Podcasts about bartell drugs

Bartell Drugs is a Pacific Northwest icon. But its corporate owner, Rite Aid, is going belly-up — and that’s put the future of Bartell’s in jeopardy. On today's episode, staying alive is not just a problem for Seattle’s oldest brick and mortar pharmacy. CVS, Walgreens, and independent pharmacies everywhere are struggling to stay afloat. So, what’s making pharmacies sick — and is there a cure? Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/boomingnotes. Booming is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. Our editor is Carol Smith. Our producers are Lucy Soucek and Alec Cowan. Our hosts are Joshua McNichols and Monica Nickelsburg.Support the show: https://kuow.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bartell Drugs gets a lifeline from CVS, townhouses are coming to a Seattle neighborhood near you, and Sonics legend Shawn Kemp pleads guilty over shooting incident. It’s our daily roundup of top stories from the KUOW newsroom, with host Paige Browning. We can only make Seattle Now because listeners support us. Tap here to make a gift and keep Seattle Now in your feed. Got questions about local news or story ideas to share? We want to hear from you! Email us at seattlenow@kuow.org, leave us a voicemail at (206) 616-6746 or leave us feedback online.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this bonus episode of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel speaks with Howie Cohen, whose 40-year career at Seattle's beloved Bartell Drugs recently came to an end. Mr. Cohen shares four decades of Bartell memories, including the time he stirred up local pride (and little bit of controversy) with neighborhood-themed mugs; when he led the charge to create the mind-blowingly popular Fremont Troll Chia Pet; the origins of the culture of candy bag-stacking at Halloween; and much, much more. CASCADE OF HISTORY is broadcast LIVE most Sunday nights at 8pm Pacific Time via SPACE 101.1 FM in Seattle and gallantly streams everywhere via space101fm.org. The radio station is located at historic Magnuson Park - formerly Sand Point Naval Air Station - on the shores of Lake Washington in Seattle. Subscribe to the CASCADE OF HISTORY podcast via most podcast platforms.

Founded in 1890 in the Central District, Bartell Drugs may be entering its final days. Its parent company, the national pharmacy chain Rite Aid, exited Chapter 11 bankruptcy late last year, but continues to struggle financially. Now, the fewer than 30 Bartell Drugs and around 100 Rite Aids will be sold or closed forever. This continued hemorrhaging of retail pharmacy stores will likely be felt most acutely in lower-income neighborhoods. A 2022 UW study already put the number of Washingtonians with low-access to pharmacies at 1.2 million. Guests: Alex Halverson, Seattle Times business reporter Dr. Dima Qato, professor at the University of Southern California School of Pharmacy. Links: Why the new Rite Aid bankruptcy could kill Seattle’s Bartell Drugs Filling a prescription in the Seattle area? Put on comfortable shoes and be ready to wait Reforming Markets to Strengthen Independent Pharmacies Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes Soundside is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s Blue Jays week, and Seattle businesses are hoping to woo in some reluctant Canadian tourists. Longtime Seattle staple Bartell Drugs may have been dealt its final blow after a long, drawn-out closure process. And happy REAL ID enforcement week. Lines are at the door at Seattle Department of Licensing offices. Factal Editor Joe Veyera and Seattle Met Food and Drink Editor Naomi Tomky are here to break down the week. We can only make Seattle Now because listeners support us. Tap here to make a gift and keep Seattle Now in your feed. Got questions about local news or story ideas to share? We want to hear from you! Email us at seattlenow@kuow.org, leave us a voicemail at (206) 616-6746 or leave us feedback online.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Top Stories:1. Retail industry trends in 2024Seattle Times article2. Bartell Drugs in U Village closingPSBJ article3. Party City closingCNN article4. Nordstrom goes privateGeekWire articleAbout guest Don Riling - President & Owner, Olympic Hot TubDon has been President & Owner of Olympic Hot Tub for 8 years and has worked at the company for close to 30 years. Prior to arriving at Olympic, he had a long retail career which included Jay Jacobs, The Disney Store and Nordstrom. Outside of work Don has been a member of the Seattle Men's Chorus since 1987 and he wrote a book as well! About host Rachel Horgan:Rachel is an independent event producer, emcee and entrepreneur. She worked for the Business Journal for 5 years as their Director of Events interviewing business leaders on stage before launching the weekly podcast. She earned her communication degree from the University of San Diego. Contact:Email: info@theweeklyseattle.comInstagram: @theweeklyseattleWebsite: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.theweeklyseattle.com

Bartell's Stephanie Baldoni is the Director of Divisional Merchandising and World Vision's Mike Gillespie, Senior Director, Corporate Engagement talk with us about Bartell's School Tools Drive. In the U.S., teachers spend hundreds of dollars per year out of their own pockets to provide school supplies for their students that families otherwise wouldn't be able to afford. Here in the Puget Sound the need is great. Thanks to Bartell's customers like you, last year they collected $40,000 in donations. Bartell Drugs is passionate about giving back to the greater Seattle area and it's communities and along with World Vision they are hoping to raise enough money for MORE than 19 pallets of school supplies. Bartell Drugs World Vision

Bartell's Stephanie Baldoni is the Director of Divisional Merchandising and World Vision's Mike Gillespie, Senior Director, Corporate Engagement talk with us about Bartell's School Tools Drive.In the U.S., teachers spend hundreds of dollars per year out of their own pockets to provide school supplies for their students that families otherwise wouldn't be able to afford. Here in the Puget Sound the need is great. Thanks to Bartell's customers like you, last year they collected $40,000 in donations. Bartell Drugs is passionate about giving back to the greater Seattle area and it's communities and along with World Vision they are hoping to raise enough money for MORE than 19 pallets of school supplies.Bartell Drugs World Vision Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Both the local (Seattle) and national press recently had articles on the drama around Rite Aid's buying of local favorite Bartell Drugs. FYI, it hasn't  gone well with 1/3 of the Bartell stores closing in the few years since the acquisition.A majority of business owners I talk with comment on how they want their employees taken care of when they sell.Listen for tips on preserving legacy.John MartinkaJessica MartinkaContact us via either website or give us a call and be sure to check out our videoshttps://nokomisadvisory.com/https://www.martinkaconsulting.com/https://www.youtube.com/c/JohnAMartinka/videos 425-515-4903

Top Stories1. HomeStreet Bank & FirstSun merger⁠PSBJ article⁠2. The future of pharmacies⁠Fortune article⁠3. Electrician strike ends⁠Seattle Times article⁠4. Costco lawsuit⁠Seattle Times article⁠5. Getty Images co-founder leaves board⁠PSBJ article⁠Guest co-host Kathi Lentzsch - Board Member and former CEO of Bartell Drugs:Kathi is the co-chair for the Women Corporate Directors Foundation, a board member of Skagit Valley Malting, a board member for UW's Center for Leadership and Strategic Thinking. Prior to this, she was a board member for 4Front Ventures which dealt with cannabis cultivation, board member of Pharmacy Value Alliance, CEO of Bartell Drugs, interim CEO of Gump's in San Francisco, President of Enesco Gift Division, CEO of Elephant Pharmacy in California, and leadership roles at Pottery Barn, WorldMarket, and Pier1 Imports.Host Rachel Horgan:Rachel is an independent event producer, emcee and entrepreneur. She worked for the Business Journal for 5 years as their Director of Events interviewing business leaders on stage before launching the weekly podcast. She earned her communication degree from the University of San Diego.Contact:Email: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠info@theweeklyseattle.com⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram: @theweeklyseattleWebsite: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.theweeklyseattle.com⁠

n. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, interview someone you need to hear from and provide a training tip for the week. How YouTube Shopping is upping its social commerce competition with TikTok https://www.modernretail.co/technology/how-youtube-shopping-is-upping-its-social-commerce-competition-with-tiktok/ Online Shoppers Are Starting to See Amazon as a Fashion Destination https://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2024/online-shoppers-are-starting-to-see-amazon-as-a-fashion-destination/ TikTok won't dial back on TikTok Shop content, but it may not matter for time spent https://www.emarketer.com/content/tiktok-won-t-dial-back-on-tiktok-shop-content-may-not-matter-time-spent Amazon ends California drone deliveries https://techcrunch.com/2024/04/22/amazon-ends-california-drone-deliveries/ Strap in for a gear shift with Helium 10's groundbreaking new features aimed at elevating your Amazon selling game. Bradley talked about the Inventory Management overhaul that's set to streamline your operations, whether you're balancing SKUs or toggling between FBA and FBM. Unravel the mysteries of Amazon marketplace SEO with the latest in keyword ranking analytics, and plunge into the Customer Behavior Dashboard that's a lot of actionable insights. Plus, for the data-driven dynamos, Black Box Brand Analytics is now within arm's reach for Platinum members. And, because knowledge is power, I'll guide you through Black Box's freshest training videos that are sure to sharpen your competitive edge in Amazon product research in 2024. Lastly, in our Pro Training Tip of this week, Bradley discusses the feature inside Helium 10 that is most slept on. Listen/watch now to learn what it is and transform your approach with these cutting-edge tools and strategies! Thanks for tuning into this episode of the Helium 10 Weekly Buzz. In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley covers: 00:45 - Youtube Shopping 02:26 - Amazon Grocery 04:26 - Amazon Clothing Gains 05:51 - TikTok Shop Usage 07:02 - Amazon Brazil 07:40 - Drone Deliveries 08:23 - Helium 10 Elite Workshop In Madrid, Spain 08:54 - Helium 10 New Feature Alerts 15:18 - Pro Training Tip: The Most Slept-On Helium 10 Feature Transcript Bradley Sutton: YouTube shopping updates. Amazon launches new grocery delivery service. Amazon fashion is on the rise. This and more stories on today's Weekly Buzz. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I am your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show that is our Helium 10 Weekly Buzz, where we give you a rundown of all the goings on in the Amazon, Walmart, e-commerce world. We give you training tips of the week and we also let you know what new Helium 10 features are available. That'll give you serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. Let's see what's buzzing. Bradley Sutton: Just like a few articles, a handful of articles today, but wanted to bring out what I thought might be interesting to you. Our first one is actually from Modern Retail and it's entitled how YouTube Shopping is Upping Its Social Commerce Competition with TikTok. Now YouTube Shopping. You might not have heard of this article it's actually a couple weeks old already, but just wanted to highlight it because we didn't highlight it last week. There wasn't enough room but it's talking about updates to the YouTube shopping feature, especially in regards to what's going on with influencers, content creators and the ability to monetize their channels. You know, I think Amazon and other platforms are definitely seeing how successful TikTok shop has been in. And now in YouTube shopping there's an affiliate hub that gives creators access to more than 300 of YouTube's partner brands, like Target, Alta and Adidas. So this is not some TikTok shop killer. The fact that it's only available at 300 partner brands means, you know, obviously this is not something that would affect third-party sellers yet, but it's just interesting to see where the space is going when it comes to social commerce and influencer marketing. I think this is definitely going to increase and your success, or your sales on Amazon, is going to partly be tied to how well can you get affiliates, influencers, to promote your product effectively. And, of course, obviously the perennial question is all this costs money. Cost percentage here, percentage there you know they want, you know affiliates want to make money. Where are you going to find these percentages in order to stay profitable? But interesting to see YouTube now kind of I don't want to say jumping on the TikTok bandwagon, but maybe moving towards that direction. Bradley Sutton: Another Amazon update is from Amazon itself. It says Amazon's new grocery delivery subscription offers big savings to Prime members and EBT customers. So what is this Basically? Now, hey, prime members, or if you have an EBT card, you can get a monthly subscription with unlimited grocery delivery if you get orders from over $35. And this is from Whole Foods, amazon Fresh, other local grocery specialty retailers, and it says this is a benefit that pays for itself with one delivery order per month. I'm not sure what that's based off of. Maybe based on the old fees that Amazon would charge for delivery. Bradley Sutton: I don't know, I don't use Amazon delivery, but you know, honestly, maybe I will. You know I've used like Instacart and stuff for things, but I might check this out. This is why I'm bringing it up. Anything that increases value to Amazon Prime members and gets more people on the app, I think is something that should be interest to sellers. Now this charge is going to be $9.99 for Prime members to subscription and this actually includes, says one hour delivery windows at no extra cost in some locations and 30 minute pickup orders. There's there's recurring reservations for a weekly grocery order we mentioned before, unlimited delivery on $35 orders and plus from local grocery and retailers such as Cardenas Markets, save Marts, Bartell Drugs, rite Aid. Rite Aid Wait a minute. Does that mean I get Thrifty's ice cream with my Amazon Prime? Okay, all right, say less Amazon Thrifty's ice cream in 30 minutes. I will take that, but anyways, it's going to be available in 3,500 cities, and so it might be something to look at. I don't think a lot of us are selling products that are in grocery stores, so that's not the advantage here. But again, the advantage is does this make Amazon Prime members more sticky? Does it add more Amazon Prime members? I see like there's this battle going on between Walmart and Amazon as far as grocery deliveries, right? Bradley Sutton: Next article is from payments.com. It's entitled online shoppers are starting to see Amazon as a fashion destination. I thought this was interesting, because if you weren't looking at the numbers and somebody were just to ask you hey, what do you think's going on with Amazon's market share in the clothing industry, maybe you might think it's going down because of, you know, last year, sheen and teaming with all these low cost alternatives, right, you know, I've been saying for a while I don't yet see those websites as huge threats to Amazon, but, interestingly enough, you know, amazon's market share in clothing for online sales is increasing All right. For the first time ever it actually rose to over 50%. It rose up from 47.9% the previous quarter. So it's interesting. This website shows a chart going back all these quarters, the last few years, about Amazon's market share of e-commerce spending. And you know the low one would be health and personal care. I was kind of surprised. You know only 6.6% but it's still up. You see here the clothing and apparel 51%. Last year it was 47%. Sporting goods, hobby, music and book 85%. Amazon has a market share there. But pretty much all of these main categories Amazon is increasing quarter over quarter, year over year as far as what its market share percentage is. Bradley Sutton: The next article is from emarketer.com and it's entitled TikTok won't dial back on TikTok shop content. But it may not matter for time spent. You know we've been hearing these comments and articles about TikTok users regular TikTok users upset with all the TikTok shop content. But this is interesting. They did this survey here and it says yes, nearly two-thirds 62% of US TikTok users notice a change in shopping-related content in the six months. However, almost all 91% of respondents who noticed that change said their TikTok usage either rose or remained unchanged, with 70% reporting an increase. So you know some people might have been scared that. Oh, maybe you know. Or the ones that are like really successful in TikTok shop is oh, I see all these articles about TikTok users being upset with all the shopping stuff. Maybe they're going to dial back how much they promote TikTok shopping. But if this survey matches what TikTok has seen, I would say no, because there is no sign that people are kind of like dialing back their TikTok uses because they're getting frustrated with the TikTok shop stuff. Bradley Sutton: Next article from Amazon Seller Central itself. Just another reminder. This came out a couple of days ago. It says eligible North American unified accounts can now expand to Brazil. All right, so if you've got a North American Brazil unified account, you can switch back and forth between Amazon Canada, Mexico, us and Brazil. Now to list products there. Don't forget Helium 10 fully supports Amazon Brazil, all the main tools, chrome extension, Black Box, Cerebro, et cetera. So it would definitely be something to look into if you have not optimized your listing for Amazon Brazil. Bradley Sutton: Next article is from TechCrunch. It says Amazon ends California drone deliveries. All right, this wasn't some massive, massive thing. It was one city in California. They were doing testing in addition to their one city in Texas that they were doing testing for deliveries of products, of drones. It was in this Leckford California. I live in California. I've never heard of Leckford California, but anyways, they're not doing it there anymore, it's going to be in Texas and now they're going to open it up in a city in Arizona. What this means I don't know, but we've literally been reporting about drone delivery for like four years and the fact that it's only in one city in California now zero cities doesn't look like drone delivery is going to be some massive thing anytime soon. All right, that's it for the news this week. Don't forget, if you have not signed up yet and you're living in Europe or want to go to Europe for a couple days, hang out with