Results tagged “shopping>”

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.

DCist had just been wondering when the city was going to get around to raising awareness about the impending 5 cent disposable bag fee, which goes into effect in January 1, 2010, and lo and behold, the “Skip the Bag, Save the River” Education Campaign press release landed in our inbox today.

Swann Cleaners, the laundromat/dry cleaner located at the corner of 14th and Swann Streets NW, has closed its doors, 14th & You reports. This was one of the few remaining laundromats in the area, and the small dry cleaner inside it joins two other cleaners that have recently closed along the 14th Street corridor.

Capitol Hill Bikes sent out an email to its customers on Thursday announcing that the store has lost its lease and must liquidate its entire inventory while it searches for a new location. The cycling store has been located at 709 8th Street SE for about a decade.

Dupont Circle's Blockbuster Video store, located at the corner of 17th and P Streets NW, will rent its last DVD on Sunday afternoon, as advertised on the dry erase board of the adjacent photo. Another one bites the dust for the chain of video rental stores that in its heyday put many mom and pop shops out of business, but is now falling victim to the competition of Netflix, cable and on demand programming, and of course, the Internet. The Adams Morgan and Eastern Market Blockbuster stores will remain open, however.

Online retail giant Amazon.com today launched same-day delivery in select cities, and Washington, D.C. is one of them. The service, dubbed "Local Express Delivery," has also been extended to customers in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore, Las Vegas, and Seattle, and will be launched in Chicago, Indianapolis and Phoenix in a few months.

The Post has a story today reporting the installation of touch-screen video credit card machines inside 200 area taxi cabs, the first we've heard of such devices being adopted by a local cab company. Granted, it's a Maryland cab company, Barwood Taxi, but we've gotta be willing to start somewhere, we suppose. By all accounts based on the experiences of other cities, like New York and Philadelphia, that have mandated credit card machines in taxis, the devices are a win-win for drivers and passengers alike. The self-use machines have a tendency to increase tipping, and drivers no longer have to carry around so much cash to make change, something any semi-regular D.C. taxi customer can tell you is often an issue inside this city.

WJLA ran a piece last night on a sudden spike in shoplifting in the Dupont Circle neighborhood, citing a 70 percent increase in just the last month. That's a pretty shocking number, and reporter Stephen Tschida lays the blame mostly on the same sort of large groups of teens who have been caught on tape recently at Logan area stores like Rue 14 and Universal Gear. Small retail operators have little defense against a large group of determined young thieves apart from installing seriously expensive theft-deterrent systems, something most small businesses likely can't afford.

Megabus and BoltBus are seemingly now the biggest players in the saturated and ever growing D.C.-NYC coach bus market. People may argue about which is better in terms of service, but when it comes to leaving early in the morning, Megabus is hands down the top choice. They’re the only carrier that offers pre-dawn options to New York, leaving from D.C. at 5:15 and 6:15 a.m. Just don’t try to show up for an early morning bus without a reservation.

By DCist Contributor Lauren Evans

View White House Farmers Market in a larger map

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.'

On Tuesday we picked up a WTOP report that First Lady Michelle Obama's office was behind an application to close Vermont Ave. between H and I Streets NW one a week for a new White House farmers market. But this morning the Examiner's Bill Myers follows up with word that FLOTUS isn't necessarily the driving force behind this proposal. Instead, it appears that prolific local market purveyors FreshFarm put in the application, and Obama's involvement is a little fuzzier than first thought.

White House staff have been in talks with FreshFarm officials, but the first lady's office declined to answer questions about whether Obama was endorsing the Vermont Avenue market. After WTOP reported that the plan was the first lady's, the White House called the station to deny it.

And another local business bites the dust. Big Monkey Comics on 14th Street announced Monday that it will close its doors for good at the end of the month, blaming the recession.

It wasn't Galactus, Lex Luthor, or Dr. Doom that defeated us, but simple dollars and cents. The economy has adversely affected so many people, and we are the latest casualty. Last year alone Virginia last [sic] 45% of its comic book shops due to the economic downturn and we are sad to say that we now join their number.

This is a question I often ask myself when strolling by the intersection of 14th and U Streets NW (though thankfully a little less often now, since the long-awaited redevelopment of the buildings on the northeast corner nears completion). Matt Yglesias offers up the vacant building next door, however, as a case study in why, even accounting for the current recession, so many city storefronts in seemingly ideal locations remain vacant for so long. Assuming that a landlord has difficulty attracting a new tenant at the current rent, shouldn't there be an incentive then to lower the rent? Isn't some rent better than no rent at all?

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.

We're having a lively discussion on the DCist staff email list today thanks to this fantastic piece penned by the always compelling Hank Stuever of the Washington Post's Style section. Are you a Wawa or a Sheetz person? The subhead says it all: "Both So Awesome, but You Must Choose."

The big scoop everyone's buzzing about today is that Wal-Mart is sniffing around for a location in D.C., maybe in Poplar Point, maybe elsewhere. Jonathan O'Connell first reported the news in the Washington Business Journal, and has since updated with more comments from Wal-Mart, in which the company basically says that it's looking, but it's not likely to happen in the immediate future.

One of the things that we're trying to do now is to figure out, can we get a little farmers' market -- outside of the White House -- I'm not going to have all of you all just tromping around inside -- (laughter) -- but right outside the White House -- (laughter) -- so that -- so that we can -- and -- and -- and that is a win-win situation.

Continue reading "Obamas Want to Start a White House Farmers Market"

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.

