I just read this incredibly depressing article in the PI about the neighborhoods in Seattle where carless people cannot find groceries without serious effort. The story chronicles a 55-year-old Delridge resident who needs a bus and some serious walking to get groceries. I’ve always lived pretty near to at least one supermarket (I have one two blocks away now), but where my mother lives, off Greenlake, the nearest supermarkets are several miles away.
What neighborhoods are lacking nearby supermarkets? Obviously the Meridian/Tangletown neighborhood, and I know most of Downtown is missing supermarkets, though one store is coming to the Financial District and a Trader Joe’s supposedly is coming to a Belltown/Denny Triangle development in a few years, though I can’t comfirm this. I also can imagine that most far-off neighborhoods in the far north and south are missing supermarkets. I’d love to live in a city where no matter where you lived, it’d be easy to walk to get necessities. Can you walk to a grocery store from your house?
I have got three within easy walking distance from my house in Bryant
Not since they tore down that QFC in W. Ballard. Now I just drive to the Safeway on the other side of Market or the QFC in Crown Hill.
Also, what the fuck is the “Financial District”? Do you mean “Downtown”?
I live in the International District, and there are probably ten produce/meat markets within a few blocks of me. No good place to get stuff like toothpaste though without a good hike.
tyler, doesn’t Uwajimaya have a fair amount of toothpaste? There’s also that corner store at, maybe, King and Maynard. I sometimes walked up (or grabbed a bus) to the Bartell’s at 4th and Madison.
Eastlake only has a convenience store, which really doesn’t cut it.
I live in DT Bellevue, can walk to QFC and Safeway. Thank goodness the new Safeway will be open soon…
Being able to walk to the store is something that is very high on my list for future homes.
anonymous, yet another reason to support an extension of the SLU Streetcar to the University District! You’d end up with access to the Whole Foods downtown (I know, I know), and depending on how far north the streetcar were to run, the Safeway in the U-district.
I have a 2-block walk to a small grocery store, a 6-block walk to two large grocery stores and a drug store, and a 15-block walk to 3 more large stores and another drug store. Not to mention a donut shop on the corner (not a good thing).
As for downtown – there’s a new grocery store “M Street Grocery” on 8th and Madison. I haven’t tried it yet, but it’s only a few blocks from my work.
Imagine the extent of this problem out in the suburbs – a family member doesn’t even have sidewalks between her and a grocery store, and no useable bus system.
No, and it sucks. I live near Tangletown so Meridian Market is an option, but there is obviously a big lack of choices and everything is marked way up.
I suppose I shouldn’t say anything, but in Canyon Park we have the whole suburban lot of supermarkets: QFC, Safeway, Albertsons, Bartell’s, Rite Aid, and so forth; all within three or four blocks of my house.
Here in Queens, I have a supermarket around the corner, and ten more within a mile of my apartment.
About one mile away in eastern part of Broadview.
I’ve got it made. I can go into my local Safeway, fill up my basket, hop in the elevator, up 2 floords, exit, and wheel my cart directly into my apartment and into my kitchen. I’m at Jefferson Square in The Junction. I call my Safeway my downstairs pantry.
Moving will be tough.
i don’t know; i lived in tangletown on 57th and kirkwood and the meridian market (more of a corner store than grocery store) was only about two blocks away. also, i would often bike to the QFC on 45th and wallingford.
I live in Columbia City and we can definitely do with a grocery store in walking distance. My apartment in Lower Queen Anne had 4 in walking distance.
I’m right by the troll in Fremont and the only supermarket in walking distance is PCC, which isn’t really an option for me.
When I lived on 19th and E Thomas I had 5 supermarkets within a 5 minute walk of my house. I have to say that I was probably spoiled but now I usually just trip chain when I’m coming home from work and go to Trader Joe’s in the U district or QFC in Wallingford.
Eastlake has no grocery stores, but we already have bus access to Whole Foods and to the U-District Safeway, and if you live in the north end of Eastlake, buses to Capitol Hill Fred Meyer. Extending the SLUT through Eastlake isn’t going to improve our access to groceries.
It seems to me that biggest problem is the reliance on mega-super-markets for supplying all of our food needs, because they take up such a huge amount of space, cost a lot of money to build and run, and operate on such razor-thin margins that they become inviable in poorer neighborhoods.
It’s interesting that when you go to a very large city like New York, where supermarkets can’t exist (due, I imagine, to space and rent constraints), under-served neighborhoods have much better access to food and groceries than equivalent (or slightly better) neighborhoods here. I think it’s because New York has a much more robust system of food distribution, based on many smaller neighborhood markets. Granted the quality is not as high in poorer neighborhoods, but the same is true here (Red Apple v. Whole Foods). To me this seems a much better (and much more sustainable) model.
Rather than government subsidies for Albertson’s or Safeway (a solution that the p-i article mentioned), I think the city is on the right track with the farmer’s markets – encouraging more and smaller-scale systems of food distribution. It will be interesting to see how this plays out as Seattle grows denser.