me, hang out with Kerry, hang out with amazing speakers and about 100 other Amazon sellers. Make sure to join our Helium 10, first ever event in Spain. It's going to be in Madrid May 28th. Going to be an amazing lineup of speakers, h10.me/elitespain. If you want to get tickets, h10.me/elitespain. Don't miss it. Bradley Sutton: Let's get into the Helium 10 New Feature Alerts. All right, we had four last week. I thought that was a lot. We got five this week, all right. So, as usual, helium 10 cranking out the new features. The very first one is an inventory management. So an inventory management had kind of like a big refresh as far as the interface. But a couple things I want to call out is you can now see things at the ASIN level and at the SKU level. Now this is important for those of you who especially those of you doing furniture or other larger products, where maybe you have two SKUs per ASIN. Right, you've got an FBM SKU and FBA SKU, or maybe, for whatever reason, you had two of the same or two of the same ASIN, but two different SKUs of the same match type, just because maybe you updated some packaging or something like that and you would want your inventory velocity to be based at the ASIN level, not necessarily the SKU level, because that's what you order on. So now you're going to be able to do that. You can just toggle back and forth between ASIN and SKU. Again, for those of you who do FBM and FBA, use this filter and then toggle between if something is FBA and something is Fm. As far as what you're at the skew level is going on. We can now toggle based on the selling type that it is. So take a look at inventory management guys. It has a completely new UI here. Don't forget, last month we had uh features such as EU. You know inventory management now works for EU as well as multi-warehouse, like if you use multiple third-party warehouses. Uh, inventory management can take that into consideration. Uh, next update here is in listing builder really a quick and easy one, uh. If you go into listing builder now on the main page, if you're using the new listing builder scoring system, you are going to be able to see your keyword rank All right, your keyword ranking for based on the scoring, and your keyword performance score All right. So your keyword performance score is right here, so you can see when it's updated and also see if maybe you've lost some ground as far as SEO goes on your listings. Bradley Sutton: Next Helium 10 update is for supercharged customers and in your customer intelligence tool all right. In your customer intelligence tool, which is right here on your main dashboard Now, you're going to be able to see purchase behavior. You're going to have a purchase behavior dashboard so you're going to be able to see from your own brands and products. What sequence are people ordering your products in? All, right, like, hey, they're first ordering the pink coffin shelf and then they order more pink coffin shelves. Or maybe they first order a bat shaped shelf and then they order a coffin shelf. Right, you're going to see the sequential things. Like, for example, my number one multiple in Project X, my number one multiple order is how people order one of my stackable egg racks right, the top one and then they order the bottom rack. You know, makes sense, they can stack ones up higher. I see some customers ordering the black coffin shelf and they order another black coffin shelf and then the third one is a purple coffin shelf. So I might just have some like interesting insights, and I can see how many times this has happened as well. So, again, this is only for supercharged customers in your customer intelligence tool. Bradley Sutton: Next update is in the Chrome extension, review insights. All right, so review insights has been a popular tool so that if you want to go, you know, take a look at what are the common words that are being brought up in your or your competitors reviews. You can see it. Well, let me just show you how that looks now, if you are on Amazon, like here's a, here's a collagen peptides listing. And if I were to go ahead and run review insights, I can do it right here on the sidebar. I hit review insights and all of the reviews come up. Now if I look at reviews grouped by keywords, it's going to show me the, by default, the most common phrases that are showing up in the most recent reviews. But now we have this really cool thing where I can edit it by how many words, like maybe I don't want to see the individual words, but hey, what are the two word phrases that people are saying much? And like here in this collagen peptides, I see the number one two word phrase that people keep bringing up is morning coffee, all right. I see a lot of people saying joint pain All right. Protein shake All right. So now I'm just getting insights into how people are using this product. I can now even go for three word and up phrases if I want to see what things people are saying. I could see here that there's a number of people saying does not mix well, all right. So that's something that you know if this is my product I definitely want to take a look at. Bradley Sutton: Next update is for platinum members. You now have 10 lifetime usages of Black Box Brand Analytics, all right. So where you can get to that tool is into just going to Helium 10 Back Box and then hit the tool ABA top search terms. This shows all of Amazon's brand analytics If you've got brand registry right. But it just gives tons of other information such as showing you the search volume and the history of the click share et cetera, and then gives you tons and tons and tons of filtering capabilities. Like hey, show me all the keywords where, if you add up the top three clicked products, it had less than 20% of the overall clicks. I mean, you can go deep in filtering. That you just can't do if you you're looking at a brand analytics in seller central, just downloading the reports, tons of extra information on here that ties in helium 10 data. Bradley Sutton: Now, if you want to see how to use this tool, make sure to hit the learn button. The learn buttons are, uh, are being updated here in black box. So if you don't see the two videos for the learn button here, just go to black box keywords, black box. And, by the way, I want everybody to do this because these just got updated. So if you want to know. If you want to, in like 20 minutes, understand all the tools here in black box. We just updated all the training videos. Go to black box keywords, hit the learn button and you are going to have 10 videos, really short, three, four minutes long each, on how to do different things for product research and other things like how to find competitors for any Amazon product, how to find product opportunity using Amazon brand analytics. That's the one that you know you would need to look at to know how to use brand analytics, and there's a lot more strategies here that can definitely help you in your Amazon journey. Bradley Sutton: All right, now let's get into the training tip of the week, and people ask me sometimes what is the most slept on feature of Helium 10? And it's an easy one. For me, it's this feature called Amazon Recommended. Let me just show you how powerful it is, and you know we've had this feature for almost five years now and it's funny, even five years ago. I'm like, oh yeah, you're like you know we're the first to have this feature, but I'm sure other people are going to copy us and have it soon because it's so powerful. Five years later, we're still the only people to show this. This is directly from Amazon, guys. So how would you use this? Bradley Sutton: Have you ever had a product where you're just not getting the impressions that you think you should be getting in PPC, even though you think your listing is optimized for a certain keyword? Or maybe you're not getting any impressions at all, or maybe you have a keyword, like man. I'm getting sales for this keyword, but my organic rank just doesn't seem to be increasing so much. You know what is going on. Well, what it could be is that Amazon doesn't think you're that relevant, for whatever reason. According to Amazon's own algorithm and Helium 10, it's the only tool that gives you insight into what Amazon thinks you're relevant for, and it's in a live data feed. This is not something that Helium 10 is calculating or put some algorithm in. This is a live feed. Every time you run Cerebro, it shows it, and where you can get this is in Cerebro, like here. I ran on Coffin Shelf. I'm like man my Coffin Shelf listing is not getting the impressions I want it to in PPC and I can't get past Amazon rank five. So what does Amazon think my product is? Well, you sort it by Amazon recommended rank right here in Cerebro. All right, platinum members, diamond members, doesn't matter what level of Helium 10, you have access to this super valuable tool. And now I can see well, at least Amazon is not fully confused what my product is Like. Bradley Sutton: I can see the number one Amazon recommended rank is coffin shelf wall, I can see. But then I see a lot of like, uh, you know, random stuff here, like Halloween decor, indoor home is the number. What is this Number five keyword here? Number six keyword? But then the word coffin shelf, which is my main keyword, is all the way here at 27. So now it's like oh, I have a relevancy problem, for whatever reason, with this product. How can I fix this relevancy problem? Well, that's another story about trying to optimize your listing for the Amazon algorithm. But let's just take another example of coffin shelf. The number one overall pick of coffin shelf, all right, and it's the number one seller right now. It's not me anymore If I look at that product and run my competitors. Cerebro, look at his Amazon recommended rank. He's organically ranked number one. But look at the Amazon recommended rank for the same keyword that I was 27th for, which is coffin shelf, and he is number two. Bradley Sutton: What does that mean? Any interactions with his keyword for coffin shelf. He's going to get more bang for his buck because Amazon thinks he's super, super hyper relevant for the keyword coffin shelf, so all right. So, guys, run your own product through Cerebro and sort by Amazon recommended rank. This is the number one most slept on feature, I think, in all of Helium 10 that every literally every paying customer of Helium 10 has access to. So give that a try. Let me know in the comments below, if you're watching this on YouTube, what you see there in the results. All right, guys, that's it for the Weekly Buzz this week. Don't forget to tune in next week to see what's buzzing.

