‘We were blindsided’: Spooner Berry Farms owner says Olympia gave her two weeks to move a 43-year berry stand

After more than four decades selling berries on Yelm Highway in Olympia, Spooner Berry Farms owner Sue Spooner said the city told her to get out, and she had to read the email three times to believe it.

Spooner joined Gee Scott and Ursula Reutin, co-hosts of “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio. When asked what losing the stand would mean, her answer was blunt.

“Basically our farm,” she said. “That’s our main location.”

Spooner Berry Farms may be forced to close after 47 years as the City of Olympia moves forward with plans for a community park that doesn’t include the stand. The city purchased 86 acres on Yelm Highway in 2018 and plans to build a park with soccer fields, 13 pickleball courts, a playground, basketball courts, and a dog park, according to The Olympian. Construction could begin as early as next month.

The stand isn’t just one of Spooner Berry Farms’ outlets. It’s the hub that makes everything else work. Without the volume it generates, Spooner said prices would climb too high for the families they’ve served for decades.

“The only way we can do what we do and sell these at an affordable price for everybody — which is our commitment, matter of fact, we have some friends that say, ‘Sue, I think you give away more berries than you sell — is to be able to do it on volume,” she said. “If we have to close down that main stand to where we only have our little outlying ones, we wouldn’t be selling enough. Our prices would have to go so high, then it wouldn’t be affordable for everybody.”

Spooner Berry Farms had every reason to believe they could stay

Spooner said the family has held contracts with the city for eight years and had been leasing the land since 1983. Former Olympia parks director, Jonathan Turlove, personally assured her the stand would always have a place, she said, even telling her, “The city does not want to be known as the berry killers.” The original park plans included the berry stand.

Then last November, everything changed.

“Out of the blue, I got an email saying, ‘Can you move your stand out the end of December?'” Spooner said. “I had to reread that email like three times. Why are you asking me to leave? I mean, what has changed? And they haven’t been able to give me an answer.”

She said the city ultimately agreed to let them stay through the end of their September contract, but the message was clear. When Gee asked what being told to leave in two weeks felt like, Spooner didn’t hold back.

“Stressful,” she said. “We honestly don’t know what to do because we have no place to move it to. We totally feel like we were blindsided.”

The stand and the park can coexist

Spooner said her team mapped the berry stand and parking lot against the city’s current park plans and found zero conflicts. The stand doesn’t interfere with any pickleball court, soccer field, or planned facility, she said.

“Our berry stand, our parking, none of that impedes any portion of this park at all,” she said. “What we’re asking is we still stay there, use that same entrance just for our berry stand season, which is pretty much Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day weekend, and when we’re done, you just close that entrance off.”

She’s offered to continue paying rent. She’s offered to buy two or three acres from the city at the same price per acre they paid. The city hasn’t accepted either proposal.

Instead, the city offered two alternatives, both of which Spooner said are unworkable. The first was a spot about half a mile down the road on property that has already been sold and is closing in 2028. The second was a concession stand inside the future park.

“I kind of smiled and laughed to myself,” she said. “You have obviously never been to our berry stand in June when the strawberries are on and seen the amount of cars in that parking lot.”

A calling, not a business decision

Ursula asked Spooner what happens if no resolution is found. That’s where the conversation turned emotional.

“This is hard for me because this is where it makes me emotional,” Spooner said. “Because we care so deeply for our employees, a lot of them who have been with us for over 30 years, and this community means everything to us.”

She recalled her husband Tim’s response when she once brought up retirement.

“He said, ‘Sue, we can’t retire. Look at all these communities. What are these communities going to do for fresh berries?'” she said. “So I guess that’s why we’re fighting now. It would be so easy right now to just retire, because we don’t need to do this. We truly do it almost like a calling.”

The city reached out to Spooner and offered to meet next Wednesday to discuss a path forward. Spooner said she’s cautiously hopeful but noted that every previous meeting has ended the same way.

“All they ever want to know is, ‘Where are you moving it to, and when are you getting out?'” she said.

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on KIRO Newsradio.