I made my first trip to the new store on Tuesday (I forgot to take pictures.) and ran into everyone I don’t know in this town, as well as City Councilman Roy Runyon and his wife, Kimberly Faulkner. Runyon and Faulkner were just leaving the store and said Tuesday was the first time they’d been able to find a parking space.
It was like this, kind of, when Popeyes opened in East Bremerton and one my former editors asked if there had been some pent up demand for it. You have to wonder the same about WinCo. How quiet are things at other stores?
WinCo, as you may recall from Rachel Pritchett’s award worthy stories on it, offers groceries at lower prices in a kind of warehouse setting. And you have to bag your own stuff. I bought a PowerBar, some bell peppers and some gluten-free tortilla chips. Using the check yourself out (I used to check myself out in the mirror a lot when I was younger.) stand I got in and out of there pretty quickly. If I’d had a cart, though, it would have taken a lot longer.
Faulkner said the prices are lower. Runyon raved about the bulk section. I liked that there was a security guard out front.
Chris Henry and I shared cop duties the last couple days and read the police reports in Bremerton on Monday and Tuesday. Each day there were tales of WinCo shoplifters. On the first day about four members of the next generation hauled of some Pop-Tarts without paying. The second day some new shoppers must have thought the corn dogs were free.
The prices aren’t that low that you can just open something up and eat it and then walk out. I didn’t see where they were selling ready-to-eat corn dogs anyway, not that it means anything.
For me the experience was like old times. A decade ago I was writing for The Columbian in Vancouver and we were frequent customers at the WinCo there. The company says the Bremerton store is smaller than most of its stores. If so, I couldn’t tell. That may be something I get a better handle on when I’m not ducking in between members of the entire commmunity.
The latest issue of Consumer Reports has an article on supermarkets. WinCo is mentioned there.
The same thing is going on at the new Wendy’s in Poulsbo that opened last week. Driving by it today on my way to another business near lunch time and there was a line to get into the parking lot along with reflective vested employees directing traffic. It will slack off some as everyone gets their rubber necking first time experience in.
I pulled into the Winco parking lot Sunday morning and saw a line just to get INTO the store! I left and went shopping at Grocery Outlet and Garguile’s Red Apple, both great stores with good prices! And no crowds!!!!! I checked out the Winco in Tacoma a few months ago to see what all the talk was about and wasn’t really that impressed.
Good for you Robin.
Not related to this post, but I love the count down timer for the City Council Reduction running on the side of this blog! Great idea!