Good point [ra]. The map and these comments only focus on large grocery stores. What people really need is access to fruits, veggies, and grain. Everything else just takes up space.
In the eastern countries I’ve traveled to supermarkets don’t exist (though I saw one on China – across the street from where the bullet train and the subway meet). What they have is small stores with fruit, veggies, grain, and a few other staples that take up about as much room as a garage. These are peppered throughout neighborhoods and are easy to walk to.
Why don’t these exist here?
These don’t exist as much in the US for the same reasons that we all drive around in our own personal cars instead of taking transit: Americans love convenience and instance satisfaction. We demand everything in one place right when we need it. I think a bigger problem for local grocery stores is that (especially in the burbs)even if one is within walking distance people will still drive to them simply because we buy SO MUCH at once that nobody wants to cart 15 bags home on the bus. I personally go to the store (just a few blocks from me) at least 2-3 times a week and only buy what I can carry home, usually just what I need to make one meal. This is not something the average soccer mom would find acceptable.
I can walk to 4 awesome grocery stores from my apartment (near 15th ave in Capitol Hill) Madison Market and TJs are 2 blocks away, Safeway is about the same, and a QFC is 5-6 blocks away.
If there are so many places without grocery access, why don’t some entrepreneurs among us pick up the slack, even with something as small as City Market? They’ve got a decent produce selection for a store as small as it is.
I can walk to one grocery store in West Seattle, the Thriftway at Fauntleroy/Morgan/Cali junction. And am lucky to have this access (it was a requirement when looking at where to live).
That said, the “main junction” in W Sea will have a Safeway, a QFC, and a Whole Foods within 2-3 blocks of each other. There is also a Safeway and a PCC further north. South (in Westwood Village) there is a QFC and I think an Albertson’s near White Center.
The closest store for those in Delridge is either the Thriftway or the QFC in Westwood Vill. Try getting to either one by bus…esp. if you live further east of Delridge. Many of us would welcome another store in the still growing High Point complex and have been frustrated with the amount of growth in the junction itself and the lack of planning. The amount of condos/apartments planned to go up w/in the next five years is astromical – and perhaps more groceries are needed, but seriously, 3 within 3 blocks?
I can’t wait to see what happens to the traffic…and the bus service…again, a good inter-West Seattle route would be very useful, one without 2 transfers required to get from one end to the other…we are concerned with keeping W Sea walkable and useful w/out cars, but the transit system must be an integral part in this and Metro just doesn’t seem to “get” West Seattle (I’ve been to meetings and talked directly with planners…). RapidRide is pretty much despised, while more routes and route expansion is welcomed (RR is a proposed poor replacement of a popular, useful route #54).
leif, Americans only prefer things because they were somehow made cost-effective for the businesses (generally unnaturally). I don’t see many supermarkets in downtown Manhattan, and yet there are huge numbers of Americans there.
Isn’t the issue really about “grocery stores” rather than “supermarkets?” Manhattan has plenty of the former and few of the latter. And, corrollary to that, ease of access to groceries without needing a car – however you get to them (foot, bicycle, mass transit, whatever)?
Thinking of Europe and first world Asia, there is often a mix of types. From little bottled drink/candy kiosks to conveinence stores (processed foods and some “fresh” sandwiches) to slightly larger places that have fresh vegetables/bread/etc but are basically just store fronts to grocery stores integrated into other buildings to supermarkets to free-standing Tesco/Fred Meyer/etc. catch-all stores.
And all are easily accessible – if one of the larger types with wider selection isn’t in your neighborhood, you hop onto the metro or tram or bus and you’ll be at it in 10 minutes or so.
Capitol Hill and the U-District are the best. Even though the U-District Safeway is a wreck, we still go there because we can walk there quickly and easily than the QFC/Whole Foods on 65th, or the QFC/Safeway at the U-Village. I think the only store NOT represented in the U-District is PCC – they just have their offices there. Speaking of smaller grocery stores, the closest one to my apartment is the Cowen Park Grocery – 1 block away.
I’m in Redmond, a few blocks from the refurbished Transit Center there, and across the street from a QFC.
We made this choice on purpose and we have reaped the benefits of it for years. Almost everything is within walking distance to me; the only time I need wheeled transport is when I go shopping for clothes.
And I *love* it! Going back to some twisty street in a suburban development, miles from everything, would be a definite step backwards and into a less enjoyable life.
There are actually a fair number of Supermarkets in lowere Manhattan, though maybe not many in what is precisely called “Downtown”. In the East Village there is an absolutely massive Whole Foods that’s as big as a super market here. Most markets there are small, like Chinatown has loads of little markets. Chelsea has a couple, Soho has a few kind of high-end supermarkets.
If you get to Midtown they sort of go away, though the upper East and West sides have a few. They tend to be pretty small in general. The outer boroughs definitely have them.
Generally though the super markets are much smaller in Manhattan, mostly because space is at a premium, but also because unless you charge Whole Foods prices, you just can’t make money sell produce competing with smaller speciality shops that are just as convenient if not more. Driving a big car around town definitely lends itself to larger stores.