The D.C. Shuffle
A revitalized District of Columbia is attracting scores of new supermarket options.
January 1, 2018
Homeland Security attorney Johnna French is the go-to person when it comes to finding the latest dining hotspot in the booming restaurant scene in Washington, D.C. Her weekly blog, johnnaknowsgoodfood.com, is read by thousands. But what is her take on the supermarkets in the District?
“Harris Teeter has a pretty decent lunch spread, as far as their hot and cold bars,” she says. “If I am grocery shopping on the fly and need something to eat, Harris Teeter’s food is the freshest thing we can get in my neighborhood.”
French also gives high marks to Safeway.
“Safeway is pretty good, I will say that, as far as a basic grocery store. They have a good formula for every neighborhood where they have a store,” French says. “But in my neighborhood we are getting a Whole Foods and I can see myself swapping out Safeway for Whole Foods.”
Like many D.C. residents, French finds the new competition has caused the older players to raise their game.
“The area supermarkets have greatly improved their selection,” she says. “The grocery stores have definitely improved and I think that is attributable to the presence of new competitors like Wegmans and Trader Joe’s.”
Wegmans is not in D.C. proper… yet, but scores of other food retailers targeting all income levels are now calling Washington, D.C. home, including Whole Foods, Harris Teeter, MOM’s Organic Market, Yes! Organic Market, Streets Market and Café, Costco, Target, Walmart, Save-A-Lot and Aldi. These are all in addition to long-time stalwarts Giant Food and Safeway.
Since 2000, 30 new supermarkets have set up shop in the 68.34-square-mile District of Columbia—one has since closed—and at least another six are on the drawing board, including two Harris Teeters and three Whole Foods.
“I know a lot of supermarkets are vying for the space where Walter Reed Hospital used to be, and we are interested in that space as well,” says Jamie Miller, manager, public and community relations at Giant Food, the Landover, Md.-based division of Ahold USA.
The competition is expected to even get hotter, as industry observers expect German deep-discount chain Lidl to open stores in the District when it enters the U.S. later this year. Additionally, city and other officials continue working to entice Rochester, N.Y.-based Wegmans to open a store in the Capital. For now, Wegmans operates stores in the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs. French shops at Wegmans’ outpost in suburban Largo, Md. “I love Wegmans. It’s so huge. If they can put a Walmart in D.C., I think they can put anything in D.C.,” she says.
A Wegmans official declined to comment on the chain’s expansion plans.
Observers say supermarkets are being attracted to Washington, D.C. because of the city’s dramatic and ongoing transformation. Since 2000, the population has increased by more than 100,000. Tens of thousands of those are upscale, young, well-educated professionals, sparking a dramatic rebirth. Blocks that have lain fallow since the 1968 riots are sprouting apartment buildings, and boarded-up townhouses and brownstones have been lovingly restored.
“There has just been an amazing change in this community from 15-20 years ago, and you are seeing that throughout the city,” says Miller. “Southeast, which has really been an underserved part of D.C., is starting to be revitalized as well with the building of the stadium where the Washington Nationals play, right across the river.”
“The Washington, D.C. market, above all others in the last 10 years, has really undergone a transformation unlike any other market in the country,” says Barry F. Scher, a principal at Policy Solutions, a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm, and a retired 44-year Giant Food veteran.
“The District has become a very exciting place to live,” Scher says. “There are many neighborhoods where just three years ago I would not have walked through in the middle of the night. Now when you go through at midnight you see scores of young professionals walking around and in and out of the bars and restaurants.”
Scher points to the H Street corridor, which was looted during the riots and has only recently been transformed.
“There is a new trolley line that is going to start operations soon, and now 10 to 15 restaurants on every block. It has become the new place,” Scher says. “Giant has a store there, as does Harris Teeter. Five years ago if you said there would be two major grocery stores on the H Street, NE corridor, I would have said you are out of your mind.”
H Street, like much of the district, is now populated with upscale, trendy, well-educated residents.
“In December 2015, D.C’s population was 672,000 and two-thirds of the growth came from in-migration, and of that net in-migration, 55 percent were from outside the U.S.,” says Chad Shuskey, senior vice president, research and visual communication at the Washington, D.C. Economic Partnership, a nonprofit organization that works in public partnership with the city to market and position Washington, D.C. for retail and residential development and to attract new employers to move to the city.