— पांच हजार आठ सौ अड़तालीस —
The big news at work this week is the opening of "PCC Corner Market," in the same space as the original PCC Downtown—just roughly 1/3 the size, the rest of the space having been allocated for the new office space we will move into on September 2.
This does mean quite the saga for the history of that space, though. I even
created a Flickr albums collection for it: there are six different albums included. Two are dedicated to PCC Downtown: one for the opening (January 2022) and one for the closing (January 2024); two are dedicated to the office space site visits (October 2024 and May 2025); one is for the new PCC Corner Market Opening (July 2025); and finally one is for the Central Office move (July 2025 and, eventually, September 2025, combined).
The one of primary concern this week is, of course,
the PCC Corner Market opening, in which there are currently 23 shots—5 of them taken during my site visit last week, on July 15; 18 of them taken yesterday, on the first day of business. I actually took 20 photos total, but the photos I took of the Metropolitan Tract bike strage room and fitness center, I added to the office move album.
By all accounts, it was an incredibly strong day. I left the office at about 3:15 to give me more than enough time to look around the store and also make it to a movie with a 4:20 showtime. I heard the lunch crush was insane, but that they were so efficient with the self-checkout registers that no one took any longer than about three minutes to get through the line, which sounded pretty impressive to me.
When I got there, it was mid-afternoon so it wasn't busy—but, it was still very steady. It'll be interesting to see how that averages out on a daily basis over time, as opening day becomes more distant. I do fear I will wind up buying more stuff than I usually do. They do carry my favorite PCC dish in the Deli, the
Smoked Mozzarella Pasta.
Speaking of the pasta salads, I was so struck by how they were merchandised in the chill case that I
took a photo: every single one of them was on the shelf with the label facing inward, so there was nothing to read facing the door where you're actually looking.
I was baffled by this, but have been since told this is a recent trend with grocers, the idea being the customer can more easily see the actual food itself. I have a hard time getting on board with it, as I found it easily comfusing. I suppose it's true that many customers may shop by how good the food itself looks, but I was looking specifically for the Smoked Mozarella Pasta, and for a minute was confusing the shelf of macaroni salad for it; they look pretty similar. Even potato salad doesn't look that different—they're all different shades of yellow, basically. I had to pull a product off the shelf and turn it around to confirm what it actually was.
My personal opinion is that this is really dumb.
Also, our labels cover maybe half the width of the packaging—centered, sure, but you can still see plenty of the food inside through the shell case even on the side with the label. Maybe it's just me but this idea just feels really counter-intuitive.
— पांच हजार आठ सौ अड़तालीस —
— पांच हजार आठ सौ अड़तालीस —
Anyway! I took far less time there than I thought I might. I was sure tempted to spend $6 on one of those containers of Smoked Mozzarella Pasta and take it to the movie with me, but I knew I had food waiting for me at home and so I resisted it. The retail area of this store is 3,773 square feet, which is 2/3 the size of that in View Ridge, which previously had long been our smallest store—the point is, I did not need a lot of time to walk around and take photos. I was inside the sore for about ten minutes, fifteen if you count the time I spent in the concourse area beyond the back entrance, where you can take the escalators up to Level 2 of Rainier Square.
I did see several office people while I was there. I ran into Tristan, one of the Deli Merchandisers, and chatted with her for a couple of minutes; Dave, the VP of Merchandising, saw me and meandered over to us while I was there. I told them how beautiful the store looked—which was sincere and true—and also that it didn't feel as cramped as it seemed like we were to expect when this "small format store" was first announced. Really it feels like any PCC store, just with less total floor area.
Mike and Lexis were doing a membership event outside the concourse entrance, and Mike said that in a two-hour block they signed up 21 new members—the previous record within two hours at an event was 11, he told me. Wow.
Walking back through the store toward 4th Avenue where I had my bike locked up, I saw and said hi to Robin, also from the Deli department. I don't really know the store staff there so I didn't talk to any of them.
— पांच हजार आठ सौ अड़तालीस —
So I got back on my bike, and rode over to Pacific Place—a location, by the way, that will be
way easier for me to get to for early movies after work once we move: it's four blocks. I got there shortly after 4:05, and the showtime was at 4:20. I had plenty of time to use the bathroom and just hang out; it was right about 4:20 when Laney came off the elevators on the 4th floor.
So then we saw
Sorry, Baby, which was truly excellent: solid A. The first solid A I have given this year, in fact, which all but guarantees it will be on my top 10 for the year, and as of right now is the best movie I have seen so far in 2025. I expected to like it a lot, and it still exceeded my expectations. It's sort of a hard sell, because it's heavy and the story revolves around a sexual assault. But most of the movie is far more entertaining than that makes it sound. A good portion of it is very uncomfortable, but also a surprising amount of it is genuinely funny. I can't recommend it enough.
Because I had ridden my bike and Laney felt she had gotten enough steps in for the day already, though, we did not go home together: she took the bus and I rode the rest of the way home. My bicycle commute is going to go down by well over half after the office move, and the ride home from Pacific Place is only, as I said, four blocks shorter than it will be from the new office. The "hotel desking" situation notwithstanding (I've long been told I will get a dedicated desk since I work in-office every day; I'm hoping I can trust that), I kind of can't wait. I am so over the janky-ass Martin Sellig building we are in now, which is becoming such a dump that not even the beautiful views quite make up for it anymore.
— पांच हजार आठ सौ अड़तालीस —
[posted 12:39pm]
