Living in Downtown Seattle with No Car (apartment, home)

[Rumina]

My boyfriend and I recently moved to downtown Seattle. We live close to the edge of north-east downtown (around Terry and Stewart). We own no car and the closest grocery store to us is Whole Foods but it is amazingly expensive for what you get. While Pike's Place is great, it can be a bit of a walk with a lot of groceries and as I understand it more for tourists. Are there any suggestions for places to frequent within downtown Seattle for day-to-day living?

[SitoUK]

it's the same old dilemma. Most grocery stores in Central Areas appear to be ridiculously expensive. There's a QFC on Denny Way and a Safeway in Lower Queen Ann but they're not exactly cheap either. Trader Joe's is better value for money but you probably have to bus there. There's one at 17th and Madison and Capitol Hill where you should get to easily on the 8 bus but obviously you don't want to get a bus each time you buy a box of cereals. I do most of my daily shopping at QFC, just because it's close to home but from time to time I get a zipcar and make a big shopping trip to Walmart. It's well worth it, especially for cleaning products, washing powder etc...

[Vinylly]

Just move to a location near a grocery store, problem solved. You might try Red Apple in the central area. However Saveway and QFC are your two major supermarkets and you'll just have to accept their prices or go somewhere else. Fred Myer in Ballard might be cheaper.

[rabagley]

Originally Posted by Rumina

My boyfriend and I recently moved to downtown Seattle. We live close to the edge of north-east downtown (around Terry and Stewart). We own no car and the closest grocery store to us is Whole Foods but it is amazingly expensive for what you get. While Pike's Place is great, it can be a bit of a walk with a lot of groceries and as I understand it more for tourists. Are there any suggestions for places to frequent within downtown Seattle for day-to-day living?

Get a cheap, durable bicycle and put some saddlebags on it. A front basket will help too, and you'll need an okay lock and a sidestand. You can carry three bags of groceries pretty comfortably on a bicycle and riding 3-5 miles for groceries is a great and free cardio workout. 3-5 miles will get you to at least a dozen stores.

Remember to balance heavy things like milk and juice when you load up the bike. It will be obvious and annoying when you've done a bad job of balancing out the load. Just stop and repack things and you'll be fine.

[sean98125]

First, it is Pike Place Market, not "Pike's Place".

Second, just get on a bus at Convention Place station, ride to the University Street station and go to Kress IGO. Or get on a bus and go to the QFC at Broadway & Pike. Or place an order with Amazon Fresh. The bus ride to Kress would be free, and if you don't have a car odds are you have a bus pass anyway.

You can also sign up for a Zipcar account and get a car once or twice a month for big shopping trips.

[Rumina]

Thanks Sito and rabagley. The apartment has Zipcars onsite so that is something we are doing. The bike thing, might be a bit trickier for us since I'm deathly scared of riding my bike alongside cars. Anyways, I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't missing any places closer to us, even though a google search didn't come up with anything. I have a tendency to randomly want to make certain dishes and be missing just one ingredient. Your advice was much appreciated.