OK… what about *any* grocery store?
I’ve gotten a lot of flak for backing the proposed Harris Teeter at Falkland Chase, and perhaps I should clarify some things.
I used to live down in Crystal City, and Harris Teeter was the bomb. Moving to Silver Spring several years ago left me with supermarket options that were sorely lacking in good produce, manageable check-out aisles, clean floors, and a friendly staff. I’m not counting Whole Foods in this equation because A) it’s more expensive, and 2) I can’t buy normal toilet paper, Kraft Singles, and Diet Coke there. Sure, Giant and Safeway have produce, but nine times out of ten it goes bad within a day or two of purchase. The Giant up in Wheaton is passable, but we’ve taken to larger grocery trips up to the Giant in Rockville at Randolph and 355. They have a great gourmet foods aisle, good organic produce, and a wide selection of ethnic foods – all at prices more affordable than Whole Paycheck. I’d still shop with the hippies (especially since they reinstated my much beloved cinnamon-cardamom olives at the olive bar – w00t!), but we need an alternative better than the current options.
Ultimately, I don’t want to drive up to Rockville for groceries. If the corporate stooges at Safeway could see it in their hearts to rehab the Thayer store into something new and exciting, I’d be happy without the Harris Teeter at Falkland Chase. Or redo the Giant by the Blairs to incorporate a better selection of the aforementioned food items and – for the love of God – increase the staff to open more registers so the lines don’t run halfway down the aisles.
But that brings us back to (a Harris Teeter-less) Falkland Chase. Eddie Izzard had a good bit (mentioned here before) about history in the United States. He was watching a show about a hotel in Miami where they said, “We’ve restored this hotel to the way it looked over 50 years ago.” No! Say it isn’t so! 50 years? You can’t do that!
Teet or no, I support more dense development at Falkland Chase. I want it to include a good percentage of MPDUs (the *real* and permanent kind – not a temporary fix to satiate the powers that be only to be turned into something else on down the road). And I don’t think Falkland Chase deserves to be saved in its entirity. Don’t want to give up 9 of the 23 acres? Fine. Give them 7. And add some good ground floor retail. Whatever.
I appreciate the efforts of some to save things in the community that deserve to be saved. Moving Tastee Diner was good. Trying to save the Golden House because it used to be a Little Tavern was insane. The bungalows on the 900 block of Thayer were nice, but they were out of place in the development. Still a shame I couldn’t ransack the property for parts, though (most of which had probably been urinated on by that point).
Between the preservationists and the progressives, I think we can find a happy medium – don’t you?
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The biggest treat you could give me as a little kid growing up in Georgian Towers was a 35-cent cream soda from the vending machine at Giant in the Blairs. That’s gone now, along with a lot of other stuff I loved about Giant, and this was only fifteen years ago. Whenever I go to Giant now I get all disoriented and frustrated, and that’s long before I hit the checkouts.
Shoppers is the way to go. I don’t know about the one in Glenmont, but the one in College Park has stolen my heart, and it’s probably closer than Rockville for you.
Not to mention the savings. For the price of toilet paper at Giant you could feed your family for a year at Shoppers.
I like Shoppers, too. I’ve been to that one as a biggyback to trips to that Home Depot. We used to go to the Shoppers down at Potomac Yard south of Crystal City all the time. In our poorer days, we would get a 12-inch sub (that could feed a developing country) and a can of Pringles for under $5. That was good for at least two meals.
I’d say we’re looking for a one-stop-shop grocery, but that’s impossible with MoCo’s arcane liquor laws. And no, I *won’t* shop at Snider’s on a regular basis.
When we lived in Arlington, we used to do a cheap “date night”: a movie from Blockbuster and two deli subs, a can of Pringles, and a six-pack (this was VA!) from Shoppers’. Cost us less than $20 for the whole shebang.
But I’m with Thayer Ave on this one– clean, well-managed and well-stocked shouldn’t be too much to ask.
(And now we know Thayer’s priorities: toilet paper, Kraft singles, and Diet Coke.)
Well, duh.
I would have mentioned beer, too, but, well, you know…
On the issue of balance between preservation and new development, I think the preservationists have done pretty well. Consider the following wins and losses:
In the “wins” column, the following buildings have been preserved and/or developed for adaptive reuse: 1) Tastee diner (relocated and expanded); 2) The Silver Theater; 3) The Downtown Silver Spring storefronts on Georgia; 4) the B&O Rail Station; 5) The Fire House on Georgia Avenue; 6) The Canada Dry Facade preserved as part of a new development; 7) Mayorga Coffee reusing an old industrial building;
The National Dry Cleaning Institute Building on Georiga Avenue to be preserved.
On the “losses” side the Silver Spring Armory was a big one. Also there was the Little Tavern, those bungalows on Thayer Avenue, the empty garden apartment building on the 900 block of Bonifant Street.
I’m sure there are other buildings that have not been preserved that maybe should have been. A lot of this is in the eye of the beholder. I’m not mourning the loss of the obsolete bungalows or the apartment building that had been vacent for ten years.
