The unions representing thousands of grocery-store workers at chains including QFC, Safeway, Albertsons, and Fred Meyer say they have reached a tentative contract deal. So it looks like NO strike. Here’s their statement via Facebook:

We are very pleased to announce that today at 5 PM the union member bargaining team from UFCW 21 & 367 and Teamsters 38 reached a tentative agreement with the national grocery chains in contract negotiations. This tentative agreement has been unanimously recommended by the union member bargaining team. Details will not to be released until after union members themselves have had the opportunity to review the tentative agreement and vote on it. The times and locations of those vote meetings will be announced in the coming days after arrangements have been made to schedule the vote.

The announcement came with just a few hours left in the strike countdown.

The spokesperson for the unions that have given strike notice to QFC, Safeway, Albertsons, and Fred Meyer says no deal yet. That’s from a media-advisory e-mail sent by Tom Geiger, who says about 30 hours remain in the 72-hour notice given to the chains on Friday night; he also says workers plan a rally at 7 tonight by the “countdown clock” set up at Westlake Park downtown. A strike would NOT affect Metropolitan Market, Thriftway, or PCC (WSB sponsors), though they are unionized; they have separate contracts with their workers.

7:29 PM: This means a strike could happen as soon as Monday night for union workers at Safeway, QFC, Albertsons, Fred Meyer. This does NOT involve all union grocery workers in our area – those chains have not reached a contract agreement; other stores have separate contracts in effect. The unions that just gave the chains 72 hours’ notice say they’ll brief the media at 9 pm; we’ll add more info to this story when that happens.

1 AM: The 9 pm briefing was at Westlake downtown, where the potential strikers unveiled a big countdown clock. Here’s an update from our partners at The Seattle Times.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Earlier this year, WSB started a series of stories about independent local businesses and why they matter more to a community like ours than you might realize. Then, the “West Seattle: We Have That” campaign launched at midsummer. Starting today, WSB will continue publishing the series – and inviting you into the conversation. Many of the reports, starting with this one, will be underwritten by the West Seattle Junction Association, but not as ads – it’s their contribution to an issue of importance from Alki to Westwood, Fauntleroy to Highland Park, and all over WS.

By Keith Creighton
Special to West Seattle Blog

Demolition is under way on the southeast corner of Alaska Avenue, California Avenue SW, and 42nd Avenue SW, on properties that were once anchor points of the West Seattle Junction. While the buildings have been empty for more than a year and life has continued as normal, many of us have taken comfort in knowing interesting restaurants and shops will return to the corner someday.

But what if they didn’t return?

Two-dozen other boutiques still line The Junction. For some West Seattleites, these stores are rich with treasures: Home décor to fashion, shoes, eyewear, music, wine, and beer, pet supplies and more. Store regulars know the shop owners and clerks by name and enjoy the personalized service only stores like these can provide.

For a greater percentage of area residents, West Seattle shop windows are just eye candy, gazed upon as we stroll the avenue and duck into our favorite restaurants. Window shopping is a difficult task to monetize, so the futures of many of these stores might be passing them by as well.

Do you “Buy Local” in West Seattle – not just The Junction, but other areas as well?

Please share your story in the comments section below, including: If you prefer to shop at malls or online, would you miss West Seattle’s locally owned stores if they went away?

The discussion isn’t merely about supporting a few dozen retailers. It’s about preserving the way of life that sets West Seattle apart from other corners of King County.

To spark retail support from Alki to Endolyne and beyond, the West Seattle Junction Association launched “West Seattle: We Have That” in partnership with a coalition of local retailers and the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce.

“Independent retailers and businesses need to feel the love and patronage of the community to keep their doors open and make West Seattle feel like West Seattle,” says Susan Melrose, director of the Junction Association. “This campaign sheds light on the robust selection of affordable goods and services that can be found every day on this side of the bridge.”

