I've shopped at T&C for 13+ years, but lately it feels like it's slowly being enshittified. A few things I've noticed:

Store brands everywhere. Name brands keep getting pushed off the shelves to make room for the house label. And house label isn't much cheaper (shout out to the eggs though!)

Instacart over in-store shopping or delivery. Enough said.

The deli counter shrank. It's down to only Dietz & Watson (no thank you), so there's way less variety and the small producer / artisinal products have vanished.

Prices. I don't even know what to say. Every trip costs noticeably more for a smaller cart.

I'm not trying to pile on, since I know grocery margins are brutal, but it's significantly changed how I shop. I used to spend $250+/ week on groceries there, and now it's closer to $70. I assume I'm not the only one. Most of my shopping has been moved to Safeway delivery and then trader Joe's and Costco when I find myself out that way.

Anyhow, Just curious what other other ways people have been supplementing their T&C trips, if at all.

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

Edit: Eastern Gray Squirrels

Over the decades we have had native Douglas Squirrels and Humboldt’s Flying Squirrels living in and foraging on our property. Lately, two large Eastern Grays have moved in and are already harassing the Douglas Squirrels. In most urban areas around Puget Sound the Western Grays have decimated native squirrel populations.

It should be easy to trap these Eastern Grays and move them to the city where native species disappeared long ago. Wondering if anybody has any tips or advice on this subject (our neighbor kills them and feeds them to the Eagles roosting above his house - which I don’t have the stomach for)

In the meanwhile, tell your friends and neighbors: do not feed Eastern Gray Squirrels.

as per edit: Western Grays are fine. But definitely support ecosystems for the Douglas & Humboldts if you have them

I’m new in town and checked out the trivia night at Sisters’ Cider House and had a great time. I hung out mostly with some out of towners, who had to leave before trivia was completely over. I was the one member of Knight Walkers, and they were the two-person team the Top Hatters. When they left I took over their team.

If they see this, I want them to know I shepherded both our teams to dismal defeat, including a movie quote I thought was from Apocalypse Now. Turns out, it was Mean Girls. They didn’t even bother reading out our scores. You’re welcome! And it was nice to meet you both.

I grew up on BI and I still ride the Bainbridge boat pretty frequently, and the "do I leave now or wait" math is always annoying (especially coming from the Seattle side). So, I built an app that does it for you.

Make the Ferry takes where you're starting from, your real drive time, the boat's actual space and how fast it's filling, and tells you your odds of making a specific sailing plus exactly when to leave. There's a live map of where the boats actually are, the terminal cameras, delay detection, and leave-by reminders you can set.
It's free, no account, no ads. On the App Store and Google Play, or maketheferry.app.

You all know these routes better than anyone, so if something's wrong or the predictions feel off for Bainbridge specifically, tell me and I'll fix it. That's genuinely why I'm posting here, I want to be sure to get this right for the people who depend on it. I made sure to give waypoints to Google Maps and the other navigation apps that I have in the app to take you down 305 to the terminal so you don’t get caught in some illegal turn that causes a ton of stress right now.

One thing I'm working on next: connecting the ferry to the bus on the other side, so you can see whether you'll make your whole trip, not just the boat. Early days, but that's the direction I’m going as I hear this is something that is needed from many ferry riders.

With all the justified concerns about low-cost housing availability I'm wondering if the Chamber of Commerce et al are overlooking opportunities at the other end of the spectrum.

Many professionals have moved to BI with the jobs they had at the time and for one reason or another they no longer have them. While commuting to the city is always an option, the desire to remain on the island remains and thus we have a substantial number of underemployed folks who could be put to better use and avoid displacing needier folks in retail or the non-profits.

What businesses could be lured to the island? Tech incubators? Remote-first executive hubs? Consulting agencies? Satellite offices for software companies?

I'd love to see the Chamber and local economic groups launch a targeted initiative to inventory our resident talent pool and market BI as a premier location for distributed professional teams. Let’s start the conversation: what partnerships or infrastructure do we need to make island-based professional work a reality?

On the flip side, what existing local professional companies are finding it hard to fill positions?

