Brown &Cole Stores is selling three supermarkets in Snohomish County as the company struggles with Wal-Mart’s expansion into the region’s grocery business.
Thrifty Foods, located at 8901 271st St. NW in Stanwood, the Smokey Point Food Pavilion at 17020 Smokey Point Blvd. and the smaller Food Pavilion at 146 Haller St. in Arlington are among eight Washington state stores Brown &Cole plans to shed in the coming months.
The three local locations employ 128 people, according to company figures.
Craig Cole, president and chief executive of the family-owned firm, didn’t mince words as to the reason behind selling the stores.
“This is in large part due to two things,” he said. “Health care costs and the deliberate saturation of the market by Wal-Mart.”
He added that workers and local businesses are becoming “roadkill in Wal-Mart’s march toward the worldwide domination of commerce.”
Wal-Mart has locations near Lynnwood and at Quil Ceda Village. It’s planning additional stores near Mill Creek, south Everett, Smokey Point and Stanwood.
The 67,000-square-foot Smokey Point Food Pavilion is located about six miles from the Quil Ceda store, which last year converted into a super center with groceries. Wal-Mart also has proposed a much closer super center less than a mile away from the Smokey Point Food Pavilion and not far from the one in Arlington.
Wal-Mart’s possible Stanwood location is also close to Brown &Cole’s Thrifty Foods there.
Because Brown &Cole doesn’t own the properties its stores occupy, it is selling the equipment and inventory and building leases at each site.
Spokeswoman Sue Cole said the company has received interest from potential buyers and expects to have the store sales completed by the end of May.
Julie Morse, vice president of the Smokey Point Area Chamber of Commerce, was surprised to learn Monday that the Food Pavilion was for sale. She said that she has noticed a drop-off in traffic at the area’s supermarkets in recent months.
“I doubt very seriously whether we’ll have another grocery store there,” Morse said.
At the same time, she hopes another business buys the location in time to keep the large retail building from sitting empty for long.
Founded in 1909, Bellingham-based Brown &Cole strives to be a good employer, Craig Cole said. He said the company provides health care coverage for 95 percent of its employees, and its grocery workers are unionized.
“It used to be accepted that good companies took care of their employees,” he said, faulting Wal-Mart for its relatively low pay and benefits compared to the rest of the grocery industry.
According to Wal-Mart’s figures, the average wage for its full-time workers in this state is $10.14 per hour. About half of its hourly workers statewide are covered by the company’s health care insurance.
In addition to the local stores, Brown &Cole is selling stores in Burlington, Yakima, Pasco, Kennewick and Okanogan. Most of those other areas also have been “heavily impacted by Wal-Mart,” Cole said.
The company plans to keep its Cost Cutter store in south Everett, along with 22 other locations around Washington and Oregon. Cole said those remaining stores will focus on “personalized, locally customized shopping experiences for families who want something different from the impersonal big boxes.”
Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.
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