January 23, 2014 · Exit133

Tacoma City Grocer to Close

The Tacoma City Grocer at 13th and Pacific is closing.

The store opened in 2011 on the Pacific Avenue street level of Pacific Plaza after years of discussion about bringing a grocer to downtown Tacoma. The non-union IGA grocer immediately became the subject of union pickets, which lasted for more than a year, before sign holders were called off in early 2013.

Now The News Tribune reports that despite a favorable deal on the lease to incent the grocery store, and although the deli was successful, the grocery store operated at a loss for the entire time it was open. Seeing no end in sight to that trend, TCG will close its doors sometime in the next few weeks, leaving downtown Tacoma once again without a grocery store.

According to the TNT, the owners of Pacific Plaza also own all the grocery store fixtures and appliances, and they're looking for a new tenant to take on the challenge.

Filed under: Downtown Tacoma, Tacoma Business, Neighborhoods, Retail

11 comments

luke January 23, 2014

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Jesse January 23, 2014

That sucks. It was such a fracas to get a grocery store in the first place. Perhaps they're ahead of their time.
- fred davie January 24, 2014
  
  Ahead of their time....maybe. Tough to run a business with a mob of chain smoking losers with signs marching in front of your doorway for months upon end. Now.... nobody has a job. Misery loves company. Behold this fine example of solidarity in action.
Erik B January 23, 2014

Update:
Fred Davie January 23, 2014

This is a sad news but their is a bright side! Now the union pickets can organize to lease the store from the property owner and run it the way they demanded it be run.
- nwcolorist January 27, 2014
  
  How long would that last?!
  - fred davie January 27, 2014
    
    Well, I don't know colorist. Apparently a lot of DT shoppers won't frequent a non union grocery. So this is a great opportunity for the union supporters to see if their brand of business will prove successful. How will they ever find out if they don't try?
Ed... January 23, 2014

Downtown is a ghost town, what did ya expect...
jake January 24, 2014

You have to pay to park or remember to get a validation. The selection is pretty basic and overpriced. The staff were not very pleasant and the place seemed like it was being operated like a quickie mart. I visited once and decided to go back to the stadium thriftway.
joe-nate January 25, 2014

Founded in 1928 near S. 15th and Broadway in Tacoma (forced to close in 1942 as a result of Executive Order 9066) but reopening in Seattle in the late 1940s after World War II, perhaps it is time for Uwajimaya to reestablish Tacoma ties at Pacific Plaza with a branch store that has an emphasis on unique pan-Asian foods and produce for which customers drive from near and far away to experience at the firm's Seattle, Bellevue and Beaverton stores. Uwajimaya also operates a small restaurant on Concourse C at Sea-Tac Airport with a fast-deli menu attractive to travelers and office workers. A small Uwajimaya at Pacific Plaza might be a calculated but worthwhile risk for the family-run firm in a Tacoma with market opportunities that gave original rise to the company. Seattle artist Gerard Tsutakawa, who is behind the memorial marker planned for Tacoma Nihongo Gakko on the UW-Tacoma campus, is a nephew of the late Sadako Moriguchi, then a resident of Tacoma Nihonmachi in 1928 who co-founded Uwajimaya there with her husband, Fujimatsu. Uwajimaya might serve a unique market niche in Tacoma. By contrast, Tacoma City Grocery seemed to offer standard fare that could be found elsewhere. One hopes Uwajimaya is listening and has imagination.
sid January 26, 2014

A Trader Joe's would be awesome there.