Howie Cohen is an Associate Category manager for Bartell Drugs, and the go-to guy for all things pet-related across all their stores in the NW region. We meet Howie to discuss the "Bark-tell Pet Supply Drive" taking place through March at all Bartell's locations. We, as patrons, have the opportunity to make donations at their cash registers. All funds collected will be split between three local organizations supporting animal welfare - PAWSITIVE Alliance, Auburn Valley Humane Society, and Seattle Humane. These shelters/rescues care for dogs and cats among others, with many available for adoption. And there's always a need at the shelters for more provisions, food and even toys to comfort these animals, eagerly awaiting the chance at a forever home. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Howie Cohen is an Associate Category manager for Bartell Drugs, and the go-to guy for all things pet-related across all their stores in the NW region. We meet Howie to discuss the "Bark-tell Pet Supply Drive" taking place through March at all Bartell's locations. We, as patrons, have the opportunity to make donations at their cash registers. All funds collected will be split between three local organizations supporting animal welfare - PAWSITIVE Alliance, Auburn Valley Humane Society, and Seattle Humane. These shelters/rescues care for dogs and cats among others, with many available for adoption. And there's always a need at the shelters for more provisions, food and even toys to comfort these animals, eagerly awaiting the chance at a forever home.

On this week-in-review, Crystal is joined by Chair of Sierra Club Seattle, long time communications and political strategist, Robert Cruickshank! Crystal and Robert dive into the open machinations of the big corporate donors to appoint their preferred candidate to a Seattle City Council vacancy and how the messy process has leached its way into Seattle School Board politics. They then discuss the qualification of a right-wing initiative to dismantle the state's plan to take on the climate crisis. Robert gives a rare kudos to The Seattle Times for their presentation of a debate over homeless encampments, they both are dismayed at the depressing and infuriating news that the Tacoma officers in the Manuel Ellis case are getting paid $500k each to voluntarily leave the police department, and the show rounds out with analysis of some media's treatment of AG Ferguson's lawsuit to block a merger between Kroger and Albertsons. As always, a full text transcript of the show is available below and at officialhacksandwonks.com. Find the host, Crystal Fincher, on Twitter at @finchfrii and find today's co-host, Robert Cruickshank, at @cruickshank.   Resources RE-AIR: The Big Waterfront Bamboozle with Mike McGinn and Robert Cruickshank from Hacks & Wonks   “Harrell Administration Consultant Tim Ceis Urges Businesses to Back Tanya Woo for Open Council Seat” by Erica C. Barnett from PubliCola   “Business, labor lobby for open seat on Seattle City Council” by David Kroman from The Seattle Times   “Seattle City Council candidate has residency conflict in School Board role” by Claire Bryan from The Seattle Times    “Initiative 2117 (repealing Washington's Climate Commitment Act) gets certified” by Andrew Villeneuve from The Cascadia Advocate   “‘Should Seattle remove encampments?' Advocates debate” by Greg Kim from The Seattle Times   “Tacoma cops acquitted in death of Manuel Ellis will get $500K each to resign, city says” by Peter Talbot from The News Tribune    “Kroger-Albertsons merger would hike grocery prices, create near monopolies in some Washington communities, AG says” by Helen Smith from KING 5   “WA suit to block Kroger-Albertsons merger gets cheers, raised eyebrows” by Paul Roberts from The Seattle Times   Find stories that Crystal is reading here   Listen on your favorite podcast app to all our episodes here   Transcript [00:00:00] Crystal Fincher: Welcome to Hacks & Wonks. I'm Crystal Fincher, and I'm a political consultant and your host. On this show, we talk with policy walks and political hacks to gather insight into local politics and policy in Washington state through the lens of those doing the work with behind-the-scenes perspectives on what's happening, why it's happening, and what you can do about it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get full versions of our Tuesday topical show and our Friday week-in-review delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, the most helpful thing you can do is leave a review wherever you listen to Hacks & Wonks. Full transcripts and resources referenced in the show are always available at officialhacksandwonks.com and in our episode notes. Today, we're continuing our Friday week-in-review shows where we review the news of the week with a co-host. Welcome back to the program, friend of the show, one of our audience favorites, and today's co-host: Chair of Sierra Club Seattle, longtime communications and political strategist, Robert Cruickshank. [00:01:12] Robert Cruickshank: Hey - thanks for having me on again, Crystal. [00:01:14] Crystal Fincher: Hey, excited to have you on again - here in 2024. Well, we've got a lot to talk about - things are getting spicy in the City of Seattle, with regards to this upcoming Seattle City Council appointment to replace Teresa Mosqueda's seat. Because Teresa was elected to the King County Council, which created a vacancy - so now it needs to be filled. So what happened this week? [00:01:38] Robert Cruickshank: Well, I think a lot has happened with the machinations around this appointment process - and in fact, things we're learning about how the new regime at City Hall is conducting itself - and they come together. I think this is basically Tim Ceis - who is former deputy mayor to Greg Nickels back in the 2000s, corporate lobbyist, close to established power in Seattle - and Council President Sara Nelson, who, of course, just became council president after the new council with a bunch of her allies got sworn in at the beginning of the month. They seem to be conducting a purge of anyone progressive in the City Hall, in City staff, and are determined to consolidate power around what is actually, I think, a fairly radical agenda for the city that most voters didn't really actually select, especially when it comes to cutting taxes for big businesses and slashing public services. But in order to try to achieve that, they know that they need to try to push out and keep out anyone who might disagree, anyone who might even be remotely progressive on anything. I think it's a pretty significant misreading of the results of recent elections in Seattle - their candidates won often narrowly on questions of public safety, not on cutting taxes for big businesses. In fact, most of their candidates hedged on the questions of taxes when they were asked during the campaigns. But I think you see a real desire to consolidate power around a small group of loyalists, no dissent allowed. And this is a approach to governance that I don't think Seattleites expect or want. I mean, most people in Seattle assume and want a fairly technocratic, go-along-to-get-along government where everyone is sort of driven by data, gets along with each other, and try to do things in the public interest. Now, you and I, a lot of our listeners, know that's not really how the city operates. But what we're seeing now is, I think, a much more aggressive and - in some ways, unprecedented for Seattle - attempt to impose a radical agenda on the city from the right. [00:03:26] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, this isn't what voters thought they were signing up for. This isn't what anyone campaigned on. Voters are looking at what the candidates are saying, they're looking at the mail, the commercials - again, definitely talked about public safety, talked about homelessness. But what we saw in Sara Nelson's first statement was austerity - we're cutting taxes for business. But voters didn't weigh in on this at all. And I don't think people are going to have a great reaction to this. [00:03:55] Robert Cruickshank: When Seattle voters weigh in on questions of taxes, Seattleites pass almost every tax put in front of them. When it comes to state ballot initiatives to tax the rich - they might fail statewide as they did in 2010, but they pass with wide support in Seattle. When it comes to money in politics, Seattleites approved taxing themselves - raising their property taxes slightly - to create the Democracy Voucher program. This is a city that does not want corporate money in politics and yet, that is exactly what's happened here. The reason we're talking about all this right now is not just because there's a council appointment, but because Tim Ceis, this aforementioned corporate lobbyist, sent out an email at the beginning of the week urging all of the people - whether they're wealthy individuals or from big corporations - who donated to the independent expenditure campaigns to help get a lot of these councilmembers elected last year, telling them - Hey, we need you to mobilize right now to stop Vivian Song, who is currently on the Seattle School Board, who's seeking the appointment - Ceis says, We got to stop her. She held a fundraiser for Teresa Mosqueda. She endorsed Ron Davis. She's friendly to unions. And gosh, we can't have that on our council. And the way Ceis put it was to basically act as if these wealthy interests had bought the council. They now own the council - it is theirs, not ours. Not ours in the sense of "we the people." And they can do whatever they want with it. So Ceis' attitude - and I think Sara Nelson shares this - is that it's theirs now, nobody else can tell them what to do with the city council. They have the absolute right to pick whoever they want to and impose this agenda on the city. I think both that attitude and a policy agenda they want are not what the city wants at all, and they are going to run into a big backlash real fast. [00:05:30] Crystal Fincher: Real fast. And the brazenness with which he stated this was wild. This is from the email that Tim Ceis sent - "While it's been a great two weeks watching the outcome of our effort as the new City Council has taken office, the independent expenditure success earned you the right to let the Council know not to offer the left the consolation prize of this Council seat." Okay, they're just admitting that they bought this seat. They're just admitting that - Hey, yeah, it was our effort that got these people onto the council. And we spent a million dollars plus in this independent expenditure effort and that gives us the right - he said the "right" - to tell the council what to do, which I don't recall seeing something this overtly stated before. [00:06:17] Robert Cruickshank: There's an important contrast we can draw - both Bruce Harrell and Eric Adams, mayor of New York, were elected in 2021. And at the time, Eric Adams was hailed as some sort of future of the Democratic Party - center right, tough on crime, pushing back against progressives. Well, here we are at the beginning of 2024 - Eric Adams has a 28% approval rating in New York - highly unlikely to win a re-election at this point. There are a lot of reasons for that, but one of the primary reasons is cuts to public services - libraries, schools, parks, all sorts of things. And the public is just clearly rejecting that. Bruce Harrell is up for re-election next year. And I think Harrell's going to have to decide for himself - does he want to be the one to get all the blame for this? Or maybe he just thinks Sara Nelson takes all the blame. Who knows? Maybe there's a good cop, bad cop approach being planned here - with Sara Nelson being the bad cop pushing austerity and Harrell's try to be the good cop, try to bring everybody together. Who knows? But I think what you see in New York is what you're going to see in Seattle - a significant backlash. I also want to mention - you quoted Ceis' letter talking about giving a prize to the left. Vivian Song is not a leftist. This is the part that just blows my mind about all this. She's as mainstream a Seattle Democrat as it gets. If you read her application letter for the council appointment, she talks about hiring more cops, being careful with city spending. She's honestly probably a little bit to the right of most of the previous city council that just got voted out. But to Ceis and Nelson, she's unacceptable because she's friendly with unions, was friendly with some progressives - what that shows me is that they only want extremists like themselves or who will just do their own bidding. And I think they're setting themselves up for a significant backlash. [00:07:58] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, and the final point - in looking at this, there were so many applicants to this - all across the spectrum, right? There weren't just progressive applicants for the seat. There were dozens and dozens of people from across the spectrum - and good choices - people who had experience, who have the right intentions from across the spectrum. This isn't about - Well, we just don't want an extreme leftist from these corporate interests. This is about - You're going to pick our person. Because there are several other choices on there - they're talking about Tanya Woo. Why aren't they talking about Phil Tavel, right? Why aren't they talking about anyone else that seems to align with their interests? They want loyalists - that's the bottom line. It goes beyond what the ideology is. It's - are you going to be loyal to me? Are you going to back me on what I'm doing? And without that assurance - We're not backing you. With that assurance, you're in and we're going to fight. And hey, we spent a million plus to get these other folks in. Now we're using our muscle to get you in too. And we're telling people - Hey, this was our show. We elected these people. It was our effort and that gives us the right to dictate what's going to happen. When you have the primary concern, the primary litmus test being loyalty and not is this going to help the residents of the city? Do they have experience? Can they credibly lead and do this? Wow, we get into a lot of trouble if it's just - Are you going to back me? Are you not going to question anything I'm doing? Are you going to rubber stamp this? So this appointment process is really going to be an opportunity to see where the loyalties lie. Are they serving their constituents or are they serving the business