Market Closure Still Affecting Happy Valley Residents

The Market at Fairhaven closed nearly a year ago, but the lack of a grocery store in the southern part of Happy Valley still affects residents who do not have access to cars.

Several of Bellingham’s main grocery stores are located north of Lakeway Drive, and are not easily accessible for residents of south Bellingham neighborhoods. The Market was the only full-service grocery store to serve the southern Happy Valley neighborhood, and its location allowed the neighborhood association to promote its overall goal of becoming more pedestrian, public transit, and bicycle-friendly, according to the Happy Valley neighborhood plan.

“People try things there, and they haven’t been particularly successful,” said Wendy Scherrer, a member of the Happy Valley neighborhood association. The Market was the third grocery store to fail in the 40,000-square-foot building at 3125 Old Fairhaven Parkway since 1995. It was preceded by the South Side Food Pavilion and an Albertson’s. 

The Market was less expensive than other grocery stores in the area, said Scherrer, also noting that it provided a great service to residents in the southern part of the neighborhood. The proximity of the store enabled shoppers to leave their cars at home.

“It’s a 10-minute walk to where that market used to be, whereas it’s almost an entire mile, and it’s a really hilly kind of mile to go to the [Fairhaven] Haggen, which is the closest [full-service] grocery store,” said Sarah Richards, 30, speaking of the duration of the trip from her home to the former grocery store. She used the trail system in Happy Valley to walk to the Market and noted its accessibility as its main draw. Richards represents a great number of low-income residents in Happy Valley who do not have access to vehicles to complete their grocery shopping trips.  Richards mentioned that she usually does the grocery shopping for herself and her son in short, small trips. If she chooses to take a bus to the Fairhaven Haggen, it is still four blocks to the nearest bus stop.

“If you don’t have bags, you have to buy these paper bags,” said Richards, “and if it’s raining, you don’t want to be walking around with tons of paper bags.” The other grocery store option, the Sehome Haggen, is in the opposite northwestern corner of Happy Valley, which from the southern half of the neighborhood requires four buses, $4, and a total travel time of 54 minutes for Richards and other residents to get there and back. 

Recently, the location at 3125 Old Fairhaven Parkway has been replaced with the Whatcom Farmer’s Co-op, which provides home, farm and garden supplies to shoppers. This is the company’s second store in Bellingham, adding to its Meridian Street location. 

“There are still people that walk in here and ask where all the food is,” said Travis Smith, an employee of the new store. The Whatcom Farmer’s Co-op serves a different purpose in filling the need for a hardware store in the Fairhaven area, but does not solve the lack of a full-service grocery store in the neighborhood, according to Richards.

“We’re working on taking customers’ advice and asking what they want,” Smith said, adding that the store employees are trying to meet the needs of the community.

Currently, there are no future plans for a new supermarket in Happy Valley.