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From a press release:

“Local developer EYA and retail consultant/developer Streetsense partner to welcome Yes! Organic Market as the newest tenant set to occupy retail space at Arts District Hyattsville, the 25-acre mixed-use development emerging along historic Route 1 in downtown Hyattsville. This will be the eighth planned retail location in the metropolitan area for Yes!. The “living naturally” food store chain offers a refreshing mix of natural and organic groceries, health supplements, and eco-friendly household items.

Preliminary land development work has already begun for the new 36,000 s.f. retail town center at Arts District Hyattsville and construction is scheduled for completion late 2010. Yes! Organic Market, along with other retailers, are expected to be open for sales in Spring 2011.”

Yes! Organic will join Busboys and Poets and Tara Thai who have already signed onto the project. You can learn more about the project here.

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At first I was just gonna ask when it changed names but then I realized I’d never actually visited this supermarket (3178 Mount Pleasant St NW). So was just curious – any fans out there? Is it kind of like a Murray’s? Or is it like Panam International Supermarket on 14th Street, NW?

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Photo from PoPville flickr user rosiedawn

A reader writes:

“Last night around 6:30pm, the CH Giant was evacuated due to some fire alarms. Carts and baskets left strewn throughout the store. Fire Trucks came and left. I waited at Sticky Fingers for sanity to resume then moseyed back on over. I was told the store was closed due to malfunctioning sprinkler system and “too bad”. So I got my parking receipt stamped and left, sans the groceries I had spent nearly an hour collecting and then waiting to pay for in astronomical lines. On my way out of the garage I notice that all of a sudden folks are going back in to shop. This was almost immediately after a police officer and store employee told me they were closed down by the fire department. What the heck happened here?”

Anyone experience this as well?

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It’s not often I get emailed props for the Petworth Safeway, in fact this may be the first one, glad to hear it!

“Dear PoP,

I was at the Petworth Safeway (3830 Georgia Avenue) last night around 8:30 PM. While waiting in line, a checkout clerk opened up the register next to mine and called me over to his register. As I was coming around, someone else rushed in front of me, even though I only had one item. As I was allowing the annoyance to settle in and decide what to do, the clerk reached back to me and told the other person that he had asked me to come to his register and that I was first. The other person was pretty rude, but the clerk kept his composure despite offensive comments from the first person, and just told him, politely, that I was there first and he would take care of him in a minute.

What the clerk didn’t know, is that I was buying hydrogen peroxide to induce vomiting in my dog at the advice of ASPCA poison control. He had eaten onions, and in fact it was very important for me to get home as soon as possible. (Many people don’t know this but onions are extremely toxic to dogs, more so than chocolate, and even a small amount can cause great harm).

I didn’t get the clerk’s name but he is a middle-aged thin black man with a mustache, I’ve seen him there before, and I just wanted to recognize his professional behavior which stands out in a world where I’ve gotten used to often apathetic and sometimes downright rude behavior from checkout clerks.”

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“Dear PoP,

Last night, I went grocery shopping at the new and extremely busy Safeway at the City Vista condo building. Having only 8 items, I went to a checkout line labeled “Express 15 Items or Less”. As the couple in front of me started putting their items on the conveyor belt, I noticed they had a lot more than 15 items. I estimated 25 items. So my question is: At this point, since they have already waited and are the next in line and already loading stuff up to be checked out, do you mention that this is the Express lane? I just went to another line, but was rather disgusted.”

Ah, this is one of the small but very frustrating aspects of life. I think we’ve all probably encountered this at one point. I know I never say anything, because I think it’s just not worth it. I wish the cashier would see the violation before the offender puts all his/her items on the conveyor belt. But that’s not very realistic. I think this is a situation where some folks are just inconsiderate and it is easiest to just wait. But I can understand that if you don’t say anything the offender is likely to continue his/her behavior in the future. On the flip side, I was at the Giant on Park Road the other day and I only had some milk and a very nice customer let me go ahead of her. So it may all even out at the end of the day…

Has anyone ever mentioned to a shopper that they have more than 15 (or whatever the number is) items in an express lane?

