— पाँच हजार छह सौ चौहत्तर —

Gabby is on a huge vacation right now, mostly in Greece, with her husband Nick and her mom. It's nearing a close; she's expected back to the office on Monday, but she's been on PTO all last week and this week. But, I had to text her today because of huge news we got at work today. The same thing happened when we got the news that we'd be closing the Downtown store, which I knew she'd want to know immediately so I texted her. I think maybe she's in Rome right now? She texted me a photo in the middle of our exchanges this morning.

Anyway I'll get right to it: we are re-opening Downtown! Sort of. It will re-open as our first-ever "small format store," so it will only take up 6,500 square feet of the total 17,500 it used to occupy.

The rest of the space will become our new Central Office location!

Only a couple of days ago we all, in the office, got an Outlook calendar invite to a meeting this morning at 10:00, which was titled "2025 Strategy Update." I don't think any of us really thought much of what that might infer. I certainly didn't.

I can tell you I had no expectations, going into that meeting, of getting news that momentous. Krish, the CEO, led the meeting, and he opened with the news about reopening Downtown as a small-format stores. My internal reaction was: Oh. Okay. Cool, that kind of makes sense. It was immediately couched as a way to help offset the fact that we are still beholded to the lease on that space, the rent for which was deemed actually cheaper than continuing to run a full-scale store and pay the rent. We closed that store because they could find no path to profitability there, and Krish said very early on in this meeting that this really hasn't changed. But, opening a smaller format scale with far lower operating costs could help offset the cost of being beholden to the lease.

Then came the twist: that we would be filling up the rest of that space, which is about half the size of our current office (which is mostly empty on most days because of the new-normal of people adopting the hybrid work model).

My jaw actually dropped a little. Once the minor shock began to subside, it gave me space to steadily realize how much I like this idea. For a multitude of reasons, it's kind of a win-win scenario.

There was a lot of questions, of course, and that was what most of the hour of that meeting was dedicated to, after maybe 15 minutes of information dump. I did ask the first question: How long has this been being explored as an option? Krish gave a very nice answer to this, and started by saying that when the closure announcement occurred (the store closed in January; the announcement was last fall, specifically November 1), a woman in the Deli actually came up to him and asked, "Why can't we just keep the Deli open?" Krish said this was really the germ of this idea, which then—and now I am paraphrasing—evolved over time and they explored what the options were.

I don't know how long it's been a finalized, done deal, but they did mention during the meeting that emails would be going out shortly and that they would be sending out media press releases today. And indeed, they never waste any time after finally informing staff of news like this: the All Store & Office Staff email announcement went out at 11:01—one minute after that meeting officially ended. By 11:40, there was a Member email sent out with the information, linking to a public web page with more detail.

— पाँच हजार छह सौ चौहत्तर —

— पाँच हजार छह सौ चौहत्तर —

So. Let's go through the questions that I had, and what their answers were.

1. As already stated, my first question was how long this has been explored as an option, which in one way or another was basically since the store closed in January. Even though I didn't get any specifics as to when they started looking into this as a viable idea, I was still satisfied with the answer Krish provided.

2. I spoke up near the end of the hour, not to ask a question but to share a comment. I will do my best to share it here exactly how I said it: "This isn't a question so much as a comment. And I have no idea whether I was in the minority here, but I have never worked in any other physical space that I loved so much, so ever since there's been talk about moving, I've had some anxiousness about it, having no idea whether it would feel like some kind of massive downgrade. But I don't think I could have thought of a better move; I'm thrilled by this as an alternate idea."

This got a more notable reaction that I was even expecting, possibly more than anything anyone else said or asked. There was audible relief, I think largely because of how I began my statement; there were people actually saying "Aw!"; there was even a smattering of applause. Krish responded to this with even more detail, and expressed gratitude for what I said, as did Dana, the head of HR at the end of the meeting. There was a definitive shift in the room in this moment, even though others had already expressed excitement about this news. But I wanted to represent, at least myself if not others who felt the same way, the people who really love this office space, and what the prospect of this move means to them.

