Safeway In Ruins Retrospective

So much for Zombie Safeway.  Kids these days are much too young to remember the golden age when Wheaton’s Safeway was open for business:

The Way We Were

…but then it closed…

Don't Come Around Here No More

…and zombified…

BRAINNNNNSSSSS

…but finally has found peace.  Or at least is in pieces, which is all I ever really asked for…

Ashes to Ashes, Dirt to Dirt

…and someday we will have this:

Artist's Rendering: Do Not Try This At Home

Rubble Rubble

Flintstones? Hamburglar? Or the sweet loud sound of a crumbling zombie grocery store?  Down goes Frazier Safeway!  It took nearly two years to get started, and the entire edifice has been pretty much destroyed in less than a week.

What else?

• Sounds like the latest Wheaton culinary tour was a success, Patch has the story.
• Dungeness crab season off to a crabby start.  I still wish I were there to buy a bushel fresh off a boat…
• This may not be real, but allegedly In-N-Out is not the only “secret menu”.

Zombie Safeway From Undead to Just Plain Dead (and Eventually Alive Again)

To paraphrase Miracle Max in The Princess Bride, Wheaton’s Safeway has been mostly dead since December 2009, but this month finally will be put out of all of our misery so that a newer, better Safeway may rise in its place.  Demowition…twue demowition. We have the technology.  We can make it bigger..stronger…faster…the Six Million Dollar Safeway!

Groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for this morning.  Already work has begun tearing out the insides and collapsing the ceiling, and uprooting the sidewalks. In fact, as of 8am today, a giant yellow back hoe* was grinding away at the store’s innards, only a shell remained — I guess they decided not to wait for the ceremony. I know not everyone is excited about fourteen stories of whatever, but I’m glad the project is finally moving forward.

* Maybe not a backhoe, I don’t know my construction equipment — any 3-year-old could have told me, but I didn’t have one easily accessible this morning.

I was hoping for something more spectacular, like what they did to the Vegas Stardust, but I’ll take what I can get.

For Realz?

Those of you holding your breath will have to hang on another week or so, but this is good news.

Save the date?

The Social Wegmans

WaPo on looking for love at the PG County Wegman’s.  Is that an organic turnip in your pocket or are you happy to see me?  How long before they’re conducting weddings in the marketplace section? They may have the Social Safeway beat. Meanwhile, we wait for Wheaton’s Zombie Safeway to return to its maker, dust to dust, so a new shiny Safeway may rise in its place (plus 14 stories of housing).

This is the definitive supermarket pick-up, though. “Vegetables are sensual, people are sensuous.”

365 Days Held Hostage

Wheaton’s Safeway closed its doors on December 19, 2009, never to open again.  If all goes according to plan, it will finally be vaporized in a few months with mixed-use development (including a new Safeway) to arise Phoenix-like from the rubble.

Darkness Falls on Zombie Safeway

Paper or plastic BRAAAAAIIIIIINNSSSSSS…

Kensington Safeway Ground Beef Recall

I guess a Zombie Safeway beats a contaminated-product Safeway. An alert this morning from the Town of Kensington says the Connecticut Avenue Kensington Safeway is recalling 220 pounds of ground beef sold on Sunday, Nov. 28, 2010. These products may contain pieces of plastic and/ or ink from a pen.

• 93% Lean Ground Beef 7% Fat Extreme Value Pack – UPC Code 201672004352
• 93% Lean Ground Beef 7% Fat – UPC Code 201700304546
• 90% Lean Ground Beef Not More Than 10% Fat Extreme Value Pack – UPC Code 201730203606
• 90% Lean Ground Beef 10% Fat – UPC Code 201698103701
• 80% Lean Ground Beef 20% Fat Extreme Value Pack – UPC Code 201693002870
• 80% Lean Ground Beef 20% Fat – UPC Code 201692803003
• 80% Lean Ground Beef Market 20% Fat Extreme Value Pack – UPC Code 201703002920
• 80% Lean Ground Beef Market 20% Fat – UPC Code 201702703057

All of the recalled ground beef has a “Sell By” date of November 30, 2010. The Sell By date can be found on the white scale label affixed to the package. The ground beef is packaged in black Styrofoam trays and sold from the self-service meat cooler. Anyone who purchased the above-listed ground beef product should discard or return them to the store for a full refund.

Another Day Closer to Safeway

Today’s Gazette has the update on the 17-story Safeway-and-apartment complex coming soon eventually to the Zombie Safeway site across from Wheaton Metro.  The story does not say when demolition of the Zombie Safeway will begin (too bad they missed Halloween weekend — maybe they were afraid the ZS would fight back?). I look forward to the day when I once again can make a quick stop on my way home from the Metro for a loaf of bread, a container of milk, and a stick of butter.

Why Safeway Matters

It was small, perhaps not 100% clean at all times, no fish counter, and any number of other complaints could be made about Zombie Safeway. And I had forgotten that its closure was due at least in part to code violations (shocking — shocking!!). But I don’t think its closure and zombification should be so easily dismissed, which is why I keep bringing it up. The Wheaton Safeway matters, for several reasons.

First, it wasn’t actually a bad store. It looked bad, or at least old — or, more charitably, “classic”! — but as is the case elsewhere in Wheaton, one shouldn’t judge a store (or restaurant) by the view from the street. Inside, too, it was imperfect, as with fish and cleanliness (maybe more accurately ”orderliness”) mentioned above, but on the other hand it had surprisingly good quality produce, which was consistently better than the produce at the disappointing, newish Kensington Safeway.

We never did our major weekly shopping at the Wheaton Safeway, but we used it all the time for last-minute produce, dairy, or dry goods needs, primarily because it is far more convenient for us than braving mall traffic to get to Giant or going all the way up to H-Mart, which is fine for regular shopping but too far for a post-work quick trip. So convenience, for all of us in the East-of-Georgia and South-of-University quadrant, is point two. Happily, Hung Phat and Latino Mercado (and in a real pinch 7-Eleven) help fill the gap, but even combined they don’t have the product coverage that even a small Safeway has.

Three, the Safeway project is (I think) becoming symbolic of Wheaton’s would-be economic upgrade, and having the Zombie sit there, the little economic engine who can’t, is bad for morale and a sign that revitalization may still be far off in the distance. Now that Safeway is closed and the project is approved, starting demolition and putting the project in motion will be both symbolic and meaningful. Limbo makes me nervous; I worry that Wheaton is Vladimir and Godot ain’t coming.

I like zombies, poor innocent victims of anti-undead discrimination — although they seem relatively welcome in certain parts of MoCo. But I think there are better uses for this particular space. And I’ve never been very good at waiting patiently…

Zombie Safeway: 182 Days Held Hostage

Today is the six-month anniversary of Wheaton Safeway’s closing.  The “Coming Soon” banner announcing the new Safeway/14 stories of apartments complex has been up since April; meanwhile, Zombie Safeway lurks, waiting to pounce on unsuspecting passersby.  How soon is soon? Why did we have to lose our Safeway — admittedly not the best of its kind, but convenient, and employing people, and adding some small but greater-than-zero level of grungy vibrancy to the area — when nothing was going to happen for so long, and no demolition seems imminent?

Zombie Safeway

This is getting irritating. Someone needs to start demo before the Zombie Safeway eats all our brains, having developed a taste for them by apparently eating the ones of various people at MoCo and Wheaton and the developer. I would start demo myself, I have a hammer, but I don’t want to cause unrest…I just want things to happen.