Results tagged “grocerystores”

Gotta concur with DCmud's sarcasm in reporting this piece of news concerning an expected ribbon cutting next year for a new Whole Foods at the Shops at Wisconsin Place development, located at the Chevy Chase/Friendship Heights nexus.

While the Bethesda-Chevy Chase corridor may seem like a scripted stage setting for the Whole Foods phenomenon, Chevy Chasers have until now had to drive all the way down to Tenley for their organic Gruyere, or eke by (gasp) on Giant or TJ's foodstuffs.

Ruth Samuelson made a handy little map over at Housing Complex to illustrate the point: this actually makes the third Whole Foods location on Wisconsin Avenue, all clustered relatively close to one another. Surely some other neighborhood, like say, Capitol Hill, could use a spot to buy organic arugula sooner than this one. Then again, my feelings on the "Fetishism of Whole Foods" are well established, so it's probably wise not to get too worked up about it.

We missed this one from the Washington Business Journal earlier this week: Harris Teeter is looking at a fourth location in the District, this time at the mixed-use Capitol Riverfront development The Yards, nearby Nationals Park. The lease has yet to be signed and the BizJo estimates it would take at least three years before the store could open thanks to the current financing market, but word of a grocery store coming to the area understandably elicits breathless comments from neighborhood officials. '“We're thrilled there's going to be a Harris Teeter in the neighborhood,” said Michael Stevens, director of the Capitol Riverfront Business Improvement District ... “They all bought into the vision of the neighborhood and a grocery store is part of that vision,” he said.'

Residents of LeDroit Park and Shaw could have a new grocery store option soon, according to a report from the Washington Business Journal's Jonathan O'Connell. Philadelphia-based The Fresh Grocer is reportedly looking at moving into the large Howard Town Center project, a mixed-use development in the works next to the Howard University campus. The development is planned to replace the area surrounding and including the Bond Bread Building in the 2100 block of Georgia Ave. NW, and will include more than 300 residential units, over 70,000 s.f. of commercial property, and parking, according to DCMud.

There's a few things happening in the world of organic grocery stores lately, with some good news for Petworth folks and not-so-good news for Columbia Heights residents. First the good: the Yes! Organic Market at 4100 Georgia Avenue NW officially opens today at 3 p.m. Wednesday at 10 a.m. As for the bad, over the past few weeks some passersby have reported construction work being done in the space that Ellwood Thompson's organic supermarket is renting in the DCUSA complex at 14th and Irving. You'll recall that back in April the Richmond-based grocer announced the opening of their first D.C. store was delayed indefinitely due to the economy. Of the recent visible work inside the space, Ellwood Thompson spokesperson Cyndi Watkins had this to say: "As of right now I have not heard anything new about us moving to D.C. Any construction being done must be work the landlord is doing." UPDATE: Looks like Ward 4 Council member Muriel Bowser's office jumped the gun on announcing the Petworth opening. A spokesperson for Yes! Organic Market now tells us that the store will be opening for the first time at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, August 19, with the ceremonial ribbon cutting pushed back to Thursday, August 27. Both Bowser and Mayor Adrian Fenty are expected to be in attendance on August 27.

Metro formally announced today that SmarTrip users can add value to their cards at select CVS and Giant Food stores. Last year, WMATA made SmarTrip cards more widely available for sale at CVS and Giant, but now customers can also choose to add money to their cards at both chains while they check out.

Resident Jeff Davis shared the news with the Cleveland Park listserve this morning that the years-long battle to allow Giant Food to remodel its store at Wisconsin & Newark appears to have finally come to an end. The project dates as far back at 1998, though it was revived in its current form in 2006 before being derailed once again by NIMBY concerns over traffic and parking. You'll recall that more recently, the Cleveland Park Citizens Association experienced a coup/meltdown in the wake of the impending Giant plan approval.

Just a little straight up feel good PR from grocer Giant Food. The company sent out word today that it donated the $100,000 commission it received from the D.C. Lottery as a result of selling that winning $144 million Powerball jackpot ticket to the Capital Area Food Bank. The winning ticket came from the relatively new Giant on Alabama Avenue in Southeast. The Food Bank plans to use the money to support the renovation and construction of a new, bigger food distribution center.

The Cleveland Park location of D.C.-area based Margruder's Market is closing its doors this weekend, according to Nbcwashington.com. Saturday will reportedly be the last day of business for the market, located at 3527 Connecticut Avenue NW, at the intersection of Connecticut Avenue and Porter Street NW. It's a bummer for the adjacent neighborhood, as Magruder's was a convenient spot to be able to pick up essentials. Magruder's locations in Gaithersburg, Rockville, Kemp Mill, Vienna, Falls Church, Alexandria and Chevy Chase will remain open. The rising cost of rent is cited as the reason for the closing.

In a press release and message posted to their company blog today, Richmond-based organic grocer Ellwood Thompson's announced that their planned expansion to the DCUSA development in Columbia Heights is on hold, seemingly indefinitely.

Ellwood Thompson’s Local Market announced today that they have delayed their plans for expansion to the Washington D.C.. Citing the slowing economy, the company will not open a store at the DCUSA project this fall as originally planned. “We are disappointed that we can’t move ahead with our plans at this time” stated Rick Hood, owner of the company. “We believe that DCUSA in Columbia Heights is an excellent location choice and are eager to serve this community, which is a perfect fit for our products and philosophy. However, with this delay we are acting prudently to keep our company sound during these difficult times for retailers. We continue to work with DCUSA on a timetable to locate there”.

We're still waiting to hear back from company spokesperson Cyndi Watkins with some more details on what happened. Signs have been up in the windows of the section of the DCUSA building intended for the grocery store for months, but almost no visible work has been completed in building out the space.

The Examiner reports that the "Social" Safeway, located at 1855 Wisconsin Ave NW, will close on Sunday for extensive renovations. While residents in this toney Northwest D.C. neighborhood still have plenty of other grocery shopping options (there's a Whole Foods up the road in Glover Park, and a Giant a little north of there), Safeway is also offering folks who live in ZIP codes surrounding the store free delivery with online orders. There are also plans for a temporary pharmacy to open across from the construction site. DCmud has more on the renovations themselves, which include demolishing the existing store and replacing it with an entirely new facility that will more closely resemble the "Sexy" Safeway in the CityVista building near Mt. Vernon Square. The "Social" Safeway is slated for a reopening in March of 2010.

We're a few days late on this one, but NBC Washington reports that the long-awaited Yes! Organic Market on the first level of the Flats at Union Row at 14th and V Streets NW opened on November 17. We stopped by last night to grab some grub, and although the prices seem to be just as high as the nearby Whole Foods, the selection of some vegetarian and organic products seems to be better, and the 14th Street Yes! is also a bit larger than its Adams Morgan counterpart.

The Fairfax Times reports that Chevy Chase Bank will be closing all 54 of its D.C.-area branches that are located inside Giant Food stores starting this August. The bank said that its customers have expressed a preference for the bank's more traditional neighborhood branches over the ones located inside Giants. That statement would have us believe that Chevy Chase Bank customers prefer branches that aren't open on the weekends -- many of the Giant-based branches were the only locations open on Saturdays and/or Sundays, so their elimination means Chevy Chase customers will have few options if any to do banking on the weekends.

We can hardly believe it ourselves, but the Harris Teeter in Adams Morgan celebrated its grand opening this morning. The ribbon cutting ceremony for the store, only about five years in the making, took place at a little after 10:30 a.m., with Mayor Adrian Fenty, Ward 1 Council member Jim Graham, and countless Harris Teeter officials on hand to deliver run of the mill remarks and welcome to the store to the neighborhood.