With regard to Grocery Outlet, wouldn't it be a locally owned franchise? If so, that should lessen concerns about it being another chain store in Sebastopol. I shop from Andy's to Fircrest, hitting a few stores in between, probably 5 days a week. I'm happy to buy local, but kind of resent all the flyers posted at each store checkout stand talking about Sebastopol already having too many stores for a town of 7,400. Along with probably 50,000 other people, I live outside city limits and rely on Sebastopol's store for most of my daily needs, so let's not pretend that the store-to-shopper ratio here is anything close to what Andy's, Pacific Market, or Fircrest say it is. (I especially have a bone to pick with Fircrest whose prices have gone up on several items I used to regularly purchase there over the years - even Oliver's sells the same or comparable items for less!) Any store that can offer lower prices on a few goods for those of us not making 6-figure salaries is welcome in my book.
As usual, marvelous coverage, Laura.
With regard to Grocery Outlet, wouldn't it be a locally owned franchise? If so, that should lessen concerns about it being another chain store in Sebastopol. I shop from Andy's to Fircrest, hitting a few stores in between, probably 5 days a week. I'm happy to buy local, but kind of resent all the flyers posted at each store checkout stand talking about Sebastopol already having too many stores for a town of 7,400. Along with probably 50,000 other people, I live outside city limits and rely on Sebastopol's store for most of my daily needs, so let's not pretend that the store-to-shopper ratio here is anything close to what Andy's, Pacific Market, or Fircrest say it is. (I especially have a bone to pick with Fircrest whose prices have gone up on several items I used to regularly purchase there over the years - even Oliver's sells the same or comparable items for less!) Any store that can offer lower prices on a few goods for those of us not making 6-figure salaries is welcome in my book.
I was just reading the candidates responses to the Generation Housing questionnaire on- go figure- housing! https://generationhousing.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/2026_0928_Sebastopol_Candidate-Questionnaire_ENG.pdf
Thank you for this recap!