Gallery Place Living Back In The Express! (Grocery Store Talk)

This is absolutely awful, you people are terrible. I have said it before and I will say it again….if you get anyone other than Balducci’s to go into that space, it will take YEARS, AS IN 3+ to get a grocery store. If Balducci’s is coming in it will take months to a year at most.

But you know what, you spoiled “I have to have a say in things” people who can’t get your way, I hope you win. I hope you complain so much that you scare Balducci’s away again. that they take a year finding someone new. That at the end of the year they find someone who has to go to their board, who will take months to vote. Then they can run feasibility studies, which will take months, then go to their financers and get money. Then, two years from now, they can begin the permitting and construction process. A year later, 3 years from now, you’ll get your way, a Safeway (because if Balducci’s is to rich for your blood…first off how do you afford to live in PQ if that’s the case…but it Balducci’s is too rich for your blood, presumably Trader Joes would be as well). So you’ll get your Safeway 3 years from now (of course you’ll have one already a couple blocks away in 2).

In other words, if you don’t know what you are talking about, shut your mouth!!! A few blocks away a Safeway is going in, in 2 years. NO ONE, and I mean NO ONE other than Balducci’s will be able to move into the Balducci’s space in less then 2 years. So you will have your low price run of the mill grocer just a couple blocks away (I presume you are just being lazy to not want to walk the distance). And we, who want something better will have our Balducci’s in a year. SO please, please please, keep your mouth shut. You complain, it goes into the Washington Post, and we risk losing Balducci’s again. You’ll get your crap grocer in the Safeway a couple blocks away, so please don’t prevent us from getting our high end one.

Sound’s like someone got Dick Cheney mad!
“if you don’t know what you are talking about, shut your mouth!!!”

Wow. Perhaps anonymous should say that into the mirror.

1) If Balducci’s can’t afford to open a store, they certainly can’t afford to pay a lease for an empty store in our neighborhood. I am sure they would take one of the other two grocers up on a sublease.

2) It has already taken Balducci’s years to “think about” selling $2 tomatoes in the neighborhood and they don’t seem any more committed today than they were in April.

3) Balducci’s and Trader Joes do not have comparable prices. Balducci’s prices are much higher.

4) If Balducci’s is relying on the blog section of the Express to make its business decisions, the company has more problems than I thought.

The letter quoted in Express should say, “I couldn’t care less” not “I could care less.”

Wow. As the person who wrote the anonymous comment (at 7/12/2006 02:06:02 PM) that made it into the Express, I should point out that my comment’s main purpose was an appreciation of the open (and sometimes fierce) debate about grocery stores in this blog’s comment sections.

But now I’m being told to shut my mouth because I don’t know what I’m talking about? And asked how I can afford to live in PQ if I can’t afford to do all my grocery shopping at Balducci’s? How about hard work and saving and not spending $7 on a jar of sun-dried tomatoes at Balducci’s when I could buy one for $2 at Trader Joe’s?

To further respond to this nonsense would only justify your rant as part of a legitimate debate. My comments are my opinion, nothing more, and if I had any control over whether we get a Balducci’s (or another grocer), I wouldn’t spend my time writing comments on this blog.

I’m glad GPLiving published this rant, as I’m not a fan of censorship, but I hope people writing comments on this blog remember that we’re all neighbors. It’s a grocery store, not the Rapture, so I think we’re all entitled to a civilized discussion that avoids personal attacks.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, jason. Anon’s rant was very close to being rejected, but it is relevant and representative of those people who wish to shop at Balducci’s instead of any other grocer.

However, there is a lot of speculation and improbable info contained in the comment. For instance, we all know that Safeway will not even consider the Jefferson space because it is too small for a traditional grocer.

Also, the 3 year figure is unlikely. The worst case scenario is that Balducci’s sits on the lease until the end of the year without opening a store.

The planned Safeway at the CityVista site is more than “a couple of blocks away” of a large majority of Penn Quarter residents (upwards of 8 blocks away).

I too have been pro-Balducci’s here on the blog, but the Balducci/TJ’s/etc dilemma is at best a yuppie problem. No need to get personal.

Once the Bear Sterns guys realize that all they need to do is sell picnic packages to the tourists (to eat on the National Mall) in order to break-even, they’ll go forward. The true outrage should be directed at the $9 “value” meals McDonald’s sells at the Air & Space Museum.

Also, we just want to point out that getting this debate published in the Express and other newspapers is a good thing.

The last article on Balducci’s reconsidering their plans got syndicated across the country with the Associated Press. That means that people -across the country- are reading about how Penn Quarter residents in Washington DC don’t have a grocery store!

Suggesting that “everyone keep quiet” will gain nothing for our neighborhood. Everyone *was* keeping quiet when Balducci’s originally decided to pull-out of Penn Quarter. And when everyone spoke up, Balducci’s reconsidered. Get with the program!

You said it gpliving!

A blog is a dialogue among a community of participants and there will be always be a spectrum of opinions. Safeway, A & P or Balducci’s represent that diversity but lying at the center of the discussion is the fact that a grocery store, in some incarnation, is what the community wants. That fact is not lost on Balducci’s who holds the lease and is losing green every month that no tenant occupies the space. No pun intended.