New Seasons Market

New Seasons Market or New Seasons is a chain of privately owned grocery stores operating in the Portland, Oregon metro area, southwestern Washington, and northern California. Some of the products offered are organic and produced locally in the Pacific Northwest, but conventional groceries are also sold.

New Seasons Market
TypeGrocer
IndustryRetail sales
Founded1999
HeadquartersPortland, Oregon[1]
Key people
Forrest Hoffmaster CEO
ProductsLocal and sustainable food, conventional foods, and homegoods.
Number of employees
4,000+ (2017)
ParentEndeavour Capital
SubsidiariesNew Leaf Community Markets
Websitenewseasonsmarket.com

Founded by three families and 50 of their friends in 1999, the company was majority acquired by private equity firm Endeavour Capital in 2013 and purchased California-based New Leaf Community Markets in November 2013.[2] In December 2019, a deal was announced to sell New Seasons Market to Good Food Holdings, a subsidiary of South Korean company E-mart. [3]

The company currently operates 18 stores in the greater Portland/Vancouver metropolitan area, including Hillsboro, Beaverton, Happy Valley, Vancouver, Tualatin, and Lake Oswego; and one store in San Jose, California.[4]

History

New Seasons was founded in Portland, Oregon, in 1999. By 2008, it had grown to nine stores and about 1,800 employees. By November 2013, New Seasons had grown to 15 stores and 3,000 employees, when it purchased California-based New Leaf Community Markets[5] and New Leaf founder Scott Roseman joined the New Seasons Board.

In November 2013, Endeavour Capital invested $17.5M in New Seasons Market,[6] according to SEC filings.[7] Bradaigh Wagner and Stephen Babson, Managing Directors at Endeavour, now sit on the board of New Seasons Market.[8]

In 2013, New Seasons became the first grocery store in the world to be certified as a B Corporation.[9] B Corp certification[10] is issued by global non-profit B Lab to for-profit companies meeting social sustainability, environmental performance, accountability, and transparency standards. The company earned re-certification[11] in 2015 and 2017, recognized for employee benefits, community non-profit donations and volunteer hours, environmental programs and transparent governance. In December 2017, New Seasons Market employees and the Northwest Accountability Project asked B Lab to review the company's certification based on claims of anti-union activity and Endeavour's financial ties to the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust.[12]

In January 2019, then co-president Forrest Hoffmaster assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer (CEO), and former co-president Kristi McFarland took on the role of Chief Strategy Officer, alongside Chief Operations Officer Mark Law and Chief Marketing Officer Mary Wright.[13]

In December 2019, parent company Endeavour Capital announced that it would be selling the grocery chain to E-mart in a sale transaction that is expected to be finalized in early 2020. Details of the transaction include the retention of CEO Forrest Hoffmaster who will continue running the business, the continuance of the organization as a B Corp, the halt of existing plans for expanding the chain, and the closure of the store located in the Ballard neighborhood in Seattle.[14][15]

Stores
Orenco Station store
  • Arbor Lodge is located in North Portland. Built from the ground up in 2005, Arbor Lodge is located next to the Yellow MAX line at N. Rosa Parks Way and Interstate Avenue.
  • Ballard, Seattle, opened in May of 2018[16] on Ballard Way. This is the second store in the greater Seattle area. This location will close by the end of 2019 as part of the sale of the company to e-mart.[14]
  • Cedar Hills is located in a former roller skating rink at Cedar Hills Crossing shopping center. Opened in 2006.
  • Concordia in Northeast Portland, is located near Concordia University in the neighborhood by the same name. Constructed and opened in 2001 at NE 33rd & Killingsworth.
  • Evergreen in San Jose, California, is a rebranded New Leaf Community Markets store, and the first New Seasons location outside of the Portland metropolitan area.[17]
  • Fisher's Landing opened in October 2011 in Vancouver, becoming the first New Seasons Market store outside Oregon, in a former Albertsons LLC retail store.
  • Grant Park is located at NE 32nd and Broadway in the Grant Park Village development. It opened in November 2014.[18][19]
  • Happy Valley is located in a suburb east of Portland. Opened 2007 at 157th & Sunnyside Road.
  • Hawthorne opened in October 2010 at SE 40th & Hawthorne in the Richmond neighborhood,[20] on the site where the vegetarian Daily Grind Natural Foods and the Urban Onion deli, both owned by Seventh-day Adventists once stood. They opened in 1973 and closed in 2007 amidst rumors of nonpayment.[21]
  • Mercer Island opened in November 2016 in Mercer Island, Washington, and was the first store in the greater Seattle area. This location closed in 2019.[22]
  • Mountain Park opened in 2006 at a long-disused Thriftway in the Portland suburb of Lake Oswego.
  • Nyberg Rivers is located in a redeveloped shopping center in Tualatin. It opened in October 2014.[23][24]
  • Orenco Station is located in Hillsboro is part of a development near the Westside MAX. Opened in 2001 as the third store in the chain.[25]
  • Progress Ridge is located in the Tigard/Beaverton area. Opened in 2011.
  • Raleigh Hills is New Seasons Market's first store, opened in 1999, a former Kienow's grocery store site.[21]
  • Sellwood is New Seasons Market's second store, on the corner of the Sellwood antique district. The building used to house a Piggly Wiggly, as portrayed within the paint of the store's inside.[21]
  • Seven Corners opened in 2004 in a remodeled Red Apple grocery[21] and laundromat. It is located in Southeast Portland neighborhood of Hosford-Abernethy, at the seven corners formed by the intersection of SE Division Street, SE Ladd Avenue, and SE 20th Avenue on the southeast corner of Ladd's Addition.
  • Slabtown is located on a former Con-way site at NW 21st and Raleigh in the Northwest District. It opened in August 2015.[26]
  • University Park is located at N Lombard and N Westanna in North Portland. It opened in March 2016.[27]
  • Williams is located in the Eliot neighborhood of North Portland. Opened in August 2013.
  • Woodstock is located at SE Woodstock and 45th. It opened in October 2015.[28]

