Celebrating 35 years of the West Seattle PCC

The West Seattle PCC store is turning 35 this month. Come celebrate!

The store will feature cake, wine tasting and other fun events at a party from noon to 4 p.m. Oct. 5. Full details are online here. But shoppers and community members are invited to share memories and see historic photos at the store throughout the month.

West Seattle residents had strong co-op ties even before they had a neighborhood store. PCC members had sought a West Seattle outlet even in its early years, when the co-op was a food buying club headquartered in founder John Affolter’s basement. The co-op added a Delridge drop-off site for grocery deliveries on a member’s front porch in 1966, shortly before PCC’s first storefront opened in Madrona, according to early issues of the PCC newsletter that became Sound Consumer.

West Seattle was ultimately PCC’s sixth storefront – and its largest at the time — when it opened in 1989. More than 60% of members had requested it as the location for a new site.

As the Sound Consumer reported, “More than 1,100 people came out for opening day, where featured sale items included “Vegi-Patties” at $1.51 for a 12-ounce package and bulk salt-free “Nutri-Nut Mix” at $2.60/lb. “Back to basics” cooking classes had some similar themes as modern ones but drier names; one was titled “The Soy Foods: Tofu and Tempeh” and another “Dry Beans, Peas, Lentils.”

Opening day featured clowns and jugglers, live jazz, and “a comparison tasting of organically and conventionally grown produce,” according to 1989 Sound Consumer reports.

Starting in 2017, redevelopment on the site led to a two-year store hiatus. When construction was complete in 2019, a 24,000-square-foot West Seattle PCC opened in the new complex, nearly twice the size of the original store. It included a larger produce department, pizzeria and a vastly expanded bulk goods department, among other additions.

It also continued to support the community, including partnerships with local hunger relief organizations through the Grocery Rescue program (West Seattle Food Bank, White Center Food Bank, Food Not Bombs and a related branch, Emerald City Food Not Bombs).

The store was the first grocery store in the world seeking certification through the Living Building Challenge, known as the world’s most rigorous green building standard, which it ultimately achieved. As part of that certification, the store also showcases an art installation by local artist Celeste Cooning, inspired by the water that surrounds Seattle’s oldest neighborhood.

The location in that Admiral neighborhood is part of the store’s character, says Carissa Moreno, a PCC human resources generalist who was a sophomore at West Seattle High School when she started working as a courtesy clerk at the “homey” old West Seattle PCC.

“A lot of people who shop there are coming there on foot… They walk there, and that’s their routine. When I worked there, I would see a handful of people more than three times a day.”

Moreno transferred to the deli at age 18 and worked “every job in the deli” up to deli coordinator until the store closed for renovations. (She worked at other PCC stores — and also married Dante Moreno, now deli manager at the Fremont PCC, who she first met in West Seattle.)

In her current position she’s in West Seattle one day a week. Continuing the community feeling, Moreno works with store director Renee Crovisier, who started work as a courtesy clerk at the West Seattle PCC on the same day as Moreno 20 years ago.

“I grew up in West Seattle so it’s like I’m going home when I go there,” she said.