WinCo Expands to Renton

[marshd1000]

WinCo Foods has acquired the old Fry's Electronics building across from the Target at Renton Landing. Originally it was going to be redeveloped into a multi family housing site. The following article could be under a paywall:

https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/new ... enton.html

[pseudo3d]

WinCo Foods has acquired the old Fry's Electronics building across from the Target at Renton Landing. Originally it was going to be redeveloped into a multi family housing site. The following article could be under a paywall:

https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/new ... enton.html

That's why you always provide an archive link: https://archive.ph/9Ew8L

[marshd1000]

WinCo Foods has acquired the old Fry's Electronics building across from the Target at Renton Landing. Originally it was going to be redeveloped into a multi family housing site. The following article could be under a paywall:

https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/new ... enton.html

That's why you always provide an archive link: https://archive.ph/9Ew8L

I honestly didn't know how to do that!

[Brian Lutz]

I shopped at that Fry's a fair bit before they went downhill, I think the building and location would actually be a pretty good fit for a WinCo store. I know they have taken over big-box sized properties in the past (the Everett store, for example, was originally a HomeBase) and that one might be a little on the large size for a grocery store, but I suppose they could subdivide if it's too much space for them. I suppose anything would be better than 1,000 more apartments that nobody can afford.

[ClownLoach]

I shopped at that Fry's a fair bit before they went downhill, I think the building and location would actually be a pretty good fit for a WinCo store. I know they have taken over big-box sized properties in the past (the Everett store, for example, was originally a HomeBase) and that one might be a little on the large size for a grocery store, but I suppose they could subdivide if it's too much space for them. I suppose anything would be better than 1,000 more apartments that nobody can afford.

That building is 152,000 square feet. That is the size of two or more WinCo stores. It is the size of the current Costco prototype, or Fred Meyer size. They are most assuredly going to tear it down and build a store on part of the property then sell the rest to a developer of some sort, residential or commercial. In San Marcos, WinCo took over a former Lowe's and split it with Hobby Lobby, but that was when HL was still opening very large stores. The HL is about twice the size of their current store format and probably will soon be walled off and reduced as we are seeing occur in other oversized locations.

[Super S]

I shopped at that Fry's a fair bit before they went downhill, I think the building and location would actually be a pretty good fit for a WinCo store. I know they have taken over big-box sized properties in the past (the Everett store, for example, was originally a HomeBase) and that one might be a little on the large size for a grocery store, but I suppose they could subdivide if it's too much space for them. I suppose anything would be better than 1,000 more apartments that nobody can afford.

That building is 152,000 square feet. That is the size of two or more WinCo stores. It is the size of the current Costco prototype, or Fred Meyer size. They are most assuredly going to tear it down and build a store on part of the property then sell the rest to a developer of some sort, residential or commercial. In San Marcos, WinCo took over a former Lowe's and split it with Hobby Lobby, but that was when HL was still opening very large stores. The HL is about twice the size of their current store format and probably will soon be walled off and reduced as we are seeing occur in other oversized locations.

They also might just keep the existing building and wall off a portion, like they did with the Waremart in Ontario, OR which took over part of an old Kmart. It would allow for potential future expansion also.

[ClownLoach]

I shopped at that Fry's a fair bit before they went downhill, I think the building and location would actually be a pretty good fit for a WinCo store. I know they have taken over big-box sized properties in the past (the Everett store, for example, was originally a HomeBase) and that one might be a little on the large size for a grocery store, but I suppose they could subdivide if it's too much space for them. I suppose anything would be better than 1,000 more apartments that nobody can afford.

That building is 152,000 square feet. That is the size of two or more WinCo stores. It is the size of the current Costco prototype, or Fred Meyer size. They are most assuredly going to tear it down and build a store on part of the property then sell the rest to a developer of some sort, residential or commercial. In San Marcos, WinCo took over a former Lowe's and split it with Hobby Lobby, but that was when HL was still opening very large stores. The HL is about twice the size of their current store format and probably will soon be walled off and reduced as we are seeing occur in other oversized locations.

They also might just keep the existing building and wall off a portion, like they did with the Waremart in Ontario, OR which took over part of an old Kmart. It would allow for potential future expansion also.

What in the world would they expand to? They seem to run a very standardized operation with stores that pretty much are all the same size, layout, assortment etc. They already have too much square footage even in their busiest stores, and I believe they could expand faster if they simply were willing to take on smaller sites. They could not possibly be able to afford the costs of operating a Costco size sales floor nor would they have the merchandise to fill it.

[storewanderer]

The WinCo in North Reno started as 80k square feet Cub, they deemed it too busy, too smelly, too much tension of customers getting too close together and getting agitated, so it was expanded into an Office Max building next door some time ago and it is about 110k square feet. The store has a larger than usual produce department but other than that the expansion widened the aisles but didn't do much else. However the store feels cleaner now and I am not seeing customers getting agitated at each other as much.

When they expanded they basically put produce into the expansion space. They expanded bulk foods into the space too but I'd never touch any bulk foods of any kind even the drop down dispensers at that store due to the customer base and hygiene challenges that seem more common there than they should be. Deli, meat, dairy, frozen, bakery- all the same as before the expansion.

The aisles got "made longer" to go where produce was pre-expansion.

[Super S]

What in the world would they expand to? They seem to run a very standardized operation with stores that pretty much are all the same size, layout, assortment etc. They already have too much square footage even in their busiest stores, and I believe they could expand faster if they simply were willing to take on smaller sites. They could not possibly be able to afford the costs of operating a Costco size sales floor nor would they have the merchandise to fill it.

Not sure if they would need to expand, but keep in mind that a store can do more business if there is more population in an area, and this is a suburb of Seattle. I don't know that they have too much square footage though, the extra space makes the store somewhat tolerable during busy periods. WinCo isn't known for operating small stores though and the space gives them some flexibility, and they do enough volume that they don't close many stores.

[Brian Lutz]

I do believe that this store would be the closest WinCo to Seattle (previously it would have been Edmonds) so that might work to its benefit. Renton also has the closest Walmart to Seattle, although that one is a couple of miles away near the intersection of I-405 and SR167. Not sure what transit access to that area is like, but it is pretty close to the Boeing 737 plant in Renton.