Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Local News Brief: Cleaning Up Local Schools & Hechinger Mall Safeway Breeds Discontent

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Wheatley Education Campus in Trinidad

Saturday is beautification day at Ludlow-Taylor Elementary School (659 G Street) and Wheatley Education Campus (1299 Neal Street). Come out and help parents and neighbors get the places looking good for students heading back to school on the 22nd. 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. for Ludlow-Taylor and 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. for Wheatley (Old City CrossFit is pitching in on this one). Many other locals schools are holding similar events this weekend. Times vary, so check with your local school for details.


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One local resident who is frustrated with the Safeway at Hechinger Mall is collecting stories about the store on Twitter (#hechingerhellsafeway) with the aim of encouraging the chain to improve the location. One possible stumbling block is that this particular outlet has been long rumored to be closing at some point in the not too distant future. Which reminded me of an interesting post Trinidad resident (and blogger at BeyondDC and Greater Greater Washington) Dan Malouff wrote a while back about the potential of Hechinger Mall (or the land it sits upon). Malouff is a transportation planner in Arlington, and the piece is definitely worth a read when you have a spare moment.

19 comments:

Lane said...

Maury Elementary School is also having a school beautification day on Saturday. We're at 1250 Constitution Ave NE. Come by between 8AM and 1pm to help us spread mulch, move plants, and pretty up the school and therefore the neighborhood. It's going to be hot but even if you can only help for half an hour you will have made a big difference. Thank you!

Anonymous said...

That safeway is so ghetto. I go to the Harris Teeter on 1st and M even though it's farther away from me.

Anonymous said...

It's only a matter of time before that mall is torn down and redeveloped. I'm honestly surprised it hasn't happened by now.

Anonymous said...

I bought some cottage cheese at that Safeway and ate it as soon as I got home. It didn't taste right and when I checked the label it had been expired for weeks. I always check the date when I go to that store now.

Anonymous said...

The check out lines at that Safeway are very very slow. It takes an average of 40 seconds for the clerk to scan the next item. What is going on over there? I think they must staff it with people they find hanging out at the Starburst Plaza.

Anonymous said...

I like to pretend that Safeway is a Trader Joe's.

Anonymous said...

considering that neighborhood, i dont know how the atlas charges 1700 for a 1bd. the same idiots who live in the atlas must shop at the safeway too cuz it seems they like to waster their money on nonsense

Anonymous said...

the atlas is pretty much right across the street from H st. $1700 isn't all that unreasonable for a brand new apartment.

Anonymous said...

I think this Safeway is operating in 5D05. The ANC commissioner is the one ultimately responsible here.

Also, I would suggest taking your hard earned money across the street to ALDI's if you like to enjoy the food you eat. The free market works if you do your part.

Anonymous said...

Bingo to Anon 3:24. If you don't like the service at Safeway, go to Giant, or Harris Teeter, or another Safeway.

Anonymous said...

Agreed - it needs to be torn down. That place is hideous. However, I was feeling victorious over the ZIPS that just came in there! Finally something useful.

Anonymous said...

The TV show Undercover Boss should do an episode about the Heckinger Mall Safeway. It would be really funny to see CEO Robert L. Edwards reactions to the rest of the staff as he gets training on the register, deli and night stocking.

Anonymous said...

that safeway is 100% ratchet

Doug said...

It's a grocery store, they sell groceries. I like how convenient it is to walk to. I think they need to hire more employees to work the registers as the lines can be awful sometimes but other than that I have no complaints. I hope we continue to have a grocery store at that location for many years to come.

Safeway is 0.2 miles from my house. Harris Teeter is 1.5 miles, and Giant is 1.1 miles. That is a huge difference when you are walking. I like being able to walk to the grocery store. Aldi, though it has some good bargains sometimes, is not a full grocery store. The stock they have is very limited compared to Safeway.

Also, the first response tweet is someone who states they haven't even been to the store in three years but is relying on her apparently amazing photographic memory of random nonsense to malign the place. Typical.

Anonymous said...

It's called the Unsafeway in these parts.

Anonymous said...

Literally all grocery store service in these parts is rubbish, no matter where you shop (maybe I'll back down from "literally" since I never shop at Whole Food or Trader Joe's, so maybe there's some decent service out there). I thanked a cashier at Harris Teeter the other day for putting my raw meat on the bottom of the bag, "it seems that no one at any grocery store around here listens to the training on how to bag!" His response: "we were never trained to do that, it just made sense to me." I just stood there slack-jawed while he finished checking my order.

Either he was lying or there's the problem. WAY back in the 90's, I had to do computer training on bagging order/arrangement, how to scan things the fastest, and even had to pass a quiz on the CPUs of common vegetables before I was allowed on a register (for my 5 days of training, I'd spend 2-3 hours on the computer, and another 3-4 hours doing takebacks and facing product so that I knew where literally everything in the store was). After I was allowed on a register, my speed and accuracy were tracked, and I had to meet certain targets that ramped up over my first few months. I was actually dinged with a demerit when NYE fell on a Sunday one year and we couldn't sell alcohol after Midnight (