Tuesday, October 28, 2008

everyone's favorite sport—new grocery store speculation!

so, here's a fun little rumor that i picked up on sunday.

trader joe's, quite possibly the best low-cost grocery chain i've ever seen, has only one location in the district, at 25th and L in foggy bottom. there were rumors back in the day that they might be looking at opening a U street location at 14th and V (where yes! organic market will be opening soon).

while checking out, i was chatting with the cashier and asked her when trader joe's was going to be expanding in order to take over the city. she told me pretty matter-of-factly that she's heard that tj's is looking at new locations in "upper georgetown" (which sounds to me like either burlieth or glover park) and at 14th and S streets nw.

now, the 14th and S location would be of more interest to bloomingdalians. i'm not sure exactly which building that would be located in, but whitman-walker just sold their buildings on the northwest corner here, so maybe those parcels could be configured to make space for a grocery store.

near that corner, there's also the central union mission building (which they're leaving for 65 mass. ave nw) and the old church of the rapture building (on the southwest corner of 14th and T). that one's being fought over by the owner of tryst/the diner/open city and a furniture store from minnesota, so i'm sure that's not a possibility here.

so, does a trader joe's on the 14th street corridor sound like a real possibility, or was i just hearing unsubstantiated rumors?

5 comments:

Sean Hennessey said...

that would be pretty cool by me.

Justin from ReadysetDC said...

The parcels including the clinic are set to be apartments and retail. JBG is handling that, and mentioned a grocery store as a potential tenant. Check out the DCMUD article:
http://dcmud.blogspot.com/2008/09/whitman-walker-goes-high-rise.html

Anonymous said...

There is a Trader Joe's in my pants. So technically, there are two TJs in the city.

Steve Glazerman said...

I dunno. Why would they plop themselves right in between WHole Foods, a brand new Yes organic, and a brand new Harris Teeter? Don't get me wrong. I live nearby and would love all these vendors competing to sell me groceries, and TJs is my favorite of all of them. But it sounds too good to be true.

Anonymous said...

Harris Teeter pwns this haven for pretentious fucks. Ya'll granola and wheatgrass eatin' ma'fucks will love it.