Chances look good that a new QFC will replace the Metropolitan Market on Upper Queen Anne Hill after the Met Market's lease expires in January 2008.
But the specialty grocery store will continue to have a presence in the neighborhood, thanks to the company's purchase of the Larry's grocery store at the bottom of the hill. The deal closed at midnight on Thursday, Aug. 31, said Terry Halverson, president and chief executive officer of the grocery chain.
Reached on his cell phone as he supervised the taking of inventory at Larry's on Thursday night, Halverson declined to provide the terms of the purchase agreement because of a confidentiality clause. "We felt like we got a fair deal, and we're happy with that."
Halverson was clearly jubilant about adding a new store to the chain. "We got Larry's," he said. "It's number six for us." Besides the existing Queen Anne store, there are Met Markets in West Seattle, the Admiral area, Sand Point, Dash Point and Proctor, which is in the Tacoma area.
The Larry's name will stay in place for a while, but the grocery will eventually be renamed a Metropolitan Market, Halverson said.
He and his staff face a lot of work at the store. "We're hoping to completely remodel it," Halverson said. "We've got quite a few things to do."
Halverson said he plans to start with a clean slate, redecorate, move departments around and change "pretty much everything other than the outside walls."
The complete remodel will take around a year, and customers will be asked for their ideas of what the store should look like, he added. "We will not close the store for remodeling."
The grocery outlet is overdue for a makeover, anyway, Halverson said. "The store is 11 years old, and typically supermarkets will be remodeled every seven or eight years."
Food Markets Northwest, the parent company of the Met Market chain, held job fairs on two days last week, he said. "We invited all Larry's employees and other people as well." Halverson wasn't sure about the exact number of new hires, but "it will certainly be over 100 people," he said.
Both the Met Markets and Larry's are known for unusual product lines, and representatives from the Met Market travel the world in search of things to sell in their stores, Halverson has said in the past.
So why have the Met Markets thrived while Larry's stores ended up in bankruptcy court? "I think there's a number of reasons," he ventured. Conceding that he's biased, Halverson said he thought the staff was better at the Met Markets and that the stores were in better locations.
There was another reason Larry's Markets failed, according to Halverson. "Actually," he said, "I think Larry's would have done very well if they hadn't been as large as they were. At 47,000 square feet, the Queen Anne Larry's isn't exactly small, but it is one of the smaller groceries in the chain, Halverson said.
Halverson said he had mixed feelings about taking over the store. "It's sad to see Larry's go," he said. But he has big plans for the new Met Market. "We're going to do some things that will really put the store on the map, things we haven't done in the past," Halverson said. "We're really excited. We can't wait to get started."
Russ Zabel can be reached at rzabel@nwlink.com or 461-1309.[[In-content Ad]]