Former
  • Sunnyvale was located at 760 E El Camino Real, between Remington and Wolfe in Sunnyvale, CA (closed Feb 2018).
  • Emeryville, scheduled to open in 2018, was to be the anchor tenant of the Emeryville Public Market.[29] In Feb 2018 it was announced they were pulling out of the project before construction was completed, as well as closing the nearby Sunnyvale store.

Community

GMO labeling

After encouraging vendors to voluntarily certify their products as GMO free in 2013,[30] New Seasons publicly endorsed the GMO labeling campaign, Oregon Right to Know, in 2014, with continued public advocacy for non-GMO labeling and certification in 2017[31]

Wage initiatives

In 2015, New Seasons took a vocal position in support of raising the minimum wage in Oregon,[32] raising starting wages at all stores to $12 an hour, and testifying at the Oregon State Senate hearings in 2016[33] in support of raising minimum wage across the state. New Seasons announced pay increases again in 2018, raising minimum pay to $15 across every region, effective February 2019.[34]

Controversies

Gentrification contributions

When New Seasons opened stores in the North Williams and St. Johns neighborhoods of Portland, some residents questioned if the stores would contribute to the gentrification of these historically black and working-class neighborhoods.[35][36] In an interview with The Oregonian newspaper in 2015 former head of store development, Jerry Chevasuss said that the grocery store targets neighborhoods in the process of gentrification, and that often the addition of a New Seasons will push rents and home values higher, adding to that process.[37]

Some long-time Seattle residents voiced concerns that a planned store in the Central District, a formerly red-lined, historically black, neighborhood in Seattle currently undergoing rapid gentrification, would cater to new residents and not serve existing communities.[38]

New Seasons Workers United

In October 2017 a group of Portland-based employees at New Seasons Market formed the organization New Seasons Workers United and launched a public campaign to discuss working conditions at their stores.[39] Employees cited changes implemented since Endeavour Capital acquired majority ownership as a major impetus for organizing.[39] New Seasons Market hired union-avoidance consulting firm Cruz and Associates, notable for its unsuccessful contract with Trump Hotels to prevent unionization of the hotel's employees.[12]