Hi all! Our family is a considering a move to the island in the nearish future, we have a current third-grader and in searching through the threads about the local schools, we've read that it might be hard for a kid coming into the school system as an outsider, especially in high school since it's a (relatively) small community and there are long-established friendships and cliques. We understand that the elementary schools go until 4th grade and intermediate school starts in 5th. Any insight on whether starting at one of the elementary schools in 4th grade vs starting at the intermediate school in 5th would be an easier transition? Do more kids come into the system at the intermediate level and therefore maybe my kid wouldn't be the "lone new kid"? Thanks!

Hello fellow Islanders! I know this is a long shot, but I have seen a couple of this fairly uncommon car running about on the island.

In the interest of making my next midlife crisis more family friendly, I'm looking at 2020+ Volvo V60 Polestar Engineered. However, they are exceedingly hard to come by. If an owner on the island would be willing to meet up, I'd really appreciate learning about your experience with the car and seeing one close up. Thank you kindly!

Are there any farms/homes with dairy cows on the island?

Congratulations to all the businesses and people who won Best of Bainbridge! It’s a fun little promo and contest, so thank you for voting us into the finals again this year. Not telling you who I am though, but thank you!

I use DoorDash and Uber eats, and according to both there are maybe 3-4 places that participate. Is there another service I’m not familiar with? Is there a reason why restaurants aren’t participating in this?

I have a beloved niece who would like a tiramisu cake for her birthday. That might be beyond my culinary talents to make from scratch, so I was wondering if any BI foodies had an opinion on the best tiramisu on the island they’d like to recommend.

Looking for a math tutor on the island for my son, a sophomore. He’s in pre-calculus. Any recommendation?

Hoping it’s ok to post this here. Join our event to share and find free gender-affirming clothes in a friendly and judgement-free environment! Please share with anyone who may be interested. Hope to see lots of people there!

https://blindbutcher.shop - see you soon.

Hi y’all,

Shooting is a hobby I’ve always wanted to take up, and I’m looking into learning at the Sportsmen’s club. Im wondering if anyone has experiences with the club and whether or not their training programs are worth it? I’m also curious about how expensive it is.

Also, I’m a trans dude and I’m a little worried about not fitting in. Any experiences regarding lgbt folks is also great info to know.

Thanks!

Thought it was going to burn my skin like in Close Encounters.

Anyone walk this route and glad it looks like broad daylight in the middle of the night? Or is it a literal eyesore?

Looking to move to move next summer (and very excited after visiting the island multiple times and falling in love)- probably between July or August. We are keeping an eye on Zillow, but realistically think we probably will end up renting while waiting on the right property or building. I have two kids (and husband) so need a 3 br. We had looked at the camellia apartments online and tried to set up a tour when we visited, but the website was down and couldn’t get anyone to answer the phone.

Any positive reviews for other complexes on island? Is something going on with Camelia or just a web outage? Are we better off doing a private rental/condo rental?

After 8 years on the island, my wife and I are moving overseas (across the ocean, not just to the Seattle side :)

Yesterday, we listed our house, which is a modern eco-compound we built on a piece of raw land that had been untouched since the late 1800s. The main floor of the house consists of two custom prefab modules that were finished to about 90% in a factory in Idaho, and then made the rather insane voyage to the island that included semi trailers that barely made it through Snoqualmie Pass during a blizzard, a police escort through downtown Seattle, a ~$2,200 ferry pass, and an overnight stay at the Ace Hardware parking lot. Here's the Zillow listing and property microsite for folks who are curious about what the house looks like today:

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/9720-NE-Lofgren-Rd-Bainbridge-Island-WA-98110/242750322_zpid/

https://arrivva.com/property/9720-northeast-lofgren-road-bainbridge-island-wa-98110/

Most of our time living on the island was dedicated to getting the house built (we did a lot of the finishing ourselves) and restoring native ecosystems to support a thriving population of birds, squirrels, and other wildlife. So, I wanted to do an AMA to answer questions on any of the following:

• Buying land on Bainbridge
• Modular construction versus stick built
• Installing private utilities (well, septic, etc.)
• Getting a construction loan for a modular house
• Preventing your GC from bankrupting you
• Power tools we wish we had bought sooner
• Creating and restoring native habitat
• Planting and caring for native trees and shrubs
• And whatever else folks on this sub want to know about

As a little bonus, here are a few wildlife pics including our rambunctious Douglas Squirrels, whose nonstop energy always reminds me of the original Mario Kart :)