A new WinCo will open next month at The Landing in Renton.
The store will open its doors at 9 a.m. Aug. 3 in its new location at 800 Garden Ave. N. — the former location of a Fry’s Electronics that closed in 2021.
Excitement over Renton’s WinCo has buzzed since the discount grocery store chain purchased the property in 2024 for $24.5 million.
The next closest WinCo for Renton residents is a 15-minute drive away in Kent.
Still, some didn’t want to see the WinCo come to fruition in Renton.
Last year, a coalition called Lake Washington Working Families challenged the city’s environmental analysis of the WinCo, citing traffic and environmental concerns. However, the hearing examiner found the group lacked standing.
In Seattle, however, Lake Washington Working Families has successfully challenged the city’s determination that a WinCo planned for North Seattle would have no significant environmental impacts.
The discount grocery chain is pushing back in court, trying to overturn the hearing examiner’s decision.
Lake Washington Working Families claims to be “a coalition of King County residents, working families, environmental advocates, labor unions, and local merchants united in opposition to unchecked urban sprawl and overdevelopment.” But it has no website, is not registered with the state and has only made public appearances to challenge the two WinCos, leading to much online speculation on who exactly is behind the group.
Many point to labor unions, as the group’s only two publicly named members were grocery store workers associated with the labor union UFCW 3000.
Although WinCo is employee-owned, meaning workers earn company stock and financial equity in the company, its workers are not represented by a union.
UFCW 3000 spokesperson Rich Smith told The Seattle Times in May that the labor union isn’t behind Lake Washington Working Families and doesn’t financially support it.
