PORT ANGELES— Saar’s is shutting its doors in the Port Angeles area for a second time.
The discount grocery store at 114 E. Lauridsen Blvd. was flooded with shoppers seeking closing-sale bargains on top of regular bargains Tuesday.
About 25 employees were informed Monday morning their lives would change dramatically.
“It’s sad, really sad and confused and every emotion you could possibly think of,” store worker Sara Hudson said outside the front door while taking a break with colleague Fekla Weldon.
“I go into crying spurts,” Weldon said on her last day of work.
“The people here have been, personnel-employee wise, have been so helpful, and whenever there was any kind of a problem going on, management would step up and make sure everything was OK.
“Like Sara said, it’s sad,” Weldon said, her voice quavering.
Michael Gette, store manager for about 18 months, said Saars Super Saver Foods would have been in operation for four years at the Port Angeles location as of May 5. He blamed steadily slumping revenues for the decision by the corporate office.
Andrew Russell, corporate general manager, could not be reached Tuesday for comment.
The Lauridsen Saar’s replaced the Haggen Northwest Fresh store in the 40,000-square-foot building that Saar’s purchased for $1.56 million in 2017.
That Saar’s succeeded the Saar’s Market Place Foods just east of Gales Addition at 2343 E. Highway 101. It shut down in 2011 — with 25 employees, its final note a discount-on-discount sale.
Gette said employees would be offered jobs at other Saar’s locations — he came to Port Angeles from the Bremerton store — but was doubtful many could move to a Seattle-area store.
Competition does not seem to have been an issue, Gette said.
The discount food store Grocery Outlet in Sequim closed Jan. 15 after more than 10 years in business — and less than a year after Grocery Outlet opened a store east of Port Angeles on East Highway 101, directly across the street from a Safeway.
Gette said there was no noticeable difference in business after the Highway 101 store came on the scene. He attributed the decline in revenue to no one thing.
“It was just a downward trend,” he said. “They didn’t see it going back up.”
Gette, who arrived in July 2019, said there was a big boost in sales after the COVID-19 pandemic hit a few months later, but that’s waned.
“That helped us out tremendously,” he said.
“I thought that saved our store, to be honest with you. We’re just getting quieter and quieter and just going in the wrong direction, I guess.”
He said store discounts 20 percent for meat and produce and 10 percent for all other items would increase by 10 percent weekly until they hit 50 percent, expecting the store would close in four or five weeks.
It did not take long for word to spread the store was closing.
Bargain stoppers began flooding Saar’s by about 2 p.m. Monday, “then it turned into a madhouse between 2 and 7,” Gette recalled.
“There was a great show of support,” he said.
They showed a wide range of emotions, anxious for good deals but sad over the closure.
“A lot of people came in and were upset about it,” Gette said.
“We have enough support but not enough traffic. That’s the bottom line.”
Gette said Saar’s Inc. President-CEO Greg Saar will be in Port Angeles to talk with Gette, he said.
Gette, 45, did not know Tuesday what he will do next.
He said store employees, represented by the United Food and Commercial workers, earn the $14.49 minimum wage to about $25 an hour.
A UFCW representative could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Weldon, joking about her age — “I’m two days older than dirt” and, “I’m as old as my tongue and as young as my teeth” — said she moved to Port Angeles about 18 months ago.
She plans to stay put and look for another job.
“I don’t know where and I don’t know when,” Weldon said.
Hudson, 39, just moved into a new house in Sequim and bought a car. She has a school-age daughter.
“I’ve got all these new things and now, no job,” Hudson said Tuesday.
“Most of the people have been let go. There will be eight of us after today.”
________
Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
Saar’s Super Saver Foods was busy Tuesday while offering discount prices as it prepares to cease operations. (Paul Gottlieb/Peninsula Daily News)
The Saar’s grocery store in Port Angeles is shutting down after the Oak Harbor-based company purchased the building five years ago. (Paul Gottlieb/Peninsula Daily News)