community? Because again, there are lots of picks if they wanted to go with a conservative person, right? I think they probably will. But the point is, it's got to be the one handpicked by business. This is going to tell us a lot about where the heads of these new councilmembers are at. Yeah, it [00:09:49] Robert Cruickshank: will. And I think it's also setting up 2024 - not just in terms of the policy discussions we'll see in City Hall, but the campaigns. This seat that gets filled in this appointment process later this month will be on the November 2024 ballot citywide. And I think Tanya Woo would likely run for that seat if she's appointed to it. If so, then she's going to have to go to voters - not as someone picked for her qualifications, at least in the way the public will see it. The public will see it as - she was picked by business because she's loyal to business. Vivian Song may want to run for that seat too - last night got endorsed by the King County Labor Council to hold that appointment. It sets up a very interesting - not just 10 days between now and when this appointment gets made, but 10 months between now and the November election, where I think you're going to see real contests over the future of the city. [00:10:35] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. Another interesting dimension with this about Vivian Song is about her residency and her existing Seattle School Board position. What's going on here? [00:10:45] Robert Cruickshank: Yeah, so we'll go back to 2021 - where there was an article that appeared in The Stranger when Vivian was running for the school board, questioning her residency - that she had changed residencies and changed voter registration - and questioning whether she was eligible to run for the District 4 seat for the school board. Now, the school board districts don't line up exactly with the city council districts, so listeners should keep that in mind - but Vivian won, won citywide. Because in school board, you are first elected out of the primary in just the district. Then the top two from that district go on to a citywide election in the school board. So Vivian won citywide in 2021. Last summer, it emerges that some of her critics and opponents on school board were questioning where she lives now - that she might not actually live in the district she technically represents. This is brought to the school board legal department, which looked at it and did not see a need to kick her off the school board, or declare her seat vacant and force an election. People move around for personal reasons, and they don't have to be told to tell those personal reasons in public. But Vivian is not someone who is manipulating the system for political gain - there are legitimate reasons she was moving. And yet this comes out in a Seattle Times article this week and gets mentioned at a board meeting last night - the only board meeting during this entire council appointment process. This has been under discussion behind the scenes at the school district for months. But why does it emerge now? I think it's the obvious reason why it emerges now - because some of Vivian's critics on the school board, whether they're working directly with Tim Ceis and Sara Nelson or not, are certainly helping Tim Ceis and Sara Nelson try to torpedo Vivian Song's candidacy. Now, from a progressive perspective, this doesn't necessarily mean that Vivian's the right pick for the appointment process. We should take a look at everybody. But I think the relentless efforts to destroy her, both in her position on the school board and to keep her out of the city council, suggest to me some real problems with the way both the city council and the school board are now being governed by small little cliques determined to hold on to their own power, to push austerity, unfriendly to labor, and hostile to public input. I think it's a really shocking and disturbing development that we're seeing in our city. Away from small-d democratic governance. I think everyone in the city should be really concerned about these developments. [00:13:05] Crystal Fincher: Completely agree. And statewide news - big news - it's going to impact our November 2024 ballot. The second right-wing initiative qualified for the 2024 ballot. What does this do and what does this mean? [00:13:21] Robert Cruickshank: So background here is that the far right chair of the state Republican Party, State Representative Jim Walsh - hardcore MAGA Trump guy - became State Party Chair last year and is working with a wealthy mega-donor, a guy named Brian Heywood, to try to repeal the main accomplishments of the Democratic majority in the legislature of the last few years. So we've got six initiatives so far that they've submitted to the state to qualify - two of them have made it to the ballot. One of them you just mentioned, which will be Initiative 2117 to try to destroy our state's climate action plan. They want to repeal the carbon pricing piece of it - sometimes known as cap and trade, cap and invest, whatever you want to call it. Their argument is - Oh, it's why gas prices are so high in Washington state. Well, no. One, we on the West Coast have always had higher gas prices than the rest of the country. And in fact, the reason Washington has high gas prices is because of King County. I did an analysis a few weeks ago that shows - if you cross the river from Portland to Vancouver, Washington, the average cost of gas is the same. If you are in Tacoma, you're paying less than you pay in Portland, Oregon. So if carbon pricing was causing gas prices to soar across Washington state, you'd see it everywhere - but you don't. What that suggests to me is you might actually be seeing oil companies gouging King County - that's worth investigation, which the oil companies don't want. But point being - Jim Walsh, who's a Trump guy, Brian Heywood, who's the wealthy funder, want to destroy our ability to tackle the climate crisis. They want to destroy our ability to fund the things that are needed to help people get off of fossil fuel. And so they're putting this on the ballot. They're going to put some other initiatives on the ballot to try to repeal our capital gains tax on the rich, that funds schools and early learning. And this is going to be one of the big battles that we're seeing this year - an effort to impose, again, a far-right agenda on the state of Washington. And I think that progressive organizations, the State Democratic Party are maybe a little slow to respond to this - I think they will engage, but now's the time to start letting people know what's happening here, what this attack is, how dangerous it could be, and the importance of stopping all six of these initiatives. [00:15:30] Crystal Fincher: We've seen Republicans have an increasingly hard time winning statewide and legislatively over the past few years - they've lost power, they tried the courts. The Supreme Court actually just rejected a case trying to come to the Supreme Court about the capital gains tax. So this is their only recourse now. And unfortunately, because of the way our political system is, money gets you really far. And so if you have these multi-hundred millionaires, these billionaires who come in and say - You know what, this is what I want - they're able to basically make us go through this whole charade. And so we have to fight against it. It's here. We have to do this. But it really is important to talk to people about - not to fall for these cheap lines that, Oh, this is another gas tax. It's the hidden gas tax, as they say. But we've had this price gouging conversation before - I think more people are seeing it, which is encouraging. But we're going to have to go through this whole campaign. [00:16:29] Robert Cruickshank: Yeah, and I think that it's worth noting there are reasonable discussions to be had about how to do carbon pricing right and what it should fund. And there were very intense conversations and disagreements about that when this was passed in 2021. And I think it makes sense to take a look and say - Okay, how do we make sure we're doing this right? That's not what this initiative does. This initiative uses voter concern about gas prices to totally destroy our ability to tackle the climate crisis. This is coming from people who don't believe the climate crisis is real. Or if they do believe it's real, they don't really want to do anything to stop it because they think driving and keeping oil companies happy is more important. We see wild weather all across the region - we remember that super hot heat wave from the summer of 2021, we remember the long droughts of 2022 - this is not a time to mess around. If we want to look at how to address needs to ensure that carbon pricing works - great. If we want to take a look at what it's funding - great. But to totally destroy the system entirely because a bunch of right-wingers and wealthy donors want it, I think, is a disaster. [00:17:30] Crystal Fincher: Absolute disaster. I was certainly one of those people who had criticisms of the Climate Commitment Act. There are certainly tweaks that should be made. There are some better ways that we can go about some of these processes. But the option isn't - do nothing. That's unacceptable. It isn't just dismantle and repeal everything. Just like with Social Security, just like with Medicare - these big, important pieces of legislation - that do come with benefits. We're going to have to tweak them. We're going to have to get information back, get data back, and respond to that with some technical fixes, some tweaks to make sure that we steer it onto the best path that it can be. But wow, we cannot afford to do nothing. We can't afford to dismantle this at this point in time. This is one of the most hopeful opportunities we have - really in the country - to show how states can lead and come together to get this done. We can't dismantle this at this point in time. Also want to talk about a debate that we saw, on the pages of The Seattle Times, among homeless advocates that reflects a lot of the conversation going on in communities about how to handle encampments. What was talked about here and what's important to understand? [00:18:42] Robert Cruickshank: Yeah, I want to do something I don't always do, which is give credit to The Seattle Times for hosting this discussion. I think it was a really good way to do it - between two people - Tim Harris, who used to be the executive editor of Real Change, and Tiffani McCoy, a leader in the Initiative 135 House Our Neighbors Now social housing effort here in Seattle. These are two progressive people who have long records of advocacy for housing and for the needs of the homeless. So they didn't do the usual thing that media will do - is pit a progressive against some crazy right winger. These are two people, who I think come at this with the right intentions and the right values. And they both made some pretty good points about how we handle this issue of sweeps and encampments. Sweeps - I believe they're awful. They're also popular. The public likes them. We saw the 2017 mayoral race, we saw in 2021 mayoral and city council races, city attorney race. We saw it last year in the city council races. Candidates who back sweeps almost always defeat candidates who oppose them - we're getting nowhere, and the people who are living in these encampments aren't getting help. Now, this doesn't mean we should embrace sweeps. And I thought that Tiffani McCoy did a really good job of laying out, again, the damage that sweeps do to not just the possessions of people who are living in tents, but to their own psychological state. And it often makes it harder for them to escape addiction, harder for them to find stability they need to get a home. I thought Tim Harris, though, made some good points about the problems that happen if you leave an encampment in place - how drug dealers eventually find it. And even the best managed encampments - it just takes one or two people with bad intentions to show up and the whole place kind of falls apart into violence. So leaving an encampment out there doesn't help the people who are living there, especially now we're in the extremely cold winter season. But what happens is, too often, this gets framed as a discussion between - do we sweep or do we leave encampments indefinitely? And when that's the terms of the discussion, sweeps will win every single time. And we've seen that for years now. And I think progressives need to realize that that's the case. We are not going to stop sweeps by trying to argue against sweeps alone, and to argue essentially for leaving encampments indefinitely. We have to get out of that binary that we're losing and the people in those encampments are losing. And I think the only way out is to go to the solution, right? We need to build housing for people immediately. Bruce Harrell took office on a promise to build 2,000 units of housing for folks - homes, shelter, tiny homes, whatever - to get people out. Did that happen? Where did that go? You know, there are some tiny home villages that are out there. They do a great job. But why aren't we massively expanding those? Where are the safe RV sites? Where are other forms of shelter? Where's the permanent supportive housing that we need? Where are the new SROs that we need? I think that's where progressive energy needs to focus - is on getting people out of tents now - into real housing with a roof, with a door that locks that they like, where they can bring all their possessions, including their dog and their partner. And I think that's where the emphasis needs to go. I think if we get stuck in this sweeps versus indefinite encampments, we're just going to keep losing. The people who need help aren't going to get it. And so I thought that this debate that The Times hosted did a good job of really laying out why we need to go in that direction. [00:21:59] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, absolutely. I think this is another area where - just the classic communications issue - you can't just argue against something. You have to argue for the vision that you want - because it doesn't translate - what people do here is exactly what you said. Well, okay - if we aren't going to sweep, then they're going to just stay there and that's unacceptable too. And it's unacceptable to a lot of people for a lot of different reasons, right? Some people are those crazy right wingers who just, you know - Get them out of my sight type of