In the coming weeks, these reports will take a closer look at the impact locally owned stores have on West Seattle’s financial future, real estate values, environment, schools and non-profits and our overall quality of life. And if you think you know everything West Seattle businesses have to offer – you might see cause to think twice. So stay tuned, and let us know what you think.

Keith Creighton is a West Seattle-based writer.

(Photo courtesy Northwest Center)
That’s Scott, one of two people working at West Seattle’s Pacific Rim Equipment Rental thanks in part to job coaches from Northwest Center. The South Park-headquartered nonprofit is known for its own inclusive workforce, but you might not realize it helps match other companies with dedicated workers who also happen to be people with disabilities. In honor of National Disability Employment Awareness Month, over the next eight days, NW Center is offering two chances for local businesspeople to come tour its headquarters and see for themselves how “Inclusion Works” – NW Center’s theme for this month. The “People of All Abilities Tours” are free, first one 12:15-1:15 pm today, second one next Thursday (October 17th) 9-10 am, both at 7272 West Marginal Way South – but you need to RSVP by contacting Hilary Anderson ASAP, 206-378-6372 or handerson@nwcenter.org.

Today we welcome a new WSB sponsor, Djaouida Skincare and Sugaring. As is traditional for new sponsors, Djaouida has information to share with you about her business:

Djaouida is known for having magic hands and gives the best facials in West Seattle. She uses all-natural products made by Bella Lucce. These products make her customers come back for more; they are made from real exotic plants, fruits, and minerals. Each facial treatment is made to make your skin look its best, and her wonderful facial massages melt away stress. Her sugaring technique is also quite impressive; she knows how to make anyone feel at ease with little to no pain. Whether you’re looking for great brows, a nice bikini, or full Brazilian, Djaouida has you covered!

Booking with Djaouida is extremely easy and convenient with the online booking system available directly on her website at djaouida.com.

First-time clients are offered an Introductory Facial right now with Djaouida – $69 for an $85 value. This is a wonderful way to try out her services and walk away with gorgeous, glowing, happy skin!

Djaouida Skincare‘s hours are Tuesdays-Fridays, 11 am to 5 pm, and Saturdays, 10 am to 5 pm. You can call Djaouida directly at 206-919-5562 to ask any questions, or you can contact Djaouida by e-mail at djaouida@djaouida.com. Djaouida Skincare is located inside the West Seattle Wellness Center at
 2600 SW Barton St., Suite A-24, at Westwood Village.

We thank Djaouida Skincare and Sugaring for sponsoring independent, community-collaborative neighborhood news via WSB; find our current sponsor team listed in directory format here, and find info on joining the team by going here.

Thanks to the WSB’ers who tipped us that the sign is up for Terra Cole Butchery & Fine Foods, the business going into the former Coffee to a Tea (etc.) storefront at 4541 California SW in The Junction. West Seattle residents Ashli Brown and Tim Mitchell tell WSB they are currently planning to “soft open” on October 1st. The couple has a combined 40 years in the hospitality industry. They say Terra Cole (“Terra” is Latin for “earth,” “Cole” is Old Germanic for “minor”) will sell meats and sauces, marinades, and rubs, as well as having a deli for items including sandwiches and soups made with from-scratch stocks. There will be some seating for dining in. When WSB’s Katie Meyer checked in with the proprietors today, they gave her a copy of their planned fall-rollout menu/merchandise list – read on:

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Joining others from The Triangle to Alki to mid-Delridge, Morgan Junction is the newest West Seattle neighborhood to get a daily taco truck. Multiple WSB’ers spotted it, and we’ve since received official word from proprietor Katherine Brambila:

We would like to let people know about the opening of our taco truck – Taqueria El Antojo. We are located at (6317) California Avenue SW in the parking lot of the Short Stop Cleaners. We sell tacos, burritos, tortas, and much more. We are open daily from 10 am to 10 pm.

