This morning’s feeds and Twitter bring news that New Seasons is planning on building yet another store in North Portland. At this time, they have 1 store in Arbor Lodge. According to Food Dude and a tip from @suzame on Twitter, New Seasons will build another store on the corner of N Fremont and Williams. This is just down from PIX, Lompoc, Lincoln and Nutshell. Wow, that area – everyone said it would boom – and it is.
I wonder if this is part of the original project called the Backbridge Lofts. See, they leveled the old Franz Bread building in order to build and then the bottom dropped out of the credit market. Ergo, nothing has been happening at that corner for over a year.
This is great news for the neighborhood. While the other New Seasons isn’t that far away (maybe 2 miles,) there really aren’t any other choices for this neighborhood other than Safeway up on MLK and Wild Oats out on NE Fremont. New Seasons will be very very crowded. I’ll post more info as I find it.
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Noooooooo! There’s enough New Seasons stores in this city already. It will just make Boise-Eliot look like every other neighborhood. I guess there’s no fighting change. . . I live a couple of blocks away from this intersection, and I’m bummed. I’m also bummed because I think NS prices are too high. Blah.
Well, actually, there are no New Seasons serving Northwest Portland. This one would be right over the Fremont Bridge from the Pearl, NW 23rd, Goose Hollow and the Willamette Heights neighborhoods, making it prettily easily accessible. Right now, we’ve got Whole Foods and Food Front but a lot of my neighbors would be thrilled to have a closer New Seasons.
I do think NW needs a New Seasons. They would thrive there. But no, they are getting a new Safeway up by Bridgeport. I guess the condo dwellers love their mega grocery stores.
I don’t think New Seasons is more expensive for what I buy. What would be idea would be a constantly open farmers style market ala Pikes Place on Seattle. Now I would love something like that in my hood.
I go to the New Seasons store on NE 33rd maybe a couple times of month, but usually head to the NE MLK Safeway since it’s closer. In theory, the new store would be within walking distance. Well, I could walk to the store and take the bus home. I do love that New Seasons has an actual meat counter where you can talk to people and get ideas.
I also don’t find New Seasons to be that expensive. It’s not Whole Foods, that’s for sure. It’s on par with Safeway for most things that I buy, and sometimes cheaper if NS has a sale on a item. The one advantage to Safeway is they have store-brand items.
You know, I find this in Portland and I found this on the East Coast, where I lived for a bunch of years: the need to go to more to one grocery store to get what I need (responding to A.L. Venable’s comment on store brands available at Safeway). I lived in the Midwest for a while where bigger stores tended to carry store brands and a NUMBER of name brands. As well as frozen cheaper meats and fish PLUS a counter with the fresh stuff.
Like most everyone I know, there are specific brands/suppliers I prefer for some items and other times when the cheapest will do. I do like the availability of organic and locally grown items at stores here. Sometimes I decide they are worth the expense and other times I don’t. I suspect I’m rather normal in this manner.
But in Portland, I usually have to go to two or three places to buy what I prefer. My favorite tea is in one place and the right size of my favorite cleaning supply is in another — these are things that I love/that work and I’m not willing to accept substitutes. Luckily, I quit drinking so I no longer have to go to a third store for my favorite wine.
What Portland is great at is farmers markets — I love those and am willing to make that extra stop. Now if I could just limit the rest of the food/supply run to one grocery store, I’d attain Nirvana.
Great, another new seasons. I continue to hate what Portland has become. Another overpriced new seasons….. all the people who hate “corporate” america and support places like new seasons need to get their mind right. They are taking over this city
@Cam – So Cam, what do you propose as a solution? Should we go back to the 80’s when there was an Albertson’s across from a Safeway down the street from a Thriftway all trying to win by going 24hrs? In the end you still end up with 1 corporate store telling you what you can and can’t eat?
I shop at New Seasons and I shop sometimes at Fred Meyer’s. My question to you – why do I need the choice of 20 brands of Garbanzo beans? I guess it is personal choice.
What I love about having New Seasons close is that it allows me to shop fresh. I have always had this image that my neighborhood would support the ability to take a walk and pickup my bread, pickup my produce, pickup my meat and other items and head home. Maybe do that on a daily basis. I know that isn’t the most efficient method and probably costs more, but it also doesn’t involve the car trip to the store and the $100 price tag. I love that New Seasons actually has staff in the bakery, the cheese area, the meat counter, the produce counter. Got to Safeway or Freddy’s and see if there is a butcher there to cut you something special. Nope.
But again, this isn’t about me. Cam, what would you like to see?
It’s too bad the Mcmenamin brothers didn’t buy the Franz building and turn it into a brewpub–we sure could use another one of those. The nearest one is a mile away, but this one would have been more convenient. I feel cheated that I won’t have an opportunity to hoist another pint of lackluster beer while enjoying the eclectic art and the carefully restored funky industrial ambiance of the bread factory. But wait, there is a funeral home down the street that the Mcmenamins might be able to coax into selling . . .
Pfft! what’s with all the haters!?
I welcome another NS store in Portland (regardless of location). Another location for a company that treats employees great…buys local produce/meats/etc. whenever they can…is sustainable…super responsive customer service…kick ass wine selection…WIN!!
Yes, I am willing to pay more for milk that is rBST free. Yes, I am willing to pay more for organically grown veggies from a local farmer. Yes…I am willing to pay more to support a business that is a responsible member of the community.