thing. But there are people who are saying - We need to get these people into a better place. We have lethal cold in the winter. We have lethal heat in the summer. We have public safety concerns. People who are unhoused, who are in these encampments, are more likely to be victims of crime than just about anyone else. This is a hazard to their health, to everyone's health. This is a big challenge. We need to get them into housing. We need more shelter options. We can't have this conversation while we know there isn't the infrastructure to get everyone indoors. Until we have that infrastructure, what are we talking about? We have to build. We have to build more transitional housing. We have to build more single residence occupancy, or those SROs. We have to move forward with housing. And I do believe in a Housing First approach. There's also this preemptive kind of argument that we're hearing from right wingers - Oh, we already tried that. Oh, we so have not tried that. We've never come close to trying that - on more than a trial with 20 people basis - that has never been a policy that the city has pursued overall. We have pursued these encampment sweeps and you can see they aren't getting us anywhere. The problem has actually gotten worse while we're doing this. So we have to make sure that we're speaking with unity and articulating what we want to see, what we're pursuing, what needs to get done. [00:23:50] Robert Cruickshank: Yeah, and I think there is another reason for urgency here. Sweeps, under rulings of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals - federal - in the case against the City of Boise, Idaho, and a similar case against the City of Grants Pass, Oregon. The appeals court ruled that you cannot sweep an encampment without offering shelter to the people living there. A lot of cities, including San Francisco and others, have wanted to get out of that. They appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court in the last few days. The Supreme Court has said - Yes, we will take up those cases. It is highly likely then, perhaps by this summer, the U.S. Supreme Court will say - You can sweep whenever you want to. You can eliminate an encampment without having to offer shelter at all. And I think a lot of advocates will point out that those offers of shelter, you know, are maybe a fig leaf at best. That fig leaf is going to go away very soon. So I think that just creates even more urgency to push really hard to get the city and the state to step up and provide housing, whether it's, you know, buying more hotels to get people out of tents or put up more tiny home villages. Whatever it takes, we have to do it, and we have to do it now because there is now an actual ticking clock at the U.S. Supreme Court on this. [00:24:57] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. And you know what? I do want to recognize what Dow Constantine has been doing with leaning on this issue - with the buying the hotels, working in concert with different cities in the county, offering - even in the Burien debacle, it was really the county who provided the light at the end of the tunnel and real tangible assistance to actually deal with the issue and get people into housing. So, you know, more of that - more of what we've seen from Dow Constantine, more of focusing on getting people housed. Absolutely want to see it. And just absolutely dejecting news - where I wasn't shocked, but certainly dismayed. The Tacoma cops from the Manuel Ellis case are getting $500,000 to voluntarily leave the department. What are your thoughts on this? [00:25:47] Robert Cruickshank: I mean, it's unsurprising and appalling that they're getting half a million dollars after killing Manuel Ellis and getting away with it. I mean, getting away with it was bad enough - the way that the jury ruled in that case a few weeks back. Now they're literally getting money in their pocket after this - being waved goodbye. And I'm sure that this does not come with any stipulations that would make it difficult for them to get a new job anywhere else. I remember when McGinn was mayor in the early 2010s, the Ian Birk case. Ian Birk, the Seattle officer who shot and killed Native American woodcarver John T. Williams. Birk was not really prosecuted. There was an inquest. But Birk left the department, got a job somewhere else. Well, one of the things McGinn did was pursue legal remedies to make it impossible for Birk to get another job as an officer. I do not see any such thing happening here in the Tacoma case. These officers are getting a payday and getting away with it. But I think what this shows, yet again, is the importance of having real teeth in police accountability. And I think it also shows that the criminal justice system is not a substitute for that. We can't assume that the criminal justice system alone is going to hold cops accountable, as we saw in this case - yet again, it didn't. We need reforms at the state level to remove officer accountability from bargaining. We need to make it easier for cities to hold cops accountable who break the law, who commit murder, things like that. And that's where this needs to go, because what has happened here is injustice upon injustice upon injustice. And if this doesn't spur us to act, then what's going to? [00:27:32] Crystal Fincher: There's currently a federal review going on by the U.S. attorney for Western Washington. The family of Manny Ellis is calling for a consent decree for the City of Tacoma's police department with this. So those levers are turning. This issue to me is really - my goodness, this is not a pro-cop or an anti-cop thing, right? How do we hold people accountable who violate the standards that we set for them, who violate the standards that are already in place? This reminds me of what happened in the City of Kent with the assistant chief who had Nazi memorabilia, Hitler mustache, Nazi signs at work - and then got paid a ton, got rich to leave voluntarily. What are we doing when there's no mechanism to fire a Nazi in the workplace? For people who are absolutely in favor of more police, why are you tolerating this? That's my question. Why are we allowing this to fall into the - Well, either you love cops or you hate cops and you're evil if you want to do anything attached to accountability. What are we even doing? I could go on about this for a long time, but this just falls into - What are we even doing? What is the point of anything if we have to pay people who violate our standard to leave? [00:28:53] Robert Cruickshank: Yeah. I mean, we've been told since the summer of 2020 - Oh, we can't defund the police. Okay, then what are we going to do? Because we can't allow this sort of behavior, whether it is Nazi memorabilia in the actual work office in Kent or killing Manuel Ellis on the streets of Tacoma to continue - which is what I fear is actually what critics of police accountability want. They just want cops to be able to do as they please without consequences because in their minds - and these are mostly white folks like me who are saying these things - they don't think they're ever going to have to face those consequences. They want to maintain their hierarchy, their place at the top as much as they can. They see police as part of that. It's really toxic. And I think that it just shows, once again, the urgency of fixing this - including at the state level, to get the legislature out of this idea that some legislators have that - Oh, somehow it undermines labor unions and labor rights if we take accountability out of police bargaining. Well, military soldiers can't bargain, they can't form a union. They have a strict uniform code of military justice. They're held, in many cases, to much higher standards than police officers. I think we could point out ways in which even the military needs to be held to higher standards, but at least there are some. They exist and they operate. Police - they are convinced that they have the right to do as they please and to get away with it - and to be paid well for it, even when they do horrific things. And that is what we have to reject. And I think at this point - cities, we need to hold them accountable and push them. But the state needs to step in and we need to see changes to state law to make it easier to have real accountability at the local level. [00:30:25] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, absolutely. Final thing I want to talk about today is a lawsuit announced by Attorney General Bob Ferguson to stop the Kroger-Albertsons merger that they have announced their intention to do, saying that this is going to be bad for competition, creating grocery monopolies. Grocery prices are already sky high - this would make it worse. What do you think about this? [00:30:49] Robert Cruickshank: Yeah, I think it's absolutely the right thing to do and well within Attorney General Ferguson's right to protect local business and to protect consumers. And people notice that Fred Meyer and QFC are owned by the Kroger company already, and there's not enough competition there - prices there are higher than they should be. You add in Albertsons to the mix, and that's even less competition. I think people understand that more competition helps bring prices down, it's good for consumers. More local ownership - good for consumers. And this is popular, right? I think the public likes it. What's interesting to me is the way this gets covered. There's an article in The Seattle Times today about Ferguson's lawsuit. And to read the body of the article, it makes it very clear that the public loves it, that there's a legitimate reason for Ferguson to sue to protect the particular needs of Washington businesses and Washington consumers - because our grocery market industry is not always the same as other states. And we need to have our attorney general in there fighting for our interests. People get that. The Federal Trade Commission under Lina Khan is doing a great job really finally reinvigorating antitrust law and taking on mergers like this. And she's fantastic. But the article opens with this weird frame, questioning whether this is all a political stunt and saying - Oh, well, Ferguson jumped out and filed a lawsuit before the FTC did. Maybe he's trying to undermine the FTC or going rogue. Maybe it's just a political stunt. Yet the rest of the article makes it super clear that that's not the case at all. The article shows that the FTC says - No, we can work with Washington. They don't seem to be worried about this. In fact, the FTC regularly works with attorneys general around the country in multi-state lawsuits, in partnership with the federal government. So it struck me as a case where the second two-thirds of that article was really useful, but the top of it seemed to be The Times going out of their way to try to spin this against Ferguson. And I think it's a real lesson to the State Democratic Party and to Ferguson's campaign that they cannot trust the media to give him a fair shake here in 2024. The media is going to be hostile. The media is going to try to take things that look potentially helpful for Ferguson and spin them against him. So they're going to have to be ahead of that game and prepare for that, as well as make sure they're doing their own comms, using social media really well to get the story out there. Because the public gets it - the public doesn't want to see Albertsons, Fred Meyer, QFC all owned by the same company. They know it's either going to raise higher prices, fewer staff in stores, or fewer stores outright. We've already seen some stores close across the region. You're going to get more of those bad outcomes. So thank you, Bob Ferguson, for stepping up. And Bob, watch your back, because the media is coming for you. [00:33:28] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, absolutely. This is a positive thing. This is consumer protection. This is what we ask him to do as our attorney general. We have seen the direction that things go when there's consolidation. There's a lot of people who order delivery now. I don't know if many people have been in stores lately, but it is a miserable experience because they've reduced staff to untenable amounts where you have to wait for someone to unlock half the thing or stand in a special section and a special line. It's just - this is the wrong direction that we're going in. We've already seen this as a result of consolidation. We don't want to see any more. [00:34:03] Robert Cruickshank: Yeah, and you can look at another act of consolidation that I wish someone had sued to stop, which is when Rite Aid bought Bartell Drugs in 2020. Everyone knows that's been a disaster. Bartell, locally owned store - you had great locally owned products for sale. You could go and get your prescription filled really quickly and easily. Once that merger happened, all of a sudden people's prescriptions got lost, lines got really long, took you hours to get your prescription filled. And then all of a sudden, stores started closing all over the place. Now Walgreens is closing stores because there's not a lot of competition. There's no incentive for them to keep these stores open. And now we're going to see the same things happen with grocery stores - those trends that are already kind of lurking, accelerating if this merger goes through. So kudos to Bob Ferguson, but he's got to watch out for the people who are coming for him, especially in the media. [00:34:52] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for listening to Hacks & Wonks on this Friday, January 19th, 2024. The producer of Hacks & Wonks is Shannon Cheng. Our insightful co-host today is the Chair of Sierra Club Seattle, longtime communications and political strategist Robert Cruickshank. You can find Robert on Twitter, or X, @cruickshank. You can follow Hacks & Wonks on Twitter. You can find me on all platforms - BlueSky, Threads, anything - @finchfrii. You can catch Hacks & Wonks on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts - just type "Hacks and Wonks" into the search bar. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get the full versions of our Friday week-in-review shows and our Tuesday topical show delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, leave a review wherever you listen. You can also get a full transcript of this episode and links to the resources referenced in the show at officialhacksandwonks.com and in the podcast episode notes. Thanks for tuning in - talk to you next time.

