Friday, July 30, 2010

Top Foods was more than a grocer

Top Foods on Redmond Way is closing on Sunday.  What a bummer.  Today, one of our blog readers emailed they are giving 25% off on everything this weekend.  It was a good excuse & reminder to visit the store for the last time.  Top Foods is special from the rest.   The short-order restaurant atrium - with it's garage doors -  will be a sorely missed gathering place.  Sports teams and parents would meet-up before, and after.  Families.  Business workers.  I loved to bike the Bear Creek Trail, snack and rest-up.  Quite a few visited the Creek - you can see the Cottonwoods - from here.  (photo)
I bumped into the Manager today. With a strained smile he said he'd take a week off and go to Hawaii for two weeks; not certain what to do next. Others were offered jobs at nearby Top Foods stores or lost their unemployment insurance by saying "no".  One self-stocker was happy about his new job in the Kent store. He commutes from Puyallup.  The workers are all friendly.
I had heard rumors why Top Foods was closing. The Manager filled me in. It was a combination of things: 1) Traffic is excellent to the Plateau but the store is set-back and unseen. 2) The city wouldn't permit a "pillar sign" on Redmond Way. 3) Redmond Town Center owns the property; many leases tripled.

I'll miss this place: it was more than a grocer.  I wonder what will replace it?

By Bob Yoder
IPhone photo

6 comments:

  1. Apparently they've been doing the 25 off for a few days now... don't know what's going in there. workers i talked to said the city wouldn't allow signage so they had trouble letting people know they were there... they said another food store certainly won't go there.

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  2. Maybe they can open a big box electronics store there, such as Best Buy. That's definitely the type of store that's missing from the area.

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  3. Too bad...it was a nice place. Sad to see so many Redmond businesses closing up.

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  4. I believe it was just too much competition in the area. You have a QFC, Fred Meyers, Trader Joes, Safeway, Whole Foods and a Target that sells food all within a mile of each other.

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  5. Good point, Carla. Why was Top Food the first to go. The others must be struggling, too. Top Food is well-mangaged -- based out of Bellingham for years.

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  6. 2013: I read in the Redmond Reporter an athletic/gym fitness center is going in there..

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