Who doesn't want WinCo store to open in North Seattle?

Do North Seattle residents want a discount grocery store?

Many say yes, but a mysterious group claiming to represent neighbors has made it clear that it will fight WinCo's plan to open a location on Aurora Avenue North.

The saga began two years ago when WinCo filed plans to remodel the former Sam's Club building and reconfigure the parking lot. Excitement buzzed online over the possibility of Seattle's first WinCo, cheaper groceries and a business finally filling the space.

But the plan hit a roadblock last month when a hearing examiner overturned the city's determination that the project would have no significant environmental impacts. The decision came in response to an appeal by Lake Washington Working Families.

Now, the discount grocery chain is pushing back in court, trying to overturn the hearing examiner's decision.

WinCo did not respond to requests for comment.

The legal quagmire over an administrative procedure has erupted into a public drama, complete with hate mail, Reddit sleuths, petitions and statewide headlines. For many Seattleites, it's raised questions about whether procedural tools intended for public oversight can be weaponized by outside interests.

On Thursday, several neighbors told The Seattle Times that they missed walking just feet away to an adjacent Sam's Club for groceries. But since the store closed eight years ago, they've lived next to its 3.3-acre empty shell and the homeless encampments they say the vacancy has attracted.

"I think no one wants it to stay the way it is," longtime homeowner George Dicks said from his front yard Thursday as city workers emptied sewage from a trailer parked next to the former Sam's Club.

Other nearby residents said the neighborhood has suffered from crime, public drug use and property damage since the Sam's Club closed and plans for Costco to open there fell through.

So when WinCo announced plans to move into the building at 13550 Aurora Ave. N., neighbors generally supported the idea - they could once again walk just across the street for groceries, and perhaps the new business would deter camping, they thought.

But then, an unfamiliar group stepped in on their behalf, arguing the neighborhood would be harmed by the WinCo.

Lake Washington Working Families

More than a year after WinCo filed its plans for the site, Lake Washington Working Families claimed the city's environmental analysis of the project was inadequate and required further review. A WinCo on Aurora Avenue North would have major traffic impacts, the group's appeal said, releasing pollutants into local bodies of water.

That confused some neighbors. The store sits along a commercial strip off Highway 99, one of the busiest streets in Seattle, and bears more signs of decay than ecological sensitivity.

But even more puzzling was the group itself.

According to its appeal, Lake Washington Working Families is a group of King County residents who live, work and traverse near the planned WinCo location and would be adversely affected by its opening. But the group has no digital footprint, no identifiable leadership and no registration with the state.

The group's only other public appearance was made when it similarly challenged a Renton WinCo last year.

Theories on who is behind the group have exploded online.

Lake Washington Working Families' Portland-based attorney, Karl Anuta, said he has endured a barrage of hateful emails and phone calls regarding the group's actions against the two WinCos. Members of the group refuse to reveal their identity or talk to the media out of fear they'll be harassed, he said.

While Renton's hearing examiner dismissed the appeal, Seattle's hearing examiner gave the group a partial win, nullifying the city's environmental analysis.

Seattle Hearing Examiner Ryan Vancil wrote in his decision last month that, although the group failed to fully prove the WinCo would cause major environmental harm, the city's environmental analysis was flawed.

Because the building has been empty for several years, the environmental impact of the potential WinCo shouldn't be measured against the site's old use as a busy grocery store but as a long-vacant building, he argued.

WinCo's attorneys filed an appeal in King County Superior Court last week, arguing the city did analyze existing conditions and that Lake Washington Working Families shouldn't have been allowed to appeal the city's analysis.

Anuta, the lawyer representing Lake Washington Working Families, said he was surprised to see WinCo take the hearing examiner's decision to court.

"I'm not clear why they're spending money on court fees instead of just going and doing the analysis," Anuta said. "Are they afraid of finding traffic counts that will show something? Are they afraid of finding environmental impacts?"

Who's behind the group?

This isn't the first time such groups have blocked WinCos. In addition to the case in Renton, a similar controversy flared up a decade ago in Moses Lake after a group, A Stronger Moses Lake, appealed a Moses Lake Planning Commission decision to allow a WinCo. The appeal went all the way to Grant County Superior Court but ultimately wasn't successful.

Some community members accused unions of being behind A Stronger Moses Lake, according to the Columbia Basin Herald.

Similar speculation of union involvement has swirled around Lake Washington Working Families. Although WinCo is employee-owned, meaning workers earn company stock and financial equity in the company, its workers are not represented by a union.

Lake Washington Working Families' lone public member, a shift manager at a nearby Safeway, recently died. He had testified in the hearing examiner case that he learned about the project through his union, UFCW 3000, and was contacted by Anuta shortly after.

UFCW 3000 spokesperson Rich Smith said the labor union isn't behind Lake Washington Working Families and doesn't financially support it.

"When we support efforts to anchor our neighborhoods with union grocery stores that provide good jobs and fresh food, we do so loudly and proudly, as we did when we opposed an attempt to establish a New Seasons on Mercer Island," Smith said in an emailed statement.

No matter who is behind Lake Washington Working Families, some Seattle residents are still frustrated that a WinCo cannot easily fill the empty space on Highway 99 - especially at a time when grocery affordability is top of mind.

Capitol Hill resident Alexandria Solus said she drives around 25 minutes to Edmonds several times a month to shop at her closest WinCo. Despite the rising cost of gas, she said, what she saves on the discounted groceries makes the trek worth it as she struggles with a tight budget.

Having a WinCo in North Seattle would cut her travel time nearly in half, she said. But she fears WinCo will give up trying to open the new location in response to the recent setbacks.

"I got very almost emotional because I'm like, ‘How can you be blocking one of the few actually affordable stores - going into an empty storefront? What's the interest here?'" she said.

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This story was originally published May 8, 2026 at 4:52 PM.