Celebrate 10 years of Columbia City PCC

The Columbia City PCC is turning 10! Come celebrate this month at the store in one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the United States.

The store in South Seattle was initially seen as a replacement for PCC’s former store in Seward Park, which had outgrown its small building and parking lot after 30 years in business. The 25,000-square-foot Columbia City branch was more than twice the size of the old building (now a Third Place Books), featuring a classroom for cooking classes, an espresso bar and cheese counter, a salad bar and pizzeria and much more.

Over the years, the store has become much more than those parts. Part of the Angeline mixed-use development that includes nearly 200 apartments,  PCC is woven into the fabric of the ever-changing neighborhood.

“This is the community’s store,” said store director Kerri Hunsley, who was recently honored with a national award for her work.

“The store is unique in itself,” she said. Despite price pressures in Seattle and changing demographics, the diverse cultures and backgrounds of shoppers still gives it an energy all its own.

The store’s community connections include a partnership with Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic, its food bank partner, as well as work with Peace Peloton, which connects community members to small local Black-owned businesses, including the Columbia City Night Market. Especially important, Hunsley said, was working with Peace Peloton’s Reginald ‘Doc’ Williams to help get products from those vendors on the store’s shelves.

The store has a close connection with Interagency High School, a small alternative high school, from connecting students with food bank meals to sending over fruit platters for the tiny prom to hosting a cooking class taught by instructors from Solid Ground. Helping those students is probably one of the store’s proudest accomplishments, she said.

“I want the kids to have a better life than what they have.”

The store is located a short walk from the Link Light Rail station, and gets busy with people stopping in to and from work. A few staff members from the Seward Park store still work there — and many customers still remember the old store — along with new co-op members from the growing neighborhood.

“I think people are proud to shop here. I think my staff are proud to work here, providing service to the community,” Hunsley said. She sees shoppers waiting to talk to their favorites cashiers rather than go to a shorter line, feeling the excitement of the neighborhood when the Wednesday Columbia City Farmers Market — which the PCC store sponsored in its early years — fill the nearby park with families and food.

“It’s a good vibe. And I don’t know how to explain it. You just feel it when you walk in.”