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We’ve been following the development of Ellwood Thompson’s status in opening a new store in DCUSA in Columbia Heights. Following is the latest word. If you’d like to see them make the move make sure you let Fenty know.

From an email:

“Ellwood Thompson’s will be appealing to Mayor Fenty for funds to begin construction at DCUSA. The Mayor will be at Tubman Elem School tonight (Wed) for a forum to include discussion of “commercial development” starting at 7pm at the meeting of the North Columbia Heights Civic Association. He also can be contacted through dcgov.org under “contact the Mayor”.”

“North Columbia Heights Civic Association Presents:

Wednesday, November 4, 7:00 P.M. at the Harriet Tubman Elementary School (Irving and 13th St. NW)

COLUMBIA HEIGHTS COMMUNITY FORUM WITH MAYOR ADRIAN FENTY

For more details, and more information on NCHCA: http://northcolumbiaheights.googlepages.com/”

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DSCN9267, originally uploaded by Prince of Petworth.

We’ve been having lots of discussions on Elwood Thompson’s lately. Looks like things are moving along nicely. Here’s another positive development, from an email:

“Dear Friends:

I am glad to report that yesterday I introduced and the Council passed legislation to help an organic market to locate in the DCUSA retail center . This bill will ensure that Ellwood Thompson’s — a full-service, organic, natural and sustainable food store — will receive tax relief benefits that are available to every qualified supermarket in DC.

Ellwood Thompson’s is dedicated to high-quality products, supporting local farmers and the community. It signed a lease with DC USA Operating Co., LLC for space in the DC USA Shopping Center in Ward 1. The construction of their supermarket space was delayed due to the downturn in the economy. The is the second time the council passed this bill. The earlier measure was about to expire, and so this action was necessary. the legal action pertained to the fact that–unlike many supermarkets–this one is not free standing and is part of, and within, an existing development. So some technical changes were needed.

I am told that the plans for this supermarket are again underway. Our latest report is that Ellwood Thompson’s has submitted construction diagrams to the developer and they are awaiting approval.

With the passage of this bill, the Council is again doing all it can to make this happen.

Bests, Councilmember Jim Graham”

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DC Mud has the scoop:

“The H Street corridor may soon have a new 6-story apartment building and full service grocery store, a boon for the up-and-coming neighborhood in northeast Washington DC. Steuart Investment Company has owned several of the lots on the northeast corner of 3rd and H Streets, and in 2005 assembled a developable site by acquiring the remaining portion from BP AMOCO (BP) for $1.5 million, scotching BP’s plans for a giant filling station and truck depot.”

But what I also found interesting and worth exploring was a comment left by IMGoph who asks:

“i seriously do not understand why trader joe’s doesn’t expand in the city. they are making money hand over fist in that store in the west end.”

I think it’s a great question. If Trader Joe’s is doing so well in the west end – why don’t they expand to other neighborhoods in the city?

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Rick Hood follows up on the original discussion of Elwood Thompson’s financing possibilities.

“Lots of creative ideas. The CH community is so educated and engaged. Anonymous – your idea regarding the no interest loan w/ 5% back on groceries (need to study what is fair for both here) to attract the $1000- 5000 loans sounds interesting. Would others be interested in such an idea? I will brainstorm on this (and the other ideas) tomorrow w/ our core staff.”

Sounds like a cool idea. I’m also curious how many folks would be interested in a solution like this?

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Rick Hood, owner of Elwood Thompson’s, commented on our recent discussion of Elwood Thompson’s delay in coming to Columbia Heights. Based on the IP address I have no reason to doubt the authenticity of this comment:

“I’m the owner of ET’s and reading all these neighborhood comments. I want to confirm that we’re still in love w/ Columbia Hts and trying to work it out w/ DCUSA. In fact the developer has been to see us in Richmond and is really stretching. We love the diversity of CH and the desire of the community to have a gathering spot for those interested in health, social and environmental consciousnesss around food. Although DCUSA is full of national big boxes, we were attracted to the old facade and feel like we can be the catalyst to more local stores. I think that the education and income levels are growing and the small household size is ideal for us. And Mr T in DC is right, there’s more of our customer type here than Richmond or any other place we’ve studied. Our 15,000sf concept is full service w/ a focus on prepared foods, produce, cheese and meat/seafood. The plan was to include large mural paintings and a long community table that would feel very much like a food co-op -the DCUSA space is perfect. W/ the recession the projected sales have dropped impacting the rent that we can pay and our financing levels. I’m personally very motivated to be here – we really fairly close if we could get a little further help.”

