Kennewick Real Estate Blog

Who knew that an innocent blog post about Kennewick slurpees would bring out Winnipeg’s finest for what turned into a fairly heated argument about a super-cool drink? Seriously, it’s looking like a low-level political campaign in the comments on that post. Crazy.

Anyway, there’s apparently some debate over who gets to call themselves the Slurpee Capital of the World. And the folks at 7-11 corporate haven’t really helped things along, either. So, as best I can tell, here’s the truth:

• Winnipeg, which has multiple 7-11 stores, sells the most Slurpee cups in the world.
• Kennewick, which only has one 7-11, sells the most slurpees in terms of dollar sales.

Well, duh. Of course a city with lots of 7-11s and no other places to get food is going to sell more cups than a city with one 7-11 and lots of nice restaurants. (Cedars, anyone?) Hardly seems fair to compare the sales of several stores against the sales of one, but maybe that’s how they do things in Canada.

Lest those feisty Canucks call me a homer, I’m getting my information from two media sources: one in Winnipeg and one in Kennewick. So there. It’s an apples-and-oranges thing. And a Slurpee thing.

Guess we’ll just have to wait until 2009 and settle this thing once and for all, and hopefully with an equal comparison.

KNDU ran an interesting news story a few days back about the overall growth of the Tri-Cities economy — when you talk job growth, we have the fastest growing region in the state, and the fifth-fastest in the entire country. That’s great news.

Of particular note is that growth in Kennewick is benefiting the Tri-Cities economy as a whole:

Part of the rapid development is in Kennewick’s Southridge area and near Columbia Center Mall.

Developers say that the success of new restaurants like P.F. Changs and Famous Dave’s are helping them bring in even more restaurants. They are trying to get chains like Chilis, Macaroni Grill, and T.G.I. Friday’s to come to Kennewick by doing presentations to spark interests.

Personal note: If we ever get a Chilis in Kennewick (or anywhere in the Tri-Cities), the McGee family will go bankrupt within a year.

Food seems to be the most common theme in this round of Kennewick business updates, but there’s also some health and home news thrown in the mix, too.

• Carmine’s, an Italian restaurant, will open later this month or in July. It’ll be located at the intersection of Fruitland Street and First Avenue. The restaurant will serve lunch and dinner.
• Londardo’s Gourmet Bakerie is now open at 1505 W. Kennewick Ave. It’s across from the Tri-City Country Club golf course.
• Famous Dave’s, a barbecue restaurant, is now open right behind the Columbia Center Mall, next to PF Chang’s. This is part of a well-known chain of barbecue restaurants. I think we’ll be checking it out one of these days.
• Tri-Cities Cancer Center has an expansion project underway at its main facility on Deschutes Avenue. The project will add more than 25,000 square feet to the center.
• Real Deals, a new home furniture decor store, will open on June 12th. It’ll be located at 11 E. Kennewick Avenue in downtown Kennewick.

If you have any Kennewick business news we can post on the blog, don’t hesitate to contact us!

Betcha didn’t know this: Kennewick is the Slurpee® Capital of the World.

It’s true: The 7-11 store at 3606 W. Clearwater Avenue has been the No. 1 seller of slurpees on earth for six of the past nine months. And they were the No. 1 slurpee seller in the U.S. in 2007.

The owner, Don Mariotto, tells the Herald that he’s starting a campaign to secure the No. 1 worldwide spot over a 12-month period. He’s giving away free t-shirts:

The first 300 people who buy a 40-ounce Slurpee from each of the six Tri-Cities stores gets a free T-shirt with the campaign logo on it.

The campaign is designed to promote all six stores because of new equipment at the other stores and continued growth of local Slurpee sales — the Tri-Cities ranks 23rd of 762 markets in the U.S.

Who knew that Slurpees were so popular in the Tri-Cities??!! Crazy stuff.

Anyway, if you want to visit the No. 1 Slurpee seller, here’s a Google map to their Kennewick store:

but they still do a great job at just detailing, too!

I have a friend who used to sell cars, and he always gets his cars detailed at Sunshine Polishing in Kennewick. I tried them out the other day and the manager, James, shuttled me to my destination (talk about service!) after I had dropped off my car. We were talking during the drive and I discovered that they’ve decided to delve into auto service as well; oil changes, etc. I asked James if he worried about diluting their product. They’re known for their excellent detailing, but if they started adding auto service to the mix, did they run the risk of people saying, “Well, now they’re spreading themselves too thin.” ? James said the same guys who have been polishing and detailing for years are still doing what THEY know best, and the auto service technicians are doing what THEY do best, so there should be no negative results as they expand their services.

My car is three years old. During those three years I’ve driven countless clients around and my kids have aged from 3 to 6 and 7 to 10. Talk about wear and tear on a car! Imagine your car in similar circumstances. Now imagine you’ve been the only one to clean the interior with a hand-held vacuum and some paper towels and the local touchless car wash handles the exterior. Got that picture in your head? Good. Now see what Sunshine Polishing did - oh, and I had them change the oil, too!