In 2020, chairman George D. Bartell said the sale of his 130-year-old family company was the only option. Regional operators like Bartell Drugs just couldn't compete in the pharmacy business anymore. But now, after acquiring Bartell, Rite Aid itself is in a deep hole. Since the acquisition, Rite Aid has closed 21 of 68 Bartell locations, along with some of its own stores. So why are pharmacies struggling to stay afloat?

Seattle sets an all time record for homicides, Bartell Drugs customers scramble to fill prescriptions, and the Cascades are about to get blasted with snow. It's our daily roundup of today's top stories from the KUOW newsroom, with host Paige Browning.

Italy moves towards banning cultivated meat production and Bryan explains why. Wannabe home invaders messed with the wrong house in Auburn. How does Israel negotiate with groups that are dedicated to its complete destruction? // Bryan makes the case that it's important for America to support Ukraine and Israel at the same time. // Rite-Aid and Bartell Drugs will close multiple stores around the northwest. Seattle high school football players suspended after texting about raping females. 

This week…Yet another Bartell Drugs is shutting down, one of the region's last 24-hour pharmacies.Recent tech graduates are moving to Seattle at the highest rate in the nation.And it's the official end of summer this weekend, did you check everything off your summer bucket list?Author Jodi-Ann Burey and KUOW Morning Edition Senior Producer Katie Campbell are here to break down the week.We can only make Seattle Now because listeners support us. Make the show happen by making a gift to KUOW: https://www.kuow.org/donate/seattlenowAnd we want to hear from you! Follow us on Instagram @SeattleNowPod, or leave us feedback online: https://www.kuow.org/feedback

Bartell Drugs to shut down 24-hour Lower Queen Anne store: 6th location closed in less than a year // The fire in the mercer encampment may have saved someone from a life of drugs // Mitch McConnell's brain broke again // Has NASCAR gone woke? // Judges releasing criminals including child rapists. Seattle stupid has spread to the rest of Washington - Washington State Representative, Travis Couture joins Ari to discuss the details // As Florida prepares for a hurricane, Biden tries to take credit after the Maui disaster // Is Amazon trying to hide the high sales numbers of the new book about Tucker Carlson? Chadwick Moore, author of TUCKER joins Ari to discuss the details // Terrorists at the border // Carmen Best and Harold Scoggins have now been named in the latest lawsuit against Seattle over the deadly autonomous zone - Evan Oshan joins Ari to discuss the details

With a palpable shift in Seattle's local dynamics, the iconic Bartell Drugs in Ballard is shuttering its doors, indicative of the growing challenges businesses face amidst increasing crime rates and rampant homelessness. Once a beloved part of the community, Bartell Drugs, nestled at 15th and Northwest Market Street, became a casualty to the persistent issues plaguing the city, notably shoplifting, assault on employees, and overall public disorder. The frequency of such incidents, eerily punctuated by an unsettling rise in homeless RV encampments nearby, inevitably nudged the longstanding establishment towards closure.As the homelessness crisis radiates beyond downtown Seattle, Ballard has become an unintended refuge for those estranged from the city core. A burgeoning suburban hub, Ballard now harbors a significant homeless population, accompanied by the inevitable proliferation of crime and disorder. The city's attempt to alleviate the downtown area has resulted in an unfavorable migration of problems into Ballard, an area ill-equipped to manage the ensuing turmoil. The city's seeming complacency in the face of mounting social challenges presents a dire question: who, or what, will be the next casualty in this snowballing crisis?As local businesses struggle to navigate the rising tide of social issues, Seattle's lack of decisive action is becoming increasingly glaring. The closure of Bartell Drugs serves as a stark wake-up call, underlining the urgency of addressing the pervasive crisis plaguing the city. As Seattle continues to grapple with these challenges, the voice of residents and businesses alike must not be stifled. It is through their collective concerns that solutions may emerge, paving the way for the city to regain its lost glory.#BartellClosure #SeattleHomelessnessCrisis #BallardConcernsSupport the show

Feliks Banel's guests on this episode of CASCADE OF HISTORY are Randy Dixon of Relight The Night, a neon preservation group in Pocatello, ID; Brandon Reynon, Director of the Puyallup Tribe's Historic Preservation Department and Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, on the Tribe's new mini-museum in Fife, WA; and Anthony Long of the Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI) in Seattle on their call for nominations for MOHAI's Everyday Hero Awards. Plus, Viewer Mail on Bartell Drugs, and vintage audio from the May 18, 1952 Paul Robeson concert at the Peace Arch in Blaine, WA. This LIVE broadcast of CASCADE OF HISTORY was originally presented at 8pm Pacific Time on Sunday, May 21, 2023 via SPACE 101.1 FM and streaming live via space101fm.org from studios at historic Magnuson Park – formerly Sand Point Naval Air Station - on the shores of Lake Washington in Seattle.

