Tacoma’s Grocery Trust Fails to Kill Public Market
After intense lobbying from the Retail Grocers' association to dismantle the D Street market, citizens and the Central Labor Council force the city council to back down and preserve the farmers' market.
The public market will stay. The battle of the Times for the people against the dictates of the grocery trust was crowned with success last night and the council rescinded its action of a week ago and voted that the market and the sheds on D street should stay. Councilman Giblett, who stood for the market all the time, led the fight for the retention of the sheds last night when petitions from 2,209 patrons and all the property owners along the street were presented to the council. These petitions asked that the sheds remain, as to remove them meant death for the great D street institution. Rankin, who was recently in the grocery business, came out openly and condemned the whole market, declaring it was hurting the grocery men, which is the reason he wanted it killed. The confession was what the people have known all the time: the real motive power behind the whole movement against the market is the grocery trust.
“The real motive power behind the whole movement against the market is the grocery trust. It is hurting their business.”
This 1909 struggle over the 'D Street' market (likely near the present-day Theater District/Old Town intersection) illustrates the long-standing tension in Tacoma between corporate grocery interests and small-scale, local farmers' markets. It mirrors modern debates over public space, food sovereignty, and the influence of business lobbies on urban development.
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