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A Giant Food opened this morning on Alabama Ave. SE in Ward 8, making it the only full-service grocery store in the Anascostia ward. It's also the first supermarket to operate in the neighborhood in over a decade.
On Saturday the Post ran a story highlighting the lengths Ward 8 residents have had to go to up until today to purchase groceries. The "Camp Simms" Giant joins a bank and a hardware in a shopping center that will eventually also include an IHOP and an ice cream parlor.
The store has only been open since 6 a.m. this morning and we haven't been down to see it yet. But given Washington's propensity for nicknaming grocery stores, we have to wonder what popular moniker this new Giant will receive. As the Post points out, a study last year by the D.C.-based Food Research and Action Center concluded that Ward 8 offered the city's least nutritious food options, so maybe it should be called the Essential Giant.
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Giant and Safeway lost A LOT of ground to the competition (SFW/Teeter/Wholefoods). I couldn't even tell you the last time I set foot in a Giant. And it's not like there's a lot of competition in Ward 8.
Monkey:
I agree but the prices that Wholefoods (i.e., Wholepaycheck) charges is just crazy for people who are on a fixed income. This isn't a black/white or race issue just simple economics (I for one don't shop at Wholefoods...mainly because I am not familiar with what they sell).
I would guess Wholefoods and other high end grocery stores made a decision to expand in higher economic areas. Giant sees a soft spot and moved in. Good for them and Ward 8.
MS, I believe Whole Foods sells groceries.
Oh also, I think a basic rule for nicknaming a grocery store in DC is that it should involve alliteration. But I can't find a synonym for essential that starts with a G. We could always go for the G-ssential Giant. Anyone?
While on the subject of christening grocery stores, can we have two stores with the same name? I spent a decade in Foggy Bottom (Go dubbs!). The Safeway in the Watergate was nicknamed the Soviet Safeway due to its paucity of goods (though it was neat running into Elizabeth Dole buying toilet paper). But there is apparently a Safeway in the Dupont area somewhere that also is named the Soviet Safeway for the same reason. Can there be two Soviet Safeways in this town?
I myself prefer the Social Safeway in Georgetown because of its size (size truly does matter). But sometimes I go to the Giant on Newark and Wisconsin for convenience's sake. Yet I am unaware of a nickname for that Giant. Other times I go to the hidden Safeway off Wisconsin near Georgetown Day School. That's another grocery store that I don't believe has a nickname (although I refer to it as the Secret Safeway because of its hidden nature).
It doesn't really need a nickname, because if you live east of the river, it's the Only Giant.
As I recall, the Giant at Newark and Wisconsin has a high proportion of Russian-speaking customers. Does that make it the Formerly-Soviet Giant?
OldPoster&c:
I believe the Watergate safeway is the Senior Safeway, while the Columbia Rd Safeway is the Soviet Safeway. though I've also heard that one referred to as the Spanish Safeway.
I thought the Secret Safeway was near Dupont - it's all so confusing.
I live close to the Southwest Safeway -- affectionately known as the Senegal Safeway.
I was in there last Friday night 8pm-ish to pick up a few items. Situated in the front of the store, right by the entrance and in front of all the check-out lines, was a gentlemen with a Dallas Cowboys cap(!!!) playing an electric keyboard resting on a shopping cart. He was singing so loudly I could barely hear the cashier. "Let's Get Stoned at the Safeway" was one of the ad-libbed songs.
As I rushed out with my eardrums bleeding I saw dollar bills and change(?!?!) in the bottom of the cart. Two DC cops walked in, looked over at him and continued on. I wanted to say something to the Manager at the Customer Service Desk ... but with two cops in there I know who they'd end up handcuffing.
Don't know about the Watergate, but the Soviet Safeway is at 17th & Corcoran, the Spanish Safeway (although I always thought it was the Salvadoran Safeway) is on Columbia Road, and the Secret Safeway is at 20th & S.
We always called Columbia Road the Sandinista Safeway. As for the Russians, it sounds like there is a whole Union of Soviet Socialist Safeways...
Whatever name is given to it, it will eventually become dated like all others... The "un-safeway" in SE has not been "unsafe" for a few years, sure there are people of all economic groups around (if that is your idea of danger). But it is now smack in a neighborhood of 700K houses, million dollar condos, and upper-middle class beaurocrats. And the renovation (which seemed to take a decade) brought it up to almost-suburban-supermarket standards inside. It is emptied out on Sunday- ala USSR- only because it has one of the highest volume sales in the metro area and the supply system is a little out of wack (or at least that is what the manager told me one night.. sounds a bit grandious)
Anyway it's new nickname: "safe-almost-status-quo/semi-affluent-way (with a clean liquor store attached)" sort of sucks though.
