The service departments here are incredibly impressive for a store of this size, even by QFC standards! In addition to the small service meat department we saw earlier, there's also a full-size deli (even including a sushi counter) and, most surprisingly, a full service bakery -- the one department the East Capitol Hill store lacked. Unsurprisingly, there aren't very many name-brand grocery stores in this size range that I can compare this to, but I've been to almost all of Safeway's oldest, smallest stores around here -- most of which are still significantly larger than this one -- and not a single one has a complete set of service departments like this store does, with most missing the service bakery and/or service meat departments.
It's a bit surprising in a way that these small urban stores don't have full service departments as presumably the appeal of operating a store in these areas is that the customers buy a lot of high profit margin items and the service department items fit that description. On the other hand, these stores have limited space so putting in service departments takes away from other areas. Still, QFC seemed to fit a lot into this store without as many compromises.
ReplyDeleteHaha, Wedgwood is about as far from "urban" as you can get in Seattle! In fact, for one reason or another, apart from the East Capitol Hill QFC and U District Safeway (both now closed), none of the extra-small grocery stores I can think of around here are in particularly urban areas -- most are rural or in older suburbs, oddly enough. (And both of those exceptions did focus heavily on prepared foods, though unlike this store, neither had a full bakery.)
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