There actually are so many positive things about this. What Krish probably thinks of as the most positive is the one I am most inclined to downplay: that we need another space that "better reflects our values," a phrase Krish in particular repeats on a regular basis. This is in response to the number of office staff who resent how nice this office is, with its spectacular panoramic views of Elliott Bay and downtown, and its beautifully designed interior. This came up more than once even when Kate was CEO and spearheaded this move, and she always responded with how we got all the office furniture at a discount, and our lease was at a discounted rate. None of that changes the optics among store staff, who I am frankly inclined to dismiss as being crybabies about it—office and retail spaces are just different, period—but, if this move helps foster a more positive relationship between store and office staff, even I will concede that is a positive thing.

There is much more than that, however. It has been decades since the Central Office shared space with one of the stores, and now it will. This has the potential to have a fantastically symbiotic relationship: benefits for the store; benefits for office staff, both professionally (with staff in business spaces right next to each other) and personally (many office staff will be able to walk right next door for a lunch from the Deli).

And that brings me to . . .

3. I actually asked this question in a follow-up "Team Huddle" meeting Dave hosted, in the same conference room as the all-Office meeting (which itself was hybrid, several of us in-person and several of us on Teams). With the office space being cut in half—we were told the square footage will be 12,000; the figure I have for the current office is 26,000—most of the desks will become floating desks, used by whoever happens to be in the office that day. I asked about the few of us who currently come to the office five days a week: right now that's just Benny, who works in Deli, and me. Would we also have to use floating desks (and by implication potentially have a different location depending on the day), or would we still get a dedicated space?

Dave seemed fairly confident that those of us who work in-office every day will still get a fixed, dedicated space. Gabby has already told me she will advocate for this for me whenever we do move to a new office. So I'm feeling pretty okay about that right now.

4. In the "Team Huddle" meeting, I also asked: "I have a question that is kind of odd, totally unimportant, and a little self-involved." Erik, who was sitting in front of me, chuckled and said, "That was a lot." Sometimes I'm a lot, okay! (I didn't say that.) I continued, "I live only about a mile from that location. Does ayone else live closer?"

Beth piped in that she lives in 2nd and Wall. That's Belltown, technically the same neighborhood as this current office. "That might be closer," I said. I just mapped this, and Beth will be a 0.9-mile walk to Rainier Square Tower. And I will be . . . a 1.2-mile walk. Beth wins! Goddammit. I wanted to win!

— पाँच हजार छह सौ चौहत्तर —

I have other, personal reasons for loving this move. If I could be the one to choose, and none of the other needs and economic or social pressures were a factor, I think I would still opt to stay right here. But there's a ton that will be convenient for me about this, not least of which is shaving more than a mile off my commute. It's going to make walking, cycling, or even taking public transit easier. I may even take Light Rail, as Capitol Hill Station is only half a mile from home and Univeristy Street Station—excuse me, the newly renamed Symphony Station—is all of a block and a half from there. I'll need to look further into this, but that may actually be the most officient transit option, even including busses (although to be fair the bus stop on Pine is only about three blocks away, not the hugest difference).

There's also the fact that . . . I fucking love Rainier Square Tower! I would die to work in a high-floor skyscraper office, but even being on the ground floor, I'll be working in a fucking skyscraper, something I never, ever thought would be possible working for PCC. I'll have to see if I can work any angles to get access to any higher-floor views, but we'll see. That aside, that whole block is occupied by both Rainier Square Tower (Seattle's second-tallest building since topping out in 2019: it's 58 floors and 850 ft tall) and Rainier Tower (the famous building designed by World Trade Center architect Minoru Yamasaki, with its sloped-in pedestal), and in between them, on the third level above the street but accessed through the lobbies, is the wonderful public space that is the Rainier Square Terrace.

