Dive Brief:
- PCC Community Markets plans to open a small-format location in downtown Seattle at the same site where it had, until recently, been operating a full-service grocery store, the co-op announced on Friday.
- At approximately 6,500 square feet, the new store will be a fraction of the size of the 20,000-square-foot store it will replace, which was unprofitable and closed in January.
- PCC plans to use the remaining space at the site for its corporate office after its existing office lease runs out next year, the co-op said, adding that the shift will help it save money on rent.
Dive Insight:
PCC said the new store, which does not yet have a formal name, will be designed to serve people who work and live in the downtown area.
The store will feature hot and cold bars, grab-and-go deli items, drinks and snacks intended to meet the needs of office workers, as well as a limited variety of grocery, produce and pantry products, PCC President and CEO Krish Srinivasan said in a message to the co-op’s membership. The store, at the intersection of Fourth Avenue and Union Street, will also sell ice cream, beer and wine, he said.
“We continue to hear– from co-op members, our staff, and downtown residents — about a strong need in the city center for the kind of unique shopping and dining experience that only PCC offers. We are thrilled to be able to meet that need by returning with a new concept that promises significantly better economics than a full-service grocery store,” Srinivasan said in a statement.
The co-op noted that it came up with the idea to use the space for a smaller store because it is locked into a long-term lease for the location. Executives worked with the owner of the space, Wright Runstad, “on innovative ways to reactivate the space in a manner consistent with the co-op’s triple bottom line focus on people, planet and profit,” according to the announcement.
Srinivasan said the co-op drew lessons from the previous store as it crafted plans for the new one, indicating that the former location’s prepared foods and deli department performed well even as the store proved to be unprofitable. The former store opened in January 2022, but ran into trouble because the COVID-19 pandemic drove down the number of office workers and local shoppers, according to PCC. The pandemic also delayed the store’s opening.
PCC has struggled financially during the past several years and was unprofitable last year, prompting Srinivasan to appeal in May to the co-op’s members to spend more at its stores to help strengthen its finances. That strategy paid off, helping PCC turn in improved sales during the second quarter of 2024, Srinivasan said in an Aug. 30 letter to members.