Join The Center Square's Regional Editor Jeremy Lott and Washington Reporters Brett Davis and Spencer Pauley as they discuss: Inslee: Washington's COVID-19 emergency to end Oct. 31. Ecology won't crunch cost of Washington copying California's new gas car sales ban. Seattle teachers rally as start of school is delayed. New omicron COVID-19 booster shots available in Washington state. Bartell Drugs to shut down in Seattle's Chinatown amid crime surge. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/washington-in-focus/support

Luke and Andrew react to the breaking news that Jeopardy! has officially announced its new hosts. Plural. Plus, Luke had a magical night at the Hollywood Bowl. And Seattle locals set Andrew straight about Bartell Drugs. 

Luke and Andrew react to the breaking news that Jeopardy! has officially announced its new hosts. Plural. Plus, Luke had a magical night at the Hollywood Bowl. And Seattle locals set Andrew straight about Bartell Drugs. 

Luke and Andrew react to the breaking news that Jeopardy! has officially announced its new hosts. Plural. Plus, Luke had a magical night at the Hollywood Bowl. And Seattle locals set Andrew straight about Bartell Drugs. 

We were contacted by Janet from Bartell Drugs and they wanted us to help them giveaway thousands of teddy bears to police & fire agencies!

4PM - Feliks Banel: Will anything change when Bartell Drugs isn’t local anymore? // Health care workers and long-term care facility residents should get Covid-19 vaccine first // Rachel Belle: No game days. No bars. The pandemic is forcing some men to realize they need deeper friendships // Your Home-Office Ergonomics Are Still a Mess — Do Something About It See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

6PM - Feliks Banel: Will anything change when Bartell Drugs isn’t local anymore? // Health care workers and long-term care facility residents should get Covid-19 vaccine first, CDC vaccine advisers say // Why the U.K. Approved a Coronavirus Vaccine First // The Rich Kids Who Want to Tear Down Capitalism // TikTok Teens Follow New Stars: Senior Citizens See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Feliks Banel on the future of Bartell Drugs, based on past acquisitions // Pam Falk live on the UK Pfizer vaccine // Dose of Kindness -- 10 years of "toy drive central" // Gee Scott on Wednesday Afternoon Football // Rachel Belle on the incoming White House cat/ home office ergonomics See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Feliks Banel and Mike Lewis bring you a great hour of turkey day entertainment, including the fate of Bartell Drugs, the Elephant Car Wish sign's removal, and Stan Boreson. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Good morning! I’m Imran Sheikh and it’s Thursday, October 8th. Here’s your local news from The Seattle Times. Today will be mostly cloudy with a high of 65. Tonight will be cloudy with a low of 56. Our top story is: After months of pandemic-related financial strain and years of uncertainty over its future, Bartell Drugs, one of the oldest companies in Washington state and one of the most familiar names in the Seattle business community, is being sold.

4PM - Bartell Drugs, a local, family-owned business for 130 years, to be sold to Rite Aid for $95 million // Let there be no doubt: With trophy No. 4, the Storm is headed for dynasty territory // Rachel Belle: Nick Cordero's Wife Amanda Kloots Responded to Trump's "Disgraceful" Coronavirus Tweet // Covid-19 will make college admissions even easier for the elite See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Craig Harlan, VP of Sales for Earth-Friendly Products, is an example of a supplier who has experienced the speed in which buyers are following up from ECRM's Virtual Sessions. Not only did he receive 33 follow up notifications from his meetings during our Pet Virtual Session, but one of those retailers, Bartell Drugs, already placed an order just days after the session wrapped up – and it wasn't just for his pet products, but for some other products as well! In this episode, ECRM VP of COntent Joseph Tarnowski speaks with Craig about his company and the products they offer, and how the pandemic has impacted their business – both from a sales and supply chain perspective as well as how it changed the way they engage with buyers. He also provides details on his ECRM Virtual Session experience and the benefits that virtual meetings will bring to the industry moving forward.

During the initial phase of the pandemic, essential items were considered to be things like food, hand sanitizer and of course, toilet paper. But as the stay-at-home orders began to span months, the definition of what was essential has shifted. Now it includes products that keep us occupied, that help us to work and learn from home, things that help us to prepare meals, and many of these products fall under the general merchandise umbrella. In this podcast, ECRM's Joseph Tarnowski speaks with Howie Cohen, General Merchandise Category Manager for Bartell Drugs, about how their consumers' shopping activity around general merchandise has changed over the past few months. They also discuss how the stay-at-home orders hae impacted Howie's day-to-day activities as a category manager, and the role virtual has played in them. And since he also participated in ECRM's recent Pet Virtual Session, we talk about his experience using the platform, and the opportunities it presents for him in sourcing products in other GM segments, as well. This is actually Joe's third interview with Howie, who is just an all-around awesome guy, and you'll not only find this discussion informative, but very entertaining, as well. Click here to read the blog post Click here to watch the video interview on YouTube Click here to see the list of ECRM's category-specific virtual sessions.

Hannah Kubiak, Communications Manager for Bartell Drugs gets us updated on all things Teddy Bear. First, to say this is now called: Operation Teddy Bear due to an expansion of reaching out to schools and counselors. Hannah also brings the good news that the time line has been extended--until Sunday April 12! What a great Easter gift, have our kids participate in donating teddy bear hugs to other kids! What has not changed is that Bartell Drugs matches each teddy bear purchased--a truly great deal! And considering there could be more need than ever this year, the goal to exceed the 2019 collection of 49,000 teddy bears is so understandable. This certainly is a great way to do 'something' when we might be at a loss of what to do! www.bartelldrugs.com

Skype training, Bill is a pessimist, is it is snowing or hailing (it was snowing), the mountain is out, Jean Godden, Mary is sick, we are distracted, Mary is back from London -> Italian Horn/Shamrock Tattoo -> London, setting off museum alarms, Bartell Drugs update, advertising, Bill panics, Stockton, mad cow, scooters -> catch phrase -> electric mall carts, Trump, valet parking, robbing old ladies, twitter is stupid, self-driving cars, dreams, bridges, Facebook, Presidents, echo cambers, guns, Olympics, Cool Runnings, don't come cryin' to me, chippendales, Ray Charles/BB King/Willie Nelson, Kelley's Hint List, paper towelling, bread update, chimney service man, oil boiler doors, liquid wax on bags, Umpire Pants Out

at 5:30am On Sunday Morning Magazine: The Teddy Bear Patrol! Kelsey Paige, Social Media and Event Manager for Bartell Drugs, and Warm's Catharine Hall--Leader of all the Teddy Bears cover the history--3 decades! Share the stories of how the bears have touched hearts young and old, and have healed. And they let us know that we can help in a big way all April by buying a bear at Bartells and the store will match the purchase. Build the bear collection faster, and meet the growing need for them. http://community.warm1069.com/teddy-bear-patrol/

at 5:30am On Sunday Morning Magazine: The Teddy Bear Patrol! Kelsey Paige, Social Media and Event Manager for Bartell Drugs, and Warm's Catharine Hall--Leader of all the Teddy Bears cover the history--3 decades! Share the stories of how the bears have touched hearts young and old, and have healed. And they let us know that we can help in a big way all April by buying a bear at Bartells and the store will match the purchase. Build the bear collection faster, and meet the growing need for them. http://community.warm1069.com/teddy-bear-patrol/

Several Bainbridge Island residents have opposed a controversial shopping development planned at High School Road and Highway 305. Protesters are against cutting the 800 trees necessary to build, and have held a boycott pledge, candlelight vigils, demonstrations, and a Bainbridge High School graduate grabbed national headlines by sitting on a platform in an evergreen tree in protest. Ohio-based developer Visconsi received approval to begin clear cutting the land earlier this month, marking the first step towards construction of a 62,000-square-foot shopping center to include a Bartell Drugs, restaurants, a Key Bank branch, and professional services and health care facilities. Opponents claim Bainbridge has enough shopping, and the rural nature of the island is being overrun by corporate interests that threaten long term local businesses. Supporters say private property owners who comply with the legal process have the right to develop their land as they please, and more businesses drive competition, more options, and lower prices. On August 20, the process of cutting the trees began - but the debate continues. Join us as we discuss pros and cons, as well as what happens now.