The largest Value Village in Seattle opened this morning with a crowd of more than 100 people in line and cars circling the full parking lot. Value Village first opened on Crown Hill 17 years ago, but outgrew their previous location just a block away. “The reason why we’re opening this store is because of you,” the President and CEO of Value Village Ken Alterman told the crowd, “We just couldn’t fit all of you in that store anymore. And we needed more parking, we needed more merchandise, we needed more selection, more value.”
The first in line at the new Crown Hill location at 8532 15th Ave NW arrived at 6 a.m. and was shocked when no one was ahead of him. “I really thought we’d be down there somewhere,” he told us, pointing toward the end of the line. As a shopper at the old Crown Hill Value Village, he was excited for the bigger space.
Once inside he made a beeline for the book section, filling his cart with books. He isn’t the only one interested in this department. “This was always actually one of the most popular departments in our old store, consistently. We were able to actually double the size of our book department,” store manager Jeremy Lamb tells us, “This is going to be a huge one for us.” Lamb tells us that they are moving so many books a day that they’ll restock the shelves with 1,000 to 1,500 new books a day.
Another expanded section is women’s shoes. The new store offers three times the space over the old store.
Before heading inside to sign posters for the first 500 customers, Ryan “Henry” Ward addressed the clapping crowd. He was recognized this morning for painting the 3,000 square foot mural that stretches the length of the west wall. “Thanks a lot everybody. I really enjoyed doing this. I really hope the Crown Hill/Ballard community enjoys it. I’m gonna keep doing what I’m doing if people keep giving me the thumbs up.”
As part of the grand opening, Value Village is bringing in local designer Malia Peoples to help shoppers find looks that work for them with merchandise in the store. You can take advantage of Peoples’ fashion sense by donating four grocery bags of items to Community Services for the Blind and Partially Sighted. Peoples will be at the new Crown Hill Value Village today (Thursday) from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and again on Saturday from noon to 2 p.m.
Largest Value Village in Seattle opens on Crown Hill
I'm a happy camper…I have my signed “henry” art poster. :-)
Looks roomy.
Beware Value Village pays charities pennies per pound, they have hoodwinked everyone to think that the donations go to help the disabled and poor but they help the Savers, Inc instead. Donate to Goodwill or Salvation Army or Children's Hospital instead really…
i can't imagine why anyone would actually get in a big line to get the chance to go to value village.
I think people were excited to get signed work by Henry. the first 500 got to meet him and get asigned print of his work.
I heard the old VV space is going to be a Grocery Outlet. Any confirmation on that and when it might open? I'm way more excited about Grocery Outlet than a bigger Value Village. Cheap Wine Ahoy!
First Of all Many Many Congress! Its looking very very nice with a big crowed… :)
Grocery Outlet corporate has the old Value Village site listed an their directory. So I'd say yes, that information is correct.
There was an article here at myballard on February 25th interviewing the Grocery Outlet owners. They said the first week of May.
There is nothing that would make me wait in line to buy nor is there anyone I would wait in line to see.
That's what I had heard, but I went to the VIP opening and the speaker made a big deal about the decades-long relatinship between the Services for the Blind and VV. I've always been a dedicated Goodwill shopper myself because its more readily apparent what you're giving your money to/donating to and above all, Goodwill's prices are much more reasonable for the product. VV marks their stuff up to the point that it doesn't seem fair to be calling themselves a 'thrift store'…more like consignment…
VV and stores like it keep a lot of otherwise unwanted items out of the landfills and in circulation. I've found their stores to be cleaner and better organized than Goodwill or other charity ones, and the clothes especially are of a higher grade than other thrift stores. I'm fine with paying an extra buck to not have to dig through smelly, stained, torn cast offs from the last decade. Not that you can't find treasures elsewhere, I've just had to search harder.
I'm personally thrilled with the suede Armani halter dress I got there for $12. :-)
bring value villlage back to renton wa.