The other semi-permanently located West Seattle taco trucks include Beloved Mexico outside West Seattle Produce on Fauntleroy Way south of SW Alaska, El Rey del Taco at 7184 Sylvan Way SW just north of Home Depot, and Taqueria La Monarca outside Alki Auto Repair.

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

After seven years, Skylark Café and Club in North Delridge is changing hands.

Tomorrow (Saturday, August 31st) is the final night that wife-and-husband proprietors Jessie SK and Charlie Russo (above) will be there as owners; they expected to sign the final paperwork today.

Over the course of those six years – they took over Skylark’s space at 3803 Delridge Way SW in June 2006 – they took what had been a café with some live music and transformed it into a music-and-entertainment venue that also served food.

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(Tango Card CEO Dave Leeds; WSB photo by Patrick Sand)
More jobs created in West Seattle = less traffic outbound in the mornings. And one growing company has done its part: Tango Card has created 27 jobs in the past three years, points out its founder and CEO, Dave Leeds, who’s lived in West Seattle almost a decade and chose to locate his business here.

It’s not your average small business – it helps companies around the globe integrate gift cards into their rewards for customers and employees, and investors have shown strong support, as noted in this GeekWire story from last spring, when Tango Card closed another funding round.

Leeds says he loves the building in which Tango Card is currently based, on the east edge of The Junction along 40th SW north of SW Edmunds. But he has to find someplace new, since the building will come down when the 4745 40th SW development goes up.

Leeds is of course watching the listings and talking to brokers. But he asked us if we could help get the word out about his search, in case the perfect spot is out there and not officially on the market.

What’s he looking for?

He wants to keep Tango Card HQ close to The Junction – within a few blocks of its business district. He and his two dozen employees love being close to great places for lunch, he says, and it’s a convenient location for many other reasons.

If you have a suggestion of someplace that’s available now or soon – they don’t have a deadline, but he expects that at the latest, they’ll need to be out early next year, so Tango Card could move this fall. They need about 3,000 square feet, according to Leeds, who says he wishes they could stay in their current digs, where they moved about a year ago. Got someplace to suggest or offer? He’s at david@tangocard.com.

This is the last day for the longtime home of Howden-Kennedy Funeral Home at Fauntleroy and Alaska. As reported here previously, HK is moving to a new location on 35th SW; the owners sold the 93-year-old business’s longtime site to the developers of the 4755 Fauntleroy Way project, which also includes the old Huling Auto site to the south, the now-closed Shell station to the east, and the old used-car lot to the west. In our photo is Len Burton-Hardin from HK at left and Kraig Kennedy at right – who happened to be stopping by for some business involving another structure on the site. His father Dick Kennedy, who died in 2007, took over the funeral home in 1954. HK will open its new 35th/Ida headquarters at 9:30 Monday morning. We have a message out to the 4755 Fauntleroy developers to ask about a timetable for demolition at the project site; environmental work is ahead at the former service station next to the about-to-be-former funeral home.

Three months after we first reported that the six-years-vacant Chuck and Sally’s Tavern in Morgan Junction will be transformed into the new home of The Bridge, the project is entering a new phase – serious exterior work.

We’ve been noticing it all week, especially the upper row of windows revealed by the removal of some of the old siding. So we asked The Bridge’s Rita Dixson how things are going:

We are making great progress … we have re-habbed the transom windows that had been covered up for years – so nice to be able to restore some of the original architectural charm of the building! We are planning on breaking ground (today) or Friday for the kitchen foundations, as well as continuing on with re-vamping the exterior facade.

For a comparison, see the “before” photo in our May story. One of the renderings shown here in June shows how the revealed windows figure into things:

The Bridge is losing its current site on 35th just south of Avalon because of a mixed-use project (about 160 apartments and a roughly equal number of parking spaces, 15,000 square feet of retail) in the works for 4435 35th SW, which had a second Design Review Board meeting in June (WSB coverage here), four years after its first one.