Back in July, we reported that Capitol Hill mainstay Trover Books would be closing its doors for good this month. A call to the store today confirms that their last day of business is in fact tomorrow, Friday, August 14. The book shop will to continue to liquidate its stock through Friday at 7 p.m., with deep discounts still available. Items from the previously shuttered Trover Card Shop, which includes greeting cards and office supplies, are selling for 70 percent off, while most books are marked down 40 or 50 percent, and if you're a cigar smoker, stop by for deals on your favorite brands, which are 30 percent off. Regular customers may also want to make a special point of stopping by to wish the Shuman brothers well in their future endeavors.

The new big thing in online shopping seems to be these collective trigger coupon web sites that are popping up all over the place. The largest player in this category is probably Groupon.com, which offers shoppers in 17 cities a daily, emailed deep discount offer that only kicks in if enough people sign up to use it. For example, a recent "groupon" offered a spa treatment that normally costs $120 at a local salon for only $50. The deal required that at least 40 people made the leap before it went into effect, which turned out to be no problem: 951 people bought the discount before it expired. The D.C.-specific version of Groupon can be found here.

I can't think of a single time we've ever heralded the opening of a business all the way out in Reston, but hey, it's August! There's a new Apple Store opening in Reston Town Center, at 11900 Market Street in Reston, Va. That's according to an email from Apple's customer news service. The big grand opening is set for Monday Saturday, Aug. 15, and if you're one of the first 1,000 visitors, you'll get a free Apple T-shirt! (Aside: that's about the most useless thing we can think of for them to giveaway. Where's our free iPod nanos, Apple?). More details here. There's still no estimated opening date for the District's first Apple Store, which will eventually be located in Georgetown, at 1229 Wisconsin Ave. NW.

Some time ago I asked the DCist writing staff to avoid using the term "hipster" whenever possible. It's a word we all hear and say plenty, but I'm never quite sure what different people really mean by it. Is it just someone who wears skinny jeans and Chuck Taylors? Is it people who compost and keep chickens in their urban gardens? Is any man under 35 who has unusual facial hair a hipster? What's the difference between a scenester and hipster? Are you talking about these people? Or these people? Until I figure out some satisfactory answers, I prefer our writers be more specific about what they really mean. Using "hipster" just seems lazy and vague.

We had been hearing about the imminent demise of Cleveland Park's 7-11, located at the corner of Connecticut Ave. and Porter St. NW., for a while, but after being reminded by City Desk that the convenience store did indeed shut its doors on Thursday, joining the Starbucks and the Magruder's Market on the growing list of neighborhood retailers who are giving up rather than face increasing rents amid a bleak economy, it's still hard to fathom. Who knew 7-11's, in all their ubiquity, could even go out of business? Granted, this location was at the top, rather than the middle, of Cleveland Park's commercial corridor, perhaps making it not quite convenient enough, but still. Are people really buying fewer Slurpees, packs of gum and nutritionally questionable taquitos? And wouldn't these Cleveland Park landlords trying to raise the rent prefer to have some kind of paying tenant, rather than no tenant at all?

Vandals attacked a window display that featured pro-LGBT T-shirts at the Silver Spring American Apparel store on Monday morning, The Sexist reports, shattering a window in the process. The Georgetown location of American Apparel also received a telephone threat later that day about their similar window display.

The D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue put out a short press release today reminding residents that the annual August Sales Tax Holiday isn't happening this year, so a number of outlets have been reporting the news as though this just happened today. In fact, this decision was made in early May, when the D.C. Council approved the FY2010 budget, which nixed the popular back-to-school and holiday-season sales tax break periods in order to hang on to an estimated $640,000 in revenue for the cash-strapped District. In its release today, the OTR reminded local merchants who have previously participated in the sales tax holiday to ensure that their point of sale equipment is programmed to collect the tax this year.

We don't normally fall for naked corporate promos, but a press release from Cricket, the no credit check/no contract wireless company (and, apparently, radio station?) that's been heavily advertising all over town, caught our eye. In order to drum up some brand awareness in the D.C. metro area, the company says it has placed 2,000 wallets, most filled with discount offers, but some with actual prizes (including a free trip to New York) and, inside two of them, vouchers worth $5,000 in cash stuffed inside. So where might you be able to find these wallets? Cricket spokesperson Vickie Jones gave us some clues: "They will be in locations near [our] stores," she said. "Sort of 'hidden in plain view.' On sidewalks. On a park bench or at a bus stop. On the ledge of a window at an office building near the stores. On a flower planter. On a Metro station turnstile." DCist recently noticed that Cricket will be opening up its newest location in the space formerly occupied by Cornerstone dry cleaners at the corner of 14th and U. You can find open locations of Cricket retail outlets near you here.

     

A Peeps store at National Harbor sounded pretty absurd on its face. What does a Peeps store do once Easter is over and the Post's uploaded its last Peeps Show image?

CB2, the slightly cheaper Crate & Barrel brand store that's aimed at younger, urban customers is looking for a location in D.C., the Washington Business Journal reports. The chain has reportedly been talking to Jeffrey Schonberger, the real estate developer who owns the Central Union Mission building at 1350 R Street NW, at the corner of 14th and R Streets. Central Union has long been in talks with the city to relocate elsewhere, with most recent negotiations focusing on the empty Gales School at 65 Massachusetts Ave. NW. CB2 has also reportedly been looking at other properties, but should it move into the 14th and R space, it would join the forthcoming Room & Board at 14th and T along with existing furniture stores like Vastu, Muleh and Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams, creating a sort of furniture corridor along that stretch of 14th.