There are seven Saar’s Marketplace Grocery Stores in Washington State and two of them are in Tacoma. This Saar’s location is at 6414 South Yakima Ave. The store does a good job of low prices, friendly employees and ethnic foods (mostly Hispanic and Asian), but doesn’t have a huge selection or some of the niceties like a coffee shop or bakery.
Dear daughter has been working hard on her mural, so as a treat I took her and her friend out for a meal at the recently opened Shake Shake Shake, 124 North Tacoma Avenue. Dear daughter had the Cheese Griller with a chocolate shake, her friend had the Classic Deluxe Burger with a coconut shake and I had a Tacoma Dog with a frozen latte shake. The service was fast and friendly, the food tasty and the decor a lot of fun. Dear daughter declared her shake, the best she’d ever had. Shake, Shake, Shake opened March 13, 2013. The building was constructed in 1925 as a grocery store and in 1938 became an I.G.A. In 1999 it was converted to a mini mart.
A review can be found here and their Facebook page can be found here.
Harbor Greens at 2620 Bridgeport Way W. University Place WA 98466 opened on March 1, 2013. Really, its delightful store full of fresh, lovely produce and a great deli. There is also a large wine/beer selection, interesting candy, flowers/gardening supplies and sundry items. Oh, and the people working there were really nice! The original location is in Gig Harbor. Their Facebook page is here and their website is here.
The other day, dear daughter asked why we hadn’t stopped at Fife’s new grocery store, Tahoma Market at 6006 Pacific Highway East, Fife, WA 98424. Well today after the YWCA’s wonderful RAGS show I did stop in. It wasn’t what I expected. I thought it was a small specialty grocery store, but really it is a large convenience store with 24 traditional gas pumps, several electric vehicle charging stations, an extensive liquor selection, several types of brewed coffee and everything one might need for a quick pit-stop. It was extremely clean and service was polite.
The Lucky 3 Food Store at 3601 South 12th Street, Tacoma is one of hundreds of convenience stores in Pierce Co.Just driving from Point A to Point B, on South 12th Street I passed four of them, though one was permanently closed. While I tend to think of 7-11 when I think of convenience stores, the truth is that most of them are mom and pop stores.
I needed some things for a Secret Santa gift exchange and Trader Joe’s in Green Firs Village, University Place was the place to go. They do, after all, have the world’s greatest frozen food. I have often been to this Trader Joe’s and have never had a bad experience. I love their policy of providing a full refund if you don’t like a product.
Per Wikipedia, Trader Joe’s originated in 1958 as Pronto Market and in 1967 the name changed in Trader Joe’s and became more of a specialty grocery store with unusual products from around the world.
http://www.greenamerica.org/programs/responsibleshopper/industry/supermarkets.cfm
Albertson’s at 2401 North Pearl Street in Tacoma is one of two Albertson’s within Tacoma’s city limits and one of 463 Albertsons in the US (California, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming). The chain was founded in 1939 in Boise, Idaho.
Their website http://www.albertsons.com/ has some good seasonal recipes.
I had stumbled upon the Belmarlow a few years back when I went to an estate sale at the neighboring property. Today I rediscovered it and hopped out of my car to snap a photo. Two large dogs greeted me and they didn’t look too happy. So, I hopped back into my car! But then their owner called them off and gave me permission to walk around.
I couldn’t find much about the Belmarlow Addition, so I wrote to the wonderful professionals in Northwest Room at Tacoma Public Library. They said “According to the book, “Of Lions and Dreams, of Men and Realities” by Richard D. Osness published in 1976, the Belmarlow Addition was on 19th Street West, in an area of what is now University Place, and Belmarlow Beach was near the old day island bridge. Osness says a Francis M. Stephens built a store here in 1909, thus having the first grocery, general merchandise, hardware store in University Place area…although he says he had a tent store here even earlier during the summer months. The Belmarlow addition ran from 18th to 21st streets and from the water to Crystal Springs Road.”
Metropolitan Market (Metro Market) at 2420 N Proctor Street,Tacoma, WA 98406 is Tacoma’s most upscale grocery store. It is full sized store, but has many specialty items like a fine selection of salts, wonderful cheese and a great deli. I picked up a salad for lunch tomorrow, a birch beer and some Gelato which they serve right there. The employes are helpful and the check out line moved quickly.
The building began life in 1966 as the Lucky Stores Grocery and in 1995 it became Queen Anne Thriftway. In 2003 the name changed to Metropolitan Market. There are five other locations, three in Seattle and one in Kirkland.
I love this graphic I found on their site. http://metropolitan-market.com/produce/localNWgrowingSeasonChart.pdf