Buildings I’d like to see preserved: The World Building, the old post office on Georgia Avenue, and the outside of City Place (though not the stores inside).
I find it laughable that anyone would waste their time arguing that Falkland Chase is worthy of preservation. Macchu Pichu? yes! The Great Wall of China? certainly! Dumpy apartments on prized real estate that are poorly maintained and younger than my parents? Please. It’s not like George Washington stayed there or something. No historic tour highlights them. I’d trade them for a nice park, let alone an awesome grocery store.
I can’t believe this grocery store war is going in SS. People, don’t you know that this kind of endless neighborhood preservation/development bickering is supposed to be reserved for the District? It’s how we have been able to preserve so many unliveable, poor neighborhoods, and very effectively too.
When I lived on the “too brave” end of the Hill, I watched as one grocery store after another was nixed by the entrenched Hill preservationists (translation: ex hippies who would rather see a block of wig shops and cash checking joints preserved before they let a Magruder’s in). As a result, we could either dodge bullets shopping at the Kentucky Avenue Safeway or drive across the bridge to Costco in Pentagon City. All versions of inconvenience.
There really needs to be flexibility between no growth and practical growth in urban neighborhoods. Being able to buy milk, chicken, and kitty litter in your own neighborhood can give people inestimable peace and quiet.
Even if we get a Harris Teeter (please, pretty please, puh-leeeeeeeeeeze) we’ll miss out on one of their best attributes: a great wine selection for a grocery store. Just like at Whole Foods and Trader Joes…good ole MoCo has to control the distribution of wine.
I shop almost exclusively at Whole Foods (I walk past it on my way home), but it is frustrating not be to be able to get some of the less swank items available at places like the Safeway, such as hot banana pepper rings and generic seltzer.
What really bugs the bejeezus out of me is, as others have said, MoCo’s stranglehold on alcoholic beverages. It is ridiculous that I can do all my shopping at Whole Foods for a wonderful Italian meal, as I did Saturday night, but I can’t get a damn bottle of Chianti at the same time. Rather than shlepping to the dumpy MoCo liquor store on Colesville, I paid extra to stroll over to Adega and buy the wine. At least the people who work at Adega know about wine, but they too are frustrated as hell at what MoCo does to them and other independent sellers.
I am seriously considering voting Republican in all local elections. Not that I expect my vote to make a difference, but at least a Republican council (which would probably have to be fairly centrist) might do away with all this BS regulation. Of course, this is a pipe dream.
My feeling is that hell will freeze over before MoCo releases their stranglehold on the alcohol trade. The county gets *millions* of dollars in revenue from it. Very unfortunate. And then you have to deal with the issue of all the grocery stores running the small mom-and-pop Beer/Wine/Deli stores out of business.
So much for Maryland being “The Free State.”
If you go to the Harris Teeter in Adams Morgan, there is one of these “Mom and Pop” guys outside protesting EVERY DAY. I think he is pissed because the DC government gave HT a liquor license and he thinks his corner store is screwed.
Maybe MoCo would be happy if there was a liquor store on every corner like certain parts of DC.
Sligo threatens to vote Republican in local elections to protest the BS regulation. If by “BS regulation” you mean the county liquor situation what you really need to do is vote against incumbent state legislators in other districts. County council can’t change it, only the state legislature can change it. I seem to recall that the county liquor folks give lots of money to the appropriate committee chairs and no reform measures get out of committee.
Yes – they have quite a bit of money. Enough to kill House Bill 1260 in committee (for direct-to-consumer wine shipments to be allowed into Maryland).
Lobbyist Bruce Bereano is a thief and a liar (as seen here, here, and here). In this video, he talks about direct-to-consumer wine shipments contributing to underage drinking as an excuse not to pass the bill. That’s bullshit. It’s ALL about revenue and the money he and the organizations he represents spend to keep it in their pockets. He’s an idiot. As are all the legislators that voted the bill out in committee.
So, yes, this has to be done at the state level. Thankfully, our people (Dels. Hucker & Mizeur) helped spearhead the legislation, and when it comes back up, I’m going to help them as much as I can.
Until then, I’ll (theoretically) receive my wine shipments in DC. If I were ever to order wine for home delivery, you know.
Just tell me who to vote for/against. It’s all the same to me.
I’d also consider voting Republican for my US representative as a protest vote. I’m tired of having a congressperson who really represents PG county. At least we got that bum Wynn out of there.
I like the Giant on Arliss Ave off of Piney Branch Road.
Much easier parking than Wheaton.
A bit short on fancy stuff, but if I wanted that I’d go somewhere else.
Just wondering: what’s your gripe about Snider’s?
Yeah, I guess I should clarify that. It’s a good grocery store for a quick trip, but the parking and shelf selection are both a little limited. Beer/Wine/Deli across the street has a much better selection of beer and wine (which is one of the main reasons I would go to Snider’s), and fighting with the “70 or better” crowd for aisle space is a bit tiring.