References
  1. Njus, Elliot (September 29, 2014). "New Seasons offices will anchor Washington High School redevelopment". The Oregonian. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
  2. "New Seasons Buys New Leaf Chain". Supermarket News. 2013-11-12. Retrieved 2020-02-24.
  3. Davidson, Kate. "New Seasons Market Selling To Good Food Holdings". www.opb.org. Retrieved 2020-02-24.
  4. "New Seasons Market Natural Food Store Map | Portland, Vancouver and Seattle". New Seasons Market. Retrieved 2020-02-24.
  5. Culverwell, Wendy (November 12, 2013). "New Seasons to buy California's New Leaf Community Markets". Portland Business Journal. Retrieved 14 November 2013.
  6. "New Seasons Market | Crunchbase". Crunchbase. Retrieved 2018-01-01.
  7. "SEC FORM D". www.sec.gov. Retrieved 2018-01-01.
  8. "Bradaigh Wagner | Endeavour Capital". Endeavour Capital. Retrieved 2018-01-01.
  9. "New Seasons Market earns B Corp certification for business practices, transparency". OregonLive.com. Retrieved 2016-12-06.
  10. "New Seasons Market | B Corporation". www.bcorporation.net. Retrieved 2018-07-23.
  11. "New Seasons Market Earns B Corp Recertification". Winsight Grocery Business. Retrieved 2018-07-23.
  12. "New Seasons Market's Old Baggage | Seattle Weekly". Seattle Weekly. 2018-04-27. Retrieved 2018-06-09.
  13. "New Seasons Market Makes Leadership Changes". Progressive Grocer. Retrieved 2019-01-24.
  14. Rogoway, Mike (December 10, 2019). "Upscale Portland grocer New Seasons sold to South Korean company, scraps expansion plans". The Oregonian. Retrieved December 10, 2019.
  15. "Natural retailer New Seasons Market sold to Good Food Holdings". Supermarket News. 2019-12-10. Retrieved 2020-02-24.
  16. "New Seasons Market is now open in Ballard (Photos)". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2018-06-07.
  17. Marum, Anna (February 25, 2015). "New Seasons Market opening first California store; plus two more in Portland this year". The Oregonian. Retrieved 3 March 2015.
  18. Bingham, Larry (September 19, 2012). "New Seasons to be anchor tenant at Northeast Portland's Grant Park Village development". The Oregonian. Retrieved 22 August 2014.
  19. Marum, Anna (November 10, 2014). "New Seasons Market brings growler station, toast bar to NE Broadway with newest store". The Oregonian. Retrieved 10 November 2014.
  20. Oregonian, Special to The (2010-10-22). "Hawthorne welcomes New Seasons to the neighborhood". oregonlive. Retrieved 2020-02-24.
  21. Anderson, Heather (2015). Portland : a food biography. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 174. ISBN 1-4422-2738-9. OCLC 881824352.
  22. Metzger, Katie (November 21, 2016). "New Seasons is Island's new grocer". Mercer Island Reporter. Retrieved 30 July 2017.
  23. Nerappil, Fennit (July 23, 2013). "New Seasons coming to Tualatin's Nyberg Rivers shopping center". The Oregonian. Retrieved 22 August 2014.
  24. Giegerich, Andy (October 17, 2014). "It's a date: New Seasons sets opening for Tualatin grocery". Portland Business Journal. Retrieved 24 October 2014.
  25. "Business Briefs". The Oregonian. September 20, 2001. p. West Zoner 8.
  26. Jones, Allison (August 4, 2015). "New Seasons Slabtown Opens in Northwest Portland". Portland Monthly. Retrieved August 24, 2015.
  27. Bell, Jon (March 22, 2016). "New Seasons heads to North Portland with its 19th store". Portland Business Journal. Retrieved April 2, 2016.
  28. Marum, Anna (October 19, 2015). "Woodstock New Seasons store to feature rooftop bar (photos)". The Oregonian. Retrieved January 5, 2016.
  29. Fletcher, Ethan (October 14, 2015). "New Seasons Market coming to Emeryville Public Market". SFGate. Retrieved January 5, 2016.
  30. "https://www.bizjournals.com/portland/blog/sbo/2014/10/why-new-seasons-execs-support-gmo-labeling.html". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2018-07-23. External link in |title= (help)
  31. "New Seasons: Non-GMO". KGW. Retrieved 2018-07-23.
  32. "New Seasons workers get a raise as grocer pushes for higher minimum wage". OregonLive.com. Retrieved 2018-07-23.
  33. Testimony in Support of Raising Oregon’s Minimum Wage: February 2, 2016. Senate Committee on Workforce and General Government. Written Testimony Submitted by Elizabeth Nardi
  34. "New Seasons Continues Trend of Grocers Upping Associate Pay". Progressive Grocer. Retrieved 2019-01-24.
  35. "New Seasons Market: Fans and critics agree new North Portland store will change neighborhoods". OregonLive.com. Retrieved 2018-06-09.
  36. Korn, Peter. "When new store moves in, who has to move out?". Retrieved 2018-06-09.
  37. "New Seasons plans 2 California stores, sets date for Woodstock store opening". OregonLive.com. Retrieved 2018-06-09.
  38. "New Seasons announces Central District store, to mixed local response". The Seattle Times. 2017-09-15. Retrieved 2018-06-28.
  39. "New Seasons workers move to unionize". OregonLive.com. Retrieved 2018-06-09.
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