Laney and I have already done a couple of our day-drinking, park "Happy Hours" there, and are sure to do more in the future. I'll probably be spending a lot more time there now! Shortly after I post this, I'm going to email Merchandising with some of these tidbits, including the fact that there is a pedestrial tunnel, specifically called the Skinner Hall Concourse, which allows for movement from Rainier Square to Union Square two blocks to the east without ever going outside; and via that route you can also get to the Convention Center one block further east without ever having to use the street.

— पाँच हजार छह सौ चौहत्तर —

There's probably a lot more I could say about this. Particularly about how many city officals already know about and are thrilled about this, especially given how many people have cited the closure of the Downtown PCC as emblematic as the "death" of Downtown. Krish even said the Mayor texted him this morning. But anyway I need to post this and try to get some actual work done.

Krish did come by just a minute ago while I was writing this post. "Thank you for what you said," he said. "I think it went to the heart of what a lot of us were feeling." I was tempted to ask him to be more specific, but I decided not to, and just thanked him.

"I hope you liked the cupcake."

I had, indeed, returned from the "Team Huddle" meeting to find a mini cupcake on my desk. It was ideed plenty tasty. "Oh, that was from you?" I asked. Krish chuckled as he walked away.

— पाँच हजार छह सौ चौहत्तर —

[posted 1:11 pm]

Above: my favorite artifact at Titanic: The Exhibition. It was the one thing in there that could not possibly be more Matthew-coded. Back when my Birth Week theme was "Boating & Waterfronts" (2019), I shared the length of all the vessels whenever I could—and compared that to the height of buildings turned on their sides!

What was the tallest building in the world in 1912, anyway? The Woolworth Building in New York City: completed 1912, 791 ft tall, 55 floors, a record not beat until 1930. (This excludes the Eiffel Tower in Paris, built 1889 and 906 ft fall, categorized separately as a "tower" and not a "building.") The length of the Titanic was 882 ft.

Anyway. I did not post a regular Daily Lunch Update (DLU) earlier today for two reasons. First, too many things kept coming up to divert my attention all morning, which was very annoying, with a level of stress only exacerbated by a stupid text argument I had with Shobhit about whether we'll ever get another cat. He's making bonkers arguments steeped in wildly illogical anthropomorphism and a refusal to understand that cats don't die of depression and neither did ours. To be fair, he's coming from a place of pain that he's expressing in a different way because it's still too soon and he misses them. Still, by the time noon rolled around, I went out on the patio to read a book instead of trying to work on a draft of a post, because I truly needed a genuine break, in spite of the fact that I would not be working all afternoon.

Which brings me to the next reason: we had our "Department Social" today, the kind of thing we once thought was committed to being done once a quarter—and the last time we did one was last summer. One thing or another kept postponing the idea: a holiday outing was precluded by the closure of the Downtown store; the winter idea of an outing to the Seattle Art Museum was precluded by the threat of a strike among union workers at stores; further postponements occurred to one budgetary reason or another, and here we are.

I should make more of an effort to research ideas I can put forth for outings. It can't be that hard, the size of our group (23, I think) notwithstanding. Having ideas to begin with seems to be a big part of the challenge, and people like Dave or Justine always seem too busy to spend much time brainstorming. I mean, we all are. But this is important to me, so it may be one thing I'm actually willing to put some effort into outside of work hours.

Gabby worked the morning at home and planned to drive in for this. Amy sat it out because she had already gone not very long ago. So, Gabby drove to the office first and picked me up. Kevin had come over to my desk at one point to ask if I knew exactly where the exhibition is located so he could figure out what bus to take. I told him I was sure Gabby would be happy to give him a ride, which he accepted.

There was another point where Mackenzie came by my desk and asked if either Brandy (who sits behind me, the few days she's in the office) or I wanted to share an Uber with her. I told her Gabby had said she had room for two more, and Mackenzie meandered away, presumably to see if anyone else wanted to take up Gabby on the offer. And then, several people actually decided to walk the 1.4 miles down the waterfront to the location: Justine, Tracy, Dave, Mackenzie—they all walked. This was kind of funny to me because at first Gabby's suggestion was to park at the office and then we walk together, and when I told her that although it was a fine walk for me, it might be farther than she'd want to walk—she then changed her mind and said she would drive us.

