Groceries on Delridge – beyond junk food? Monday meeting

| Delridge | Health | West Seattle news

They formed as the Delridge Produce Cooperative, but the co-op plan has moved beyond that, working toward taking the commercial space in the future DESC building to set up a neighborhood grocery store. The project needs lots of community help, so you’re invited to a meeting tomorrow, as announced:

The supermarkets may not want us but we can give our community something better that can be a benefit to all of West Seattle and its surrounding communities! Keep the money and the jobs where it belongs – local cooperative ownership can be good for all, especially in these economically difficult times.

Please join us and share your talents and ideas regarding a grocery store on the Delridge corridor! Our next meeting is Monday, January 28th at the Delridge Public Library from 6:30 to 7:30. We have come a long way but have much to do!

The library is on Delridge just south of Brandon (map).

SillyGoose January 27, 2013 (12:11 pm)

Sounds like a great start to something amazing!

Faith4 January 27, 2013 (12:30 pm)

There was a grocery store years ago where HomeDepo is now. It was nice to have one on Delridge.

Cinder January 27, 2013 (1:10 pm)

There also used to be a Safeway on Spokane and Delridge, used to shop there with my mom when we first moved to West Seattle, back in 1967.

coffee January 27, 2013 (2:10 pm)

Was the grocery store where home depot is before Kmart?

dpcboardmember January 27, 2013 (3:43 pm)

There was a grocery store was on the south side of Kmart, in the same building with a separate entrance.
Thanks again, WSB for the post.

Mel January 27, 2013 (4:30 pm)

Sorry … I think the grocery store was food giant???? I remember one next to Kmart …. ???

ShellyChellShit January 27, 2013 (5:49 pm)

YES,.it was called Food Giant. Used to be my moms fav. Only store she used to shop at. I miss that store

AJP January 27, 2013 (9:49 pm)

I know this has a been a continuous topic for some time, but I still wonder about using the mini-marts and markets that are already there. I know one of them got a cool mural and promised fresh produce, did that ever work out? There was the stock box thing as well. Is it a matter of smaller stores not having the buying power to offer real groceries at a price closer to grocery store prices?

Kim Mulligan January 28, 2013 (12:29 am)

Wow, this sounds great. Another good news addition for the Delridge valley.

kjb January 28, 2013 (5:21 am)

Delridge Deli is doing a great job at stocking fresh items not normally seen in a mini-mart.

Deep In the Heart of Delridge January 28, 2013 (10:43 am)

AJP, The mural went up, but the store that received it is still the same old place it has always been with mostly junk food, beer, cigs and malt liquor. You can get your pot paraphernalia and porn there as well. A Ralph’s Belltown Market it is not.
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With the exception of the Delridge Deli at Andover, the rest of the multitude of convenience stores along Delridge Way are unpleasant, at best, to go into, and stock primarily junk food, cigs and various forms of alcohol. It is a waste of time and tax payer money via the once vaunted King County Food and Fitness Initiative to try and make the Delridge Stop-N-Robs anything other than what they are. In other words, it was tried, and it did not work.
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Stockbox went to South Park after the DESC and the Delridge Produce Co-Op had a big love fest and the DPC ingratiated itself with the DESC via a rather strange guilt tripping Opinion piece that was run here on the WSB: https://westseattleblog.com/2011/11/opinion-most-of-the-people-in-the-room-were-afraid-of-me
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Martin’s Way was, and still is in a state of flux with its future operations in serious doubt. To bad, Martins Way really had the the makings of something special, but they had NO plan and had no idea how to implement it even if they did. Stockbox needed to get their first store open in a neighborhood with some level of certainty and the DESC and DPC threw a big monkey wrench of instability into the business climate along Delridge near the Library so Stockbox mosied down to South Park. Word is that they have not ruled out a future store in Delridge, however they need to know if the DPC is actually going to open, and stay open, and what the DPC is going to stock.
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How the DPC is going to actually make a go of it is the $64K question. A co-op in the Northwest is White Womyn medicine in a neighborhood that is anything but white or home to the typical PCC or Central Co-Op/Madison Market member. My hope was for an Asian family grocer out of either White Center or the ID to have been courted by the DESC and provided the same break on rent and tenant improvements that the DPC is getting. With an Asian grocer we would then actually have something that everyone in Delridge would feel ‘okay’ going into and would have items that would serve the population/demographic. Worst case scenario is the DPC opens and has quinoa, red lentils and kale, with maybe some soy milk and free range goat fur and no one will patronize the place. Best case scenario is the DPC has leadership that is representative of the neighborhoods demographics and stocks everything from carp heads to kimchee, with some daikon radishes thrown in. Unfortunately, I am not hopeful.

