Bellingham and Safeway

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explorersea
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Joined: 27 Jan 2008 15:17
Location: Beautiful Pacific Northwest

Bellingham and Safeway

Post by explorersea »

Bellingham has had an interesting Grocery journey for much of the 1900s. Bellingham experienced growth from an active port and lumber industry and from the Canadians coming down to load up on less expensive fuel and provisions. In the 1930s Haggen began opening up Grocery stores that attracted a loyal following. Eventually Safeway would become very active in the area as well. There were a number of Bellingham Safeways but in the 1960s Safeway opened up a successful Marina store at 1530 Cornwall Avenue. In 1979 Safeway opened up a larger store on Meridian street in a strip mall which never was profitable. In hopes to drive sales at the Meridian store Safeway closed the much loved Cornwall store in the 1970s. The closure of the Cornwall store did not drive enough shoppers to travel to the more remote Meridian store , Safeway tried lowering prices and a different store format to reach profitability but it was never successful and the store closed in 1993. Interestingly in 2015 Safeway reentered the Bellingham market with a new store on Sunset Drive in a existing retail space. There is a video link below of the Cornwall store as it stands today, the building is in very good condition and retains some of its original features such as the handsome flagstone rock on the exterior of the building.

you tube video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tg5WUji2bXA
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