Grocery Store

Why is the store a tad busier at 8:30am on a Saturday? Or is it just me? I go to the Giant early in the morning on Saturdays to get my weekly groceries and to avoid lines. I don’t know if I’m imagining it, but it seems busier. The lines seem longer. Not crazy long, going halfway down the aisle long, but longer than usual.
If I’m not imagining things and the lines are getting longer at the Giant, I guess more people are shopping there. It could be a consequence of gentrification or greater density residential buildings popping up in various parts of Shaw? I know we all don’t go to the Whole Foods for regular shopping. I don’t. Love the products, hate the prices. So maybe two Shaw grocery stores might not be enough.
Hopefully a new Safeway, slated to pop up on the other side of the road of death I call New York Ave in the NoMa area will get built and take some of the pressure off the Giant. Yet if I’m reading it right, that won’t be until 2008. Doesn’t do me any good now. And besides, they keep building these condos and apartments with people, and at some point, they too will want to buy groceries.
I guess I could always go the route of Peapod, but the store is right there. A short walk, an even shorter bike ride. I’ll just bring a book, and read while waiting to get rung up.

Addition:
Thinking some more I guess all those new apartment and condo dwellers along Mass Ave and over in Gallery Place gotta pick up milk, TP, salad somewhere. I wonder if the grocery stores in Dupont and Shaw are enough to support them? Then what of new projects to come that will add even more people?

OT Addition:
I’ve added a charity to the side there. Being episcopalian, I chose Episcopal Relief and Development. There is also a link to the New York Times’ list of other charitable organizations helping the vicitms of Hurricane Katrina.

14 thoughts on “Grocery Store”

  1. I’ve got to try bringing a book. The cashiers at the Giant are the slowest I’ve ever run into. Seems like every time I get in line the register breaks, or the cash has to be picked up by the manager, or someone decides to raise a fuss over their coupons not ringing up the way they expected.

    Plus the produce is usually half-rotten. Yeesh. I could go on. I’ll admit I was spoiled by growing up in Arlington, but really, the Giant could stand some improvement (or replacing). It’s fine for nonperishable staples, but I find myself paying through the nose at Whole Foods more and more.

  2. I was so happy with the convenience of our Giant in Shaw until I saw the nice new one over in Columbia Heights. We’ve taken to going over there on the weekends because the lines are better and the food looks fresher. I heard a rumor that our Giant on O Street is the dumping ground for all the area Giants who need to off-load nearly expired food. Is that why I could buy a whole check for $1.70? I am NOT kidding — 3 of us were standing around this bin of whole chickens, looking around each other and wondering “What could be wrong with this chicken to warrent such a low price?”…before we each grabbed one and left. I cooked it the next day and am still alive. Plus I’ve bought a “free-range” chicken at Whole Foods before and that thing only had 1 wing.

  3. Oh yeah, the Giant over in Columbia Heights is 100x better than the Ghetto Giant. But to be slightly fair, it is newer and ours is old and dirty. I swear some of the better cashiers have been sent to CH too.
    On perishables, I am frequenting the farmers markets for my freshness needs. First, I support small semi-local (PA ain’t local) producers. Second, it’s fresh. There is a farmers market on Thursdays on 8th St by the Archives/Navy Mem. stop. I love the yogurt I can get there, despite the fact its sold by a guy from FSU. I have yet to get to the H St market on Saturday, I havn’t figured out an easy bus route yet to get there.
    Maybe if we write Giant and ask why ours is crappy, maybe they’ll make it less of a dumping ground.
    Contact Giant:
    Giant Food Inc.
    Consumer Affairs, D597
    6300 Sheriff Road
    Landover, MD. 20785

  4. I don’t go to church, so I find sunday mornings a great time to go to the shaw giant

  5. where can I find a list of all the nearby farmer’s markets, w/ schedule? we usually go to the RIA giant by the home depot. the biggest problem is usually finding a cart, but other than that, its as good as any giant we went to in NOVA.

    oh, & if you still need to unload basil, you can drop some by.

  7. The Giant is supposed to be replaced with a new Giant, condos in the parking lot, and a refurbished historical market (the collapsed red brick building)… Parking will be under the new Giant. I’m guessing though that this will be protested ad nauseum by folks demanding that it be affordable housing or a new school so we may never see it.

    -KG

  8. Some time back (long time ago in a basement far away) I heard of the plan for a new Giant. And never head anything since. But then again I stopped attending Shaw Main Streets meetings so maybe that is why.
    In that same meeting was mentioned a school to go further down 9th St and some apartments that would have some affordable housing. Both different developers. As long as there are people to defend and fight for a new Giant, we might get a new Giant. Not like a new Giant will remove housing, as there is no residential anything on the block the Ghetto Giant and the historic O Street Market occupies. I think the whole neighborhood can unite in the name of shorter lines and more cashiers.

  10. I’ve stopped going to the Shaw Giant since the CH one opened. Sure its takes a little longer to get there but with shorter/reasonable check out lines its the same amount of time overall.

    I can’t imagine that it will get replaced much before the end of the decade.

    For those folk downtown there will be a Balducci’s/Sutton Gormet opening up sometime early next year at 7th and E.

  11. Mari,
    The 90/92 bus that goes down Florida turns on 8th. You could get off at 8th & H Street & be two blocks from the market (more like 1.5 blocks, actually).

  12. A cashier at the Giant recommended coming during the rain. I started doing that, and it made a big difference. (But I had a car, so it wasn’t as much of a burden as it would be walking or biking.)

  13. I hafta agree on this post and the comments. I tried to “zip” over there on a Sunday morning but apparent I had caught the first wave of church-goers who went to Giant. Four “express” checkout lanes were loaded to the gills. I think another subtler problem over there is people’s unfamiliarity with time-saving devices. The credit card readers are actually a hinderance since the elderly don’t understand what “11.37 OK?” means. Additionally, people don’t use credit cards so the cashiers hafta make change. Lotsa customers seem to require every procedures since a lot of them use food stamps or WIC cards.

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