/end over use of ellipsis
@dieselboi – well to keep it simple, i would like to see that area not look like every other neighborhood seems to look nowadays….OMG!!! we’ve got yoga, vegan eateries, “green” condos, and now a new seasons. The area around williams/vancouver and fremont used to have some character, and blight. But i’d rather have rundown buildings and crime and some mom and pop businesses, affordable homes, and a place where long-time residents weren’t either displaced or otherwise left out by way of all sorts of new trendy businesses that are now a dime a dozen. I would like to see this: a gas station, a bread factory, twelve 22 night club, convenience store, music shop, dry cleaners, a few restaurants and perhaps a new seasons. But new seasons would never locate here with these businesses in place. I’m sure they are worried about “rifraf” from twelve 22 already.. The neighborhood must first gentrify first, and it has. And so williams becomes the next alberta and mississippi streets.
All of this of course is just my opinion. I understand that there are plenty of people who love the way williams is shaping up. They have the right to feel that way and I dont hate them for that. I, an optimist, love many of the things Portland has done over the years but as of late I am deeply unhappy with what much of north, northeast and other parts of portland are becoming.
Cam, I find your comments interesting. Let me explain:
I grew up in a Midwest suburb where strip malls were considered modern and cool (70s). And they looked like every every strip mall in the entire country. Now we gag at the boring similarity (rightfully, I think).
But what you seem to be saying is that even though the buildings may be more Portland-specific, it still seems as though as all the new local buildings look alike. No matter whether they are on North Mississippi, in Beaverton or the Pearl.
If that’s what you’re saying, I agree with you. I’m getting tired of seeing the same condo style all over Portland. There’s the place at NE 15th and Broadway (I think) that looks just like the condo at the Westerly (NW Portland) that looks just several others. There’s the Belmont Lofts that were built by the same company that built a similar building near 25th and NW Thurman and another condo in North Portland just off MLK — all used the same Brazilian Ipe (wood) cladding, which looks stained once it gets wet.
Yet the O’s Randy Gragg was all over it as the greatest design thing ever.
And yes, even the New Seasons look the same no matter where they are. To a degree, that helps the casual passing driver identify it, but it doesn’t do much for architectural diversity.
One thing I enjoyed about Portland’s neighborhoods when I moved here in 2000 is that they looked different. Most of the PDC-backed development I’ve seen since is derivative.
As someone who also lives in that area, I’d rather have thriving locally-owned businesses providing tax dollars to the local economy. I’d rather see buildings in use — green or otherwise — and not covered with graffiti and human excrement.
All, thank you for your the great conversation here. Some excellent points being made by all.
@Talea – Thats exactly one of the points I was trying to make Talea. You just did a much better job saying it. My least favorite trend of all: corrugated metal siding….. it’s everywhere.
@Dieselboi –
Just so you know, residents in the Pearl don’t get to “pick” which grocery store opens in the neighborhood. That’s up to the developer. Saying that “condo dwellers love their mega grocery stores” assumes that the residents have a voice in the store that opens.
Wrong assumption, we don’t.
That said, Safeway will be a welcome addition because most of us are tired of paying Whole Foods prices. They are VERY expensive. My preference would have been New Seasons. But Safeway will do, especially since I don’t have to get in a car to shop. Dividing my shopping between Fred Meyer and New Seasons, as I have been doing, requires firing up the V8 Explorer. When Safeway opens I’ll only have to walk 2 blocks.
@A. L. Venable –
Y’all know that New Seasons is a thriving locally-owned businesses providing tax dollars to the local economy? right? that they only buy from within 500 miles if they can( IF the beef/lamb etc comes from near by( coffee does not but you know that ?)
@william wheeler – WW…that was my point, dear.
As an employee of the New Seasons Arbor Lodge store, I have accidently found this discussion fascinating and I appreciate all the nice and constructive things people have to say. As a lifelong Portlander who grew up eating whatever was cheaply available, I understand the mistrust unfamiliar people may have with our apparently affluent and seemingly-elite serving family. In the interest of further serving our customers here I am happy to contribute what I can, to clear up any misconceptions I am able to- there’s certainly a few…
Our store serves the entire community. not just “gentrified” neighborhoods. Growing up here since the 70’s I’d say you could qualify the whole city as gentrified compared to what it used to be, economically and socially. We are encouraged to do whatever we can for all customers and you certainly keep us on our toes!
Our regular customers are both street people and west hills millionaires. Locations are picked for a myriad of reasons that are meant to keep the company healthy overall. If we focused solely on a neighborhood’s income then you would not have a Hillsboro or a North Portland store.. you’d have a Pearl and Laurelhurst store in their stead.
We are not responsible for your perceptions of the community, but I’d like to offer that the merging of “rich” or “elite” foods (arugala anyone?) with “regular”products is part of the idea that you shouldn’t have to go to more than one store for these things. Which is why if you call up one of our departments for something they don’t carry, they will special order it for you if they can get it.
I can tell you there are no announced plans for a store in the location that Dieselboi’s source has mentioned-although the Arbor Lodge and Concordia stores could certainly spare the traffic. I am personally asked by our customers frequently about the rumors they have heard of stores going up in their areas and I can tell you that you will see a New Seasons on Hawthorne before say, The Pearl (perpetually pricey property), or outside of the Portland/Metro area (sorry Vancouverians), or elsewhere for that matter.
Thanks you guys- and remember that if you have questions or ideas for us go ahead and email someone through the store website, or better yet come in and fill out a comment card at one of our stores.
@Cam –
what do you mean by “get their mind right”?
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