(Photo tweeted by @mayormcginn account)
To the classic “no shirt, no shoes, no service,” you can add “no gun” for Seattle businesses who join a campaign launched today by Washington Ceasefire, with the support of Mayor McGinn. The campaign formally announced this morning on Capitol Hill (photo above) encourages any interested business, anywhere in the city limits, to declare itself a “Gun-Free Zone”; the voluntary sign-up form is here, along with links to download pre-produced signs such as this one:

The same link will take you to an FAQ explaining that it’s “generally” within business owners’ rights to set rules that could include banning particular items from their property, and if those rules exist, police could be called to deal with rule violators as trespassers. Washington Ceasefire director Ralph Fascitelli is quoted on his organization’s website as saying, “We know this won’t stop someone determined to cause violence, but we hope that standing together and giving businesses a tool to say no to guns will change the conversation around gun violence.”

So far, the only West Seattle-linked business on the list of participants (scroll down that same page) is Cupcake Royale; we walked by the Junction location around noon and didn’t see a sign up at the Junction location, but will be checking on the company’s plans. Any other local businesses planning to support this campaign? Or, for that matter, to actively oppose it? Let us know.

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Now that they’ve finished gutting their space, and their permits are making progress, the fun really begins for the trio planning to open the sports bar/restaurant The Westy Sports and Spirits at 7908 35th SW.

As we saw while visiting partners (from left in top photo) Shane Whittall, Paul Ritums, and JP Vidican on this past week, the 2,500-square-foot, 1955-built space is now gutted “down to the shell,” which yielded some surprises:

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The three-day grand-opening celebration has begun for West Seattle Cyclery, one of WSB’s newest sponsors, now that both its retail and service operations are up and running. Here’s what proprietor Brad Loetel would like you to know about his new business:

(From left, West Seattle Cyclery’s Brad, Catherine, Sawyer)
We are a new full-service bike shop in West Seattle. Our mission at West Seattle Cyclery is for our customers to love cycling as much as we do. We will support our customers in that effort by hiring dedicated, smart, and professional staff who will use their knowledge and experience to ensure that our customers purchase the bikes and equipment which best meet their needs.

Our customers have said that they really appreciate that West Seattle Cyclery is a locally owned shop with both an owner and staff from West Seattle. Our customers also appreciate that we understand that they prefer to be riding their bikes instead of waiting for their bikes to be repaired. Our goal is to complete most repairs within 2 days. Occasionally it will take longer, but we will make every effort to minimize the delay.

The customers who seek us out are happy we are in their neighborhood. A few have had bad experiences at other shops and want to find a new shop. The staff at West Seattle Cyclery have been in the business for many years. We know you don’t get loyal customers by providing poor customer service. We also know there is competition from other bike shops around the Seattle area, and the Internet has definitely made an impact on the bike industry. So it is in our interest to make sure you get great customer service, because we love cycling and want you to enjoy riding your bike.

Catherine, Sawyer and I used to work together at another shop. Recently, a former customer from that shop came in to West Seattle Cyclery. He was really excited to see us because he did not know that we were the people behind West Seattle Cyclery. He bought his first bike from us to train for the STP a few years ago. Now he is doing four to five 100=mile rides a year and no longer has to take his diabetes medicine. He looks forward to having us work on his bikes to prepare him for his next big ride.

Regarding community involvement – we have talked with West Seattle Bike Connections to see how we can help them achieve some of their goals. We also want to make West Seattle safe for cyclists of any age. We look forward to supporting many other local organizations. Community is an important part of why we are here, so we plan on giving back when we can.

West Seattle Cyclery is at 4508 California SW, 206.557.7267, online at westseattlecyclery.com. The grand-opening celebration continues through Sunday!

We thank West Seattle Cyclery for sponsoring independent, community-collaborative neighborhood news via WSB; find our current sponsor team listed in directory format here, and find info on joining the team by going here.