So how do you think we as a community can help facilitate further help?

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We’ve been wondering for months whether or not Ellwood Thompson’s was going to move into the space on Irving Street in the DC USA complex. As you probably surmised, it’s not looking good for a move any time soon. Thanks to a reader for sending an article from the Richmond Times Dispatch. While the Richmond Store is doing well the economy is going to have to improve for a DC expansion:

“In April, Ellwood Thomson’s scuttled plans to open a store in Washington. The 15,000-square-foot store would have been its second location.

Hood says the economy played a significant role in putting off the expansion.

“The timing just wasn’t right,” he said, though he hopes to open a store in the same D.C. location at some point.”

I wonder when all these vacant ground level retail spots in DC USA are going to fill in. Any guesses? One year, two years, longer?

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IMG_1868, originally uploaded by Prince of Petworth.

There were a number of fans of this market located on Park Road just west of 14th Street, NW but sadly it seems they are closing. At first glance I thought a Nails Saloon was coming soon. That would’ve been cool.

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IMG_1749, originally uploaded by Prince of Petworth.

The past couple months the Safeway on Columbia Road in Adams Morgan had been undergoing some renovations. The outside is looking pretty good. I don’t shop there but for those that do, has the inside changed as well?

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Eastern Market weekend flea market, originally uploaded by odradek23.

Back in June Nichole wrote about the Hines Redevelopment Proposals for the 7th and Pennsylvania SE, redevelopment of the Hine Jr. High site. The Mayor issued a press release announcing Stanton-EastBanc as the winner. The press release says:

“Stanton-EastBanc’s proposal calls for about 510,000 square feet of total development at the site. It will include more than 200,000 square feet of office space – about 62,000 square feet set aside to move the nonprofit International Relief and Development and its 200 employees from Virginia to a new headquarters in the District. The project is also set to include about 150 apartments, 60,000 square feet of neighborhood-serving retail and restaurants, consolidation of the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s operations and 150 parking spaces.

Stanton-EastBanc did not request any subsidy from the District for the project. The project could break ground as soon as 2011.”

Now for the Bad News:

Back in August we looked at the proposed development of the Giant and surrounding area on Wisconsin Ave by Newark St. City Desk reports:

“Work at the Friendship Shopping Center site will now be delayed – again. Sharon Robinson, a consultant to the project, said the appeal, while not unexpected, “is subject to a judicial process that will likely take two years or more to complete.” But Giant doesn’t have plans to back down; it “remains committed to the project.””

And sorry to end on this but it is worse news:

WJLA news reports:

“A man was stabbed in front of an apartment building in D.C.’s Adams Morgan neighborhood Monday night, authorities say. The incident occurred around 6:30 p.m. in the 2600 block of Adams Mill Road NW.”

They say the man stabbed in the stomach is expected to survive and the assailant has not yet been caught.

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I’ve gotten tons of emails asking me why I haven’t posted photos of the new YES! Organic Market located at the corner of Georgia Ave and Taylor. I simply hadn’t had a chance to stop by yet. But I remedied that and you guys are right, this place is amazing! First of all the place was much bigger than I thought. And I’ll echo what a lot of folks said, it is such a pleasure to have a nice clean spot like this and also the folks working there were beyond nice. I ran into the owner, Mr. Cha, who wanted to thank the community for their support.

I was particularly impressed with the beer selection…

On a side note, I mentioned previously that I recently sold my car. Well, to go grocery shopping I bought a granny cart. It is amazing to me that overnight I’ve turned into an 80 year old Jewish guy from the lower East Side with this cart. But I’ve decided to embrace it.

Lots more photos of inside the YES! after the jump. Read Full Post

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