63 reasons why. One year ago this month, I stepped out of a career as an executive for tech companies and resumed the role of weekly columnist.
Neither decision was made lightly. Yet I’d done all I wanted (or cared) to do in the education technology industry, and I was six-months new to Bellingham. On the side, I had kept writing for national and regional publications over the years following a first career in journalism.
Executive Editor Ron Judd reasoned that a regular column in Cascadia Daily News would be a fine way for me to combine my journalistic skills and business knowledge, plus learn about my new home (bonus: filling a 1,000-word hole in each week’s paper).
Now, more than 60 Business Matters and Places & Things columns later, I’ve taken note of five common threads woven through the business fabric of the region. I think they’re worth sharing — not just with newbies but also with longtimers for whom the threads may have become invisible — before I lose my new-eyes perspective.
The five, in no particular order:
Panera Bread prepares to open in Bellingham’s Sunset Square in March 2023. (Frank Catalano/Cascadia Daily News)
1) We adore small businesses — but don’t mess with our national retailers.
Locally owned stores and restaurants visibly drive central Bellingham (with its very active Downtown Bellingham Partnership), the historic Fairhaven neighborhood, Ferndale’s core and key chunks of other communities throughout the region. Intensely local credit union WECU even did a video series highlighting them last holiday season.
But nothing seems to generate unsubdued excitement more than a national chain realizing that this corner of Washington state actually exists.
Consider the long lines outside the long-delayed Bellingham Panera Bread when it opened in March and the excitement over a new Costco car wash.
Now Chick-fil-A is proposing — in the barely an egg, pre-application phase — a restaurant across from Bellis Fair and the happy clucking is near deafening. (With exceptions: One doubter posted in a Bellingham Facebook group, “Can anyone explain what is so amazingly exciting about a chunk of chicken on a bun with a couple pickles?” Nearly 300 comments followed.)
Conversely, from the social media chatter you’d have thought that the closure of the Sonic Drive-In franchise in Ferndale and the bankruptcy failures of Bed, Bath and Beyond in Bellingham and Burlington were extinction-level events.
Then again, where else can you enthusiastically hate-shop? Amazon? Nobody sees you.
Stores and shoppers in Bellingham’s Bellis Fair mall in January 2023. (Hailey Hoffman/Cascadia Daily News)
2) Regional malls here are still alive and in the midst of a kind of transformation.
It probably won’t be on the level of finding a secret Russian base beneath the “Stranger Things” Starcourt Mall. But the region’s two traditional indoor malls — Bellis Fair in Bellingham and Cascade Mall in Burlington — are morphing. Both have changed hands in less than a year.
What happens in each will likely affect the balance of retail in Whatcom and Skagit counties. Bellis Fair’s new owners have already said they’re encouraging local businesses to open a second location in the mall and finding non-traditional tenants (the Bellingham Public Library is just one).
Cascade Mall was quite literally dead inside since the early pandemic shuttering of the interior-facing stores. Its April purchase — by the same buyer who picked up the former outlet mall nearby (rebadged to Burlington Plaza) may lead to a similar rebalancing of area retail.
Lines of cars heading to the Peace Arch and Canada in Blaine in 2022. (Andy Bronson/Cascadia Daily News)
3) Canadians are crucial.
It may be difficult to fully appreciate if you live further south than Skagit. Or when you can’t find a parking space at Trader Joe’s in Bellingham or a short gas line at the northernmost Costco in the contiguous U.S.
Canadian dollars count. A lot.
That under-the-hood impact on retail and tourism, especially in Whatcom County, is immense. Repeatedly in interviews about Bellis Fair spending, downtown Bellingham shopping, Bellingham International Airport travel, even Skagit Valley Tulip Festival attendance, the contribution of British Columbia buyers bubbled up.
It was never the sole important factor. But it was a factor. So much so, that many eyes are on the Whatcom-B.C. border crossings this summer to see if passenger vehicle traffic will again rise to pre-pandemic levels.
Superfeet Vice President of Global Operations Derek Schauer with the popular green insoles in September 2022. (Hailey Hoffman/Cascadia Daily News)
4) The global firms that call Northwest Washington home aren’t always loud about it.
The five downtown Bellingham buildings housing Faithlife. The Ferndale headquarters, and product assembly site, of Superfeet. The Blaine manufacturing facility for Nature’s Path.
All are multinational brands, some with a low-ish profile locally. I hadn’t realized Richmond, British Columbia-based Nature’s Path has a major U.S. facility in Whatcom County until I read the mouse print on a cereal box. After a Superfeet company profile appeared, I heard from several readers who didn’t know the off-the-shelf insole pioneer had taken its first steps nearby.
I expect there are more relatively quiet global players, especially in manufacturing, that I’ll discover. It’s always fascinating to find that giants walk and work among us.
Rows of blueberry bushes survive the winter at Bow Hill Blueberries in February 2023. (Hailey Hoffman/Cascadia Daily News)
5) We love our agriculture but don’t want to love it to death.
The deliberate pace of Skagit County over its agritourism policy changes, underway for two-and-a-half years, is meatless sausage-making that can be painful to watch.
It’s more understandable if you think of agriculture as both a significant source of local income as well as the human-cultivated portion of the region’s natural beauty. No one (apparently) knowingly wants to mess up either in pursuit of RV stays, tasting rooms or wedding venues.
Agriculture land use policy is the boring-but-solid support underneath every farm-to-table restaurant, any visitor or local who enjoys Lynden’s Northwest Raspberry Festival or Burlington’s Berry Dairy Days and all forms of tulip tourism.
Agriculture’s importance here is not limited to one county or type of company. How much agriculture-related development or expansion is too much has created a business tension that likely will never be fully resolved, only adjusted.
A draft of Frank Catalano’s “lessons learned” column sits marked up with notes and thoughts on his desk. (Hailey Hoffman/Cascadia Daily News)
Beyond these five observations, I’ve learned a lot more — about subjects including craft breweries, coffee roasters, outdoors product makers and group restaurateurs. Too much to include in this single recap of throughlines.
But as I learn, I write. And I hope you’ll continue to read and respond as I do.
Places & Things
Lummi Seafood Market at 4920 Rural Ave. in Ferndale has announced its first canned salmon product line, Salmon Woman. The retail store adjacent to Interstate 5 at exit 260 said the salmon is “locally wild harvested sockeye salmon (otherwise known as ‘Seki,’ in the Lummi language)” and is available in 6-ounce cans in either “original” or “jalapeño” flavor.
(For the latest Places & Things, check here throughout the week.)
Frank Catalano’s column appears Wednesdays. Email: frankcatalano@cascadiadaily.com; Twitter @FrankCatalano.
