Tag Archives: store

Toy shop moving into old Winslow Drug

A toy store is poised to replace Winslow Drug on Bainbridge Island’s main street.

Elisabeth Dahl, owner of Calico Toy Shoppe in Winslow Green, said she signed a lease agreement on the space at 290 Winslow Way E. She plans to move her business there this fall.

“We’re definitely excited about being in the middle of main street and the heart of town,” Dahl said.

Winslow Drug closed in May after 60 years in business. Safeway picked up its pharmacy accounts and hired its staff.

The spacious storefront left vacant by the Winslow Drug will give Calico room to grow and add new products, while exposing the business to more tourist traffic, Dahl said.

The shop will remain open in Winslow Green during the move, and possibly through the end of 2016.

The Port Orchard Haggen is also closed

Tad Sooter

PO.haggen

Haggen has left the county.

The grocery chain’s store in the Port Orchard Bethel Junction shopping center was closed and cleaned out last week. Haggen shuttered its stores in East Bremerton and Silverdale at the end of November.

PO.haggen.2 I haven’t heard exactly when the Port Orchard location shut down. If you happen to know, please drop a comment below.

Unlike the Bremerton and Silverdale Haggens, the Port Orchard store already has a new owner in place.

Albertsons LLC. bought the location in a bankruptcy auction last month and plans to return it to the Safeway brand. A timeline for the reopening has not been announced.

The three Kitsap County stores were among 146 Haggen acquired from Albertsons and Safeway early this year, as the two mega-grocers completed a merger.

The East Bremerton and Silverdale stores were previously operated by Albertsons. The Port Orchard store was a Safeway.

Haggen’s bold expansion ultimately flopped. The company filed for bankruptcy reorganization in September and held auctions to begin selling off assets.

The Bellingham Herald reports Haggen will try to sell the remainder of its stores, including its original Whatcom County locations, at an auction scheduled for February.

Haggen was in business in Kitsap for less than 9 months:

Kingston IGA changes hands, undergoing remodel

Tad Sooter

Kingston’s downtown grocery store is getting a new name and an overhaul.

The IGA was bought this by Food Market, a small Pierce County grocery chain. The store, at 10978 NE State Highway 104, will soon be rebranded Food Market at Kingston.

Longtime store owner Rick Bjornson reached an agreement earlier this year with Food Market owner Don Stolz, our partners at the Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal reported.

“It’s a good location, the locals support it well,” Food Market Operations Manager Kip Bonds said. “It was a good opportunity for us.”

yourFoodMarketLOGOS The new owners are freshening up the store with a remodel set to begin Sunday. Food Market Operations Manager Kip Bonds said the tile floor will be pulled up and the concrete below will be ground and polished. Other changes include all-new lighting, new check stands, a new service center, new and overhauled produce cases, a soup bar and a drip coffee station.

Bonds said there’s no firm timeline for the remodel. A date for a grand opening under the new brand will be announced soon.

Food Market has a different wholesaler than IGA, but Bonds said customers can expect product offerings to be roughly the same. The organics section will be expanded.

Bonds said many staff members stayed on with the new company and some new part-time employees were hired. The store has a new manager. Food Market will offer new sales and incentives for shoppers, including a 1 percent rebate program for nonprofit groups.

Food Market’s other locations are in Lea Hill (Auburn), Key Center and Lake Kathryn (Gig Harbor).

Bag ban shifted shopper behavior at Bainbridge grocery

Tad Sooter

Bainbridge Island enacted a ban on plastic shopping bags 18 months ago.

The city ordinance eliminated plastic bags and imposed a five cent fee on paper bags (retailers keep the revenue). The hope was shoppers would transition to reusable bags, cutting down on waste. At Winslow’s Town & Country supermarket that appears to have happened.

The store saw a 53 percent increase in reusable bag use after the ban, according to statistics T&C shared with the Kitsap Sun and the city. Here’s a graphical look at the change over the past year:

It should be noted the reusable bag figures represent transactions, not actual bags, since the bags can be used over and over.

T&C gave a nickel discount to shoppers who remembered their reusable bags, creating a 10 cent incentive for shopping with cloth bags. The plastic bag ban and the cash incentive appeared to not only promote reusable bags but also decrease paper bag use.

Tony D’Onofrio, sustainability director for Town & Country Markets, said the ban took some adjustment for customers and staff but was well received.

“Now it’s just business as usual,” he said. “No one seems to really notice. Customers are used to it.”

Other Kitsap cities were in no rush to follow Bainbridge’s lead on banning bags when we checked in with them in 2012. About a dozen Washington cities have adopted bag bans so far.