Downtown Bothell store closes after 50 years in business
There was plenty of activity on a recent morning over at the new Safeway site on the southwest corner of Bothell-Everett Highway and 240th Street Southeast in Bothell.
New employees were training on the registers in the Starbucks area. Workers were up on ladders putting the finishing touches on the interior. People were walking briskly inside and outside, making sure everything was looking good for Safeway’s Lakeside at Canyon Park grand opening last Friday.
“We’re very excited to open the doors in Bothell,” said Sara Osborne, Safeway’s manager of public/government affairs, adding that Safeway officials are keyed in to Bothell’s revitalization plans. “We feel our new store reflects the evolution of Bothell and we’re ready to serve the community.”
Safeway hosted a Veterans Day ceremony with a flag raising with members of the Bothell American Legion Post 127, Safeway employees who are military veterans and speeches by Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe and Rep. Derek Stanford. About 200 people attended the event.
The new store is among 1,700 national Safeways that began a three-day fund-raiser for the Wounded Warriors Project last Friday.
Bothell Mayor Mark Lamb cut the grand-opening ribbon with 25-year downtown Safeway employee Robert MacKay and Jeffery Sanchek from Wounded Warriors, the Bothell High jazz choir sang the “National Anthem” and the Seattle Blue Thunder drum corps led the mass of people into the store at noon.
“This is a really exciting thing for the city of Bothell, and it’s important in the day and age we live in, to remember that Bothell, like our country, is a town made up of people. And there are a lot of people who are going to come and work at this store,” Lamb told the crowd, noting that Safeway is going to be a great economic resource for the city. “I’m deeply honored as the mayor of the city of Bothell to welcome Safeway to our community, and I’m also honored to take the opportunity to thank our veterans for their service.”
Lamb commended Safeway for supporting the Wounded Warriors Project and thanked Post 127 for its service to the community.
Property Development Centers (PDC) broke ground the first week last March on approximately 13 acres of land that will feature a 150,000-square-foot shopping center, the 50,000-square-foot Safeway and six shop buildings with approximately 40,000 square feet of retail space.
Osborne noted that a Burger King, KeyBank and Uncle Peteza’s shop probably won’t open at Lakeside until 2012.
Next step
Over at the old Safeway on Bothell-Everett Highway in downtown Bothell Nov. 9, assistant manager Linda Fish said that 20-plus employees were set to transfer to the new store, which has hired about 100 new employees.
The 50-year-old Safeway remained open until 11:30 p.m. Nov. 10. The new store was already stocked with merchandise at that time; the old store’s leftover items were scheduled to be moved to other stores.
“A lot of our customers are really hopeful and excited about the new store because this store obviously didn’t have all the things that most Safeway stores offer,” said Fish, a seven-year Bothell Safeway employee, noting that the new store offers a Starbucks, a hot deli, China Express, a pharmacy, a bakery, customer-service and video departments and more.
“Some of our other customers are sad that our store is closing because it’s their local neighborhood store and they won’t be able to get to the new Safeway easily because they walk here,” added Fish, who will transfer to the Monroe Safeway near her home.
Customer service
Customer Steve Johnson labeled the store as a meeting place and a vital part of the city.
“This store has been part of the downtown Bothell heritage for 50 years. I will miss my store. The new store is very nice, but I will always miss walking to my Safeway,” he said.
Employees Heidi Evans (16 years) and Cristina Tompkins (four years) have moved to the new Safeway, but said they do so with heavy hearts and open minds.
“It is exciting, because now we’re going to have a bakery, a Starbucks, all that is going to be a lot of fun… but we like the little store and being closer to the customers,” Tompkins said last week. “They’ve been telling us they’re going to be there (at the new store).
“Today is my last day — it’s a little weird. Customers have been saying goodbye already today.”
Past and present
Prior to housing the old Safeway, the lot on 18221 N.E. Bothell Way featured the Gerhard and Dorothea Ericksen bungalow residence from 1913-1920 and changed hands several times — serving as a funeral home around 1938 — before Safeway occupied the land, according to the book “Bothell: Then and Now.” (The Avon Theater occupied the site prior to Safeway.)
Pacific Northern Construction has purchased the roughly two-acre site with plans to convert the space into a mixed residential and retail development.
The Grease Monkey automotive maintenance services shop, formerly located near the old Safeway, has moved across the street from the new Safeway.
Up at the new Safeway on opening day, longtime Bothell resident Gail Price (Fletcher) used to live on the land in her uncle’s house. He owned the home since the 1930s and she moved in with her four sisters in 1965.
“The house was right about here,” she said, standing in the flowers section. “We had a big barn with a cow… we milked the cow, right about in the banking section — it’s funny.”
She sold the land to Safeway about six years ago; before the company took over, the Bigfoot Tavern, a gas station and store stood on the land. One of Price’s top memories was driving her uncle’s old beat-up truck (with a mowing mechanism attached) as a 13-year-old and grooming the large fields.
“It’s something else, it’s hard to believe,” Price said of the new Safeway. “My sister’s going to meet me and we’re just going to laugh or something.”
• The new Safeway will be open 24 hours a day. They will be hosting a Toys for Tots drive, as well as a diaper and baby food drive and holiday food drive, both with Northwest Harvest. The local Boy Scouts will be moving their holiday tree lot to the new location.