AJP January 28, 2013 (9:12 pm)

Thanks Heart o’ Delridge, for that honest and multi-faceted comment. Very interesting. I agree that an Asian or Latino market (or Asian/Latino like Samway in White Center) would probably be a great fit, if they can get a break on the rent. But I’m not a Delridge resident, I live just north of Roxbury and within walking distance of the multitudes of Asian markets in White Center. I patronize them often.

Deep In the Heart of Delridge January 30, 2013 (6:07 pm)

AJP – Kindly start putting the idea out there to your White Center based Asian merchants to consider opening up a second market in the heart of Delridge near the Delridge Library. Especially if the Delridge Produce Co Op flops.

Jen January 30, 2013 (11:22 pm)

Deep in the Heart. I find your comment disheartening. I no longer live on Delridge, but when I did I was actively attending meetings for the DPC in order to share my ideas about what I would like to see in a grocery in the area. Building a small business is an arduous task, but creating a low-profit community driven business is an epic undertaking. Give DPC a chance. I hope you make your way to a meeting and voice your concerns and share your insight of the area with them. Try this before losing hope about a hard working group of volunteers doing their best to create change.
Also. Be kind. These people are your neighbors and my friends. They could take the easy way out and choose to commute out of the neighborhood to shop, but they don’t. They choose to bring hope and healthy eating options to a severely under served area.

Keep at it DPC! I’m proud of you!!

Galena White January 31, 2013 (9:21 am)

I wrote the opinion article for the West Seattle Blog about the Downtown Emergency Services Center before Delridge Produce Cooperative and the DESC had begun to talk. It was a heartfelt explanation of my personal experiences with the kind of work that the DESC is doing. I wrote it after the DESC had already publicly expressed interest in doing business with DPC; I did not need to write it to garner interest in our co-op.

Stockbox and DPC have been keeping in touch since its beginnings in Delridge, and we are both committed to working together to ensure that healthy and affordable food is brought to Delridge – no matter which store is the one to bring it. DPC has not opened for business yet, and so we have not had any effect on the profits or successes (or failures) of the businesses of any area of Delridge. Our intention to open a store did not stop Martin’s Way from opening, and we have been very supportive of their efforts because our primary objective is to increase access to better food in Delridge.

Delridge Produce Cooperative’s ideals have always included the determination to hire multilingual employees from Delridge itself and to provide a wide range of multi-ethnic foods. We wouldn’t want to live without the cultural diversity of our neighborhood, and we will accomplish our goal of feeding everybody if we stock foods that people want to eat.

The success of DPC will be determined by our Members and patrons. If you’d like to find out more, please stay tuned to the WSB, come to our next meeting, and buy a Membership. The important thing that we (Delridge Produce Cooperative) need to do before we open in 2014 is to fund-raise. The most constructive thing that you can do to help bring healthy, affordable food to Delridge is to support those organizations that are working to bring it home. Please buy a Membership from us, volunteer to help fund-raise, tell your friends that we need help, and donate money if you can.

Thank you all very much for your support! We couldn’t have gotten this far without you. Jen – I miss you!

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