the Kroger Co.
Now, those chains that positioned themselves to serve “average” shoppers – including Safeway, Albertsons and Kroger’s Fred Meyer – are caught between companies offering lower prices and those offering better selection or quality at a comparable or slightly higher price.
“It’s not like the big chains are going to go away, but it’s very easy for others to nip at the edges,” Hambleton said.
Haggen Inc. has more than nipped at the edges. It now has 32 Haggen and Top Foods stores in the Northwest and is the largest independent grocer based in Washington.
Dale Henley, president of the Bellingham-based retailer, said the company has tried to grow carefully in order to keep its reputation for quality and service intact.
That’s meant trying out new things, from in-store supervised playrooms for customers’ children to relatively plush sit-down eating areas. The Top Foods store in Everett, for example, was the first supermarket in the nation to feature a Starbucks outlet.
“The competition continues to get better and better,” Henley said. “You’ve got more players coming into the marketplace, and that makes us all better.”
For Brown &Cole Stores, which is based in Bellingham and has 32 stores in northwest and central Washington, being better means tailoring its stores to the areas they serve. The company operates Thrifty Foods in Stanwood, Food Pavilion in Smokey Point and Arlington and Cost Cutter in Everett.
“Our competitive edge is our size and our dedication to locally customizing our stores to meet the needs of the community rather than just stamping a cookie-cutter format like our competitors do,” said Sue Cole, Brown &Cole’s public affairs director. “Our customers have been very responsive to that kind of initiative.”
That means doing things such as stocking more Russian and Asian foods at the Everett Cost Cutter in response to the diverse customer base that store serves.
In Stanwood, where the relatively small Thrifty Foods store is located between huge QFC and Haggen stores, employees have gotten involved in community events and charity drives. Those local touches, combined with an emphasis on service, helps the chain keep its place among its growing number of competitors, Cole said.
WinCo Foods, based in Boise, Idaho, has grown rapidly by emphasizing its prices, a strategy that’s already made Wal-Mart the nation’s largest grocer.
“We are a discount supermarket,” said Mike Read, WinCo’s president of public and legal affairs. “We try to bring the lowest price possible to the customer.”
WinCo, which has 45 stores in five states, plans to begin building its newest store soon along 116th Street NE in north Marysville. It already has locations in Federal Way and Kent.
Read said he thinks the new store will do well. He added that the Puget Sound region is still an attractive market despite the growing competition.
While Wal-Mart’s intention to capture more of the grocery business concerns some competitors, Henley said he thinks the chains that have a well-defined sense of what they do best will continue to survive.
“I think you have to be something,” Henley said. “Being average won’t make it.”
Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
