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Planting a Seed: Anyone For a Tacoma Food Co-op?

· Posted Tuesday October 3, 2006 by jamie

So Exit133 has a rumor post stating that Stadium Thriftway may be purchasing the Bruce Titus car lot in the Stadium District once the lease is up. There is come conjecture about mixed-use development, which is definitely cool, but I would be especially excited at the prospect of the Thriftway expanding a bit, as we shop there pretty regularly and would love to see them have a bit more space.

At the same time, I still wonder why there isn’t a full-service grocery store further west on Sixth Avenue closer to where we live…anywhere between Sprague and Union would be walkable, and would pull in UPS students as well. And there is the continuing demand for a downtown grocery store…there the mantra has always been something to the effect of waiting for downtown populations to be large enough to warrant a store opening. Seems like we’re waiting for someone else to pull the trigger.

But do we need to wait? Here’s what I’m thinking: Tacoma doesn’t have a health food co-op. We need one. With a full-on supermarket that offers member and non-member pricing. We can fight over UWT area vs. northern downtown vs. Sixth Ave district later, but this could fill some definite needs for Tacoma on our own terms, since “we” (as a group) would be the owners.

Is anyone else excited about this? I think with enough people, we could easily make something like this happen. I’m in. Let’s hear who else is…


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Comments:

  1. The goodly employees of Holistic Forge Works are ready to back you up Sir (in spirit anyhow).

    — RR Anderson    Oct 3, 07:48 PM    #

  2. I’m all for it—Tacoma badly needs a coop/natural foods store in a better location. I’d join/buy stuff, but wouldn’t have tons of time to put into it.

    — MG    Oct 3, 09:12 PM    #

  3. I am in! I would be willing to work on logistics, drum up supporters (the vast majority of my friends would join) or do whatever it takes… While we’re at it, I think we should make a used outdoor gear shop too.

    — tracey    Oct 5, 03:06 AM    #

  4. I think it is a great idea. I grew up in Bellingham where they have a great food co-op. Let me know how I can help.

    — Andrew    Oct 5, 09:30 AM    #

  5. Seems like between the comments here and over at Exit133, there is a lot of interest in this. Luckily a few of you even sound like you’re willing to put in some effort. I think we need to run with this.

    I’m going to try to figure out a time/location when we can have an informational/brainstorming meeting to figure out next steps. I’ll keep folks posted…

    — jamie    Oct 5, 12:53 PM    #