Kevin has a prosthetic leg, so it would take like twice as long for him to walk anyway. In the end Gabby just drove him and me. We were among the first to arrive; I think I only saw Steven sitting right inside the door when we got there. Kevin and I waited outside until the walkers arrived, but after Gabby went in to use the bathroom, she hung inside the entrance with Steven, and then Adrienne, until we all went inside.

After having seen the exhibition, I have somewhat mixed feelings about it. I have been deeply fascinated by the sinking of the Titanic ever since I was a teenager, and I found a lot of it very interesting. On the other hand, I was hoping for something a lot more interactive than this, which was mostly straightforward museum style. There's a few diorama-like replicas of first-class and third-class state rooms, but you can't go inside them. There's a ton of blown-up and backlit photographs mounted on the walls.

I did love the giant scale model showing a cross section of the entire ship, miniature replicas of furniture, passengers and machinery in all the rooms and on all the floors. That might have been my second-favorite thing on display. The only truly interactive part was a replica of a hallway to first-class staterooms you walked through, from one section of the exhibition to another.

I think we might have done well to rethink this outing as a so-called "team building" exercise had anyone known before tickets were purchased that it's a very individual experience: the only way to get all you can out of it is to walk through the whole thing listening to narration on a pair of headphones. We took a group photo outside before going in (I'm still hoping to have Tracy send me a copy of that), but once inside, there was no sense of doing this "together" aside from walking past each other in silence.

We even had a chance to vote on a few different options. The only reason I voted for Titanic: The Exhibition was because a) I was genuinely interested in it and probably would never go otherwise; and b) the Seattle Aquarium was another option, and any other time I would have voted or that, but I am already planning to go with Danielle to see the new Ocean Pavilion and I didn't want to have to go twice in such a short period of time. In short, I voted for this for purely selfish reasons. So sue me!

I could tell that Gabby wasn't super into it. She clearly didn't think a story this much of a downer, about thousands of people dying in a tragic event, was the best idea for a team outing. There's no way she actually listened to all of the narration; when I finished and came outside, she said, "Matthew! I thought you were never going to come out!" Well, I wasn't interested in skipping any of the narration. Especially when someone else bought my ticket for me, I was going to get PCC's money's worth!

We did have more of an interactive time for maybe an hour after that: about half of us decided to go out for a drink. There were several minutes trying to decide where to go that could accommodate a group our size, and ultimately Adrienne suggested The Owl 'N Thistle, an Irish pub in Pioneer Square only a few blocks away.

Let's see if I can remember everyone who went there. Justine sat to my right, near the end of the three tables we pushed together. Gabby, who came last because she had to go move her car, sat at the end of the table, between Justine and Erik. Going further around beyond Erik, there was Adrienne who sat across from me, then Noah, then Amanda, then Dave, then Mackenzie on the other side of Kevin from me, and then Kevin to my left. So there were ten of us.

I shared some of the French fries Adrienne ordered. Several dishes were ordered for the table. Justine tried to convince me to order food, but I was already planning to make pizza for dinner tonight while Shobhit was working, at Shobhit's request. We all had a drink, though, and Kevin and I were the only two who ordered cocktails; everyone else had a beer of some kind. I had a Moscow Mule, and it was probably the most mediocre Moscow Mule I've ever had. I love to order that drink because it's a bit different everywhere and almost always delicious. This one was underwhelming. Good thing I didn't have to pay for it!

There was a lot of talking shop, which was fine and to be expected. It was nice just go go out and hang out and a much more casual environment than usual. A post-exhibition outing somewhere really should have been planned beforehand, as it felt rather loose in not the best way when trying to figure out what to do once we were all done with the exhibition. But whatever, it was still nice. And now I'll need to spend tomorrow trying to get done all the things I could not do this morning because of shit that kept coming up.

[posted 9:00 pm]