Oh, and the SW safeway that Wizzyliz describes sounds like where it's at!
Hee-- It's fun to read about these funny names. Here in MoCo thee are no fun nicknames for the stores. Clearly, I am missing out.
THe new store in Ward 8definitely needs alliteration. The long-awaited Giant in Columbia Heights is known as the Gentrified Giant, so Anacostia should get an equally appropriate name.
Outside of the District some stores have names.
In Alexandria, I always refer to the Giant on Monroe Avenue as the "Petite Giant".
I'm with Esmeralda on naming, except that I always called the 20th and S Safeway the Stealth Safeway. Since I seem to be the only one, however, I'm willing to surrender that name to the Safeway off Wisconsin by Georgetown Day. We really need to set official standards, though. Perhaps a poll?
Incidentally, Wizzyliz, I've shopped at that Safeway for years and I've never seen anything but long lines, poor selection, gnawed-on chicken bones in the shopping carts and joyless, dispirited customers and staff. Some people have all the luck.
We used to refer to the Giant at Wisconsin Ave & Macomb St as the 'Midget', but that may just have been something my family or friends made up.
Crappy expired products & useless staff combined with upper NW yuppies make for funny staff/customer interactions.
Can we clear this up? Everyone claims their Safeway is "the" Soviet Safeway. Fair enough, most suck.
But my understanding is the one off Wisconsin at Davenport (just north of Tenley) is the real Soviet Safeway. Wasn't that where US spies met and flipped a major Soviet asset during the Cold War?
17th/Corcoran (Dupont): Soviet Safeway
20th/S (Dupont): Secret Safeway
Columbia/Ontario (Adams Morgan): Sandanista Safeway
Wisconsin Ave. (Georgetown): Social Safeway
14th St. SE (Far Capitol Hill): Un-Safeway
Watergate complex (Foggy Bottom): Senior Safeway
SW Area (uh, SW?): Sketchy Safeway
isnt there a Socialist safeway somewhere?
"Can we clear this up?"
Geez, it's not that hard. Google "Soviet Safeway", click "I'm Feeling Lucky", land at DCist page (http://dcist.com/2004/09/03/grocery_politic.php). Now you know everything you need to know.
Let's not forget the Stupid Safeway on MacArthur Boulevard. I lived in the Palisades before moving to classy Southwest. The Stupid Safeway had a limited selection (can you count to ... two)?
Can't we just call all of them Sh***y Safeways and be done with it?
A and P FTW!
Stmove:
I thought I was the only one that called the Hill's Safeway the 'unSafeway'. It was either that or the sortof generic "Scareway".
I remember the good old days, where getting mugged on the way to your car was a very real possibility.
The best part? The stunning lack of caring the Safeway employees exhibited. I'd routinely see groups of thuggies harassing women, obviously waiting for a chance to fuck with people, sometimes right at the front door to the store. And the employees apparently thought this was totally normal.
The 'renovation' was sortof funny. Yes, it's now better than before. But it's still the same employees. The ladies that run cash register are terrific. I love them. But the meat department guys are a joke. I routinely have to return meat that I purchase and is rotten within a day or two of purchase. And they get really angry when you return meat that they've obviously repackaged at least once.
The rotten meat thing happens so often that I have to wonder how many people have gotten seriously sick from meat at that Safeway.
My biggest thing with this Safeway is/was the floors. They were constantly sticky (less so now). So much so that sometimes you really have to yank hard to get your feet to come up off the floor (or maybe I've just got weak-ass wimpy leg muscles.... hard to know for sure).
Does anybody know a nickname for the Safeway on Georgia Avenue in lower Petworth?
petworthian: sorry, your area hasn't been overrun by enough 20-somethings with too much time on their hands to warrant a nickname. come back to us in a few years when you've been properly gentrified and we'll give your store its appellation.
and sommer....i like how ward 8 is now the "anascostia ward". why not the "congresss heisghts ward", or the "washinsgton highlasnds ward"?
(ok, i kid on the misspelling, but seriously, i would say the new store is more in congress heights than anacostia)
all this nickname stuff is nice, but what does it say about a city (any city) in which a basic need/right takes so long, and serves, in part, as a photo op for politicians?
there is a vast disparity between those areas with things like, say, bookstores and grocery stores, sit down restaurants, and those that dont.
yes, this is my hometown. but i tell you, it is more like capetown on the potomac.. serious apartheid here. and yes, i know we have a black mayor...
maybe it should be called the 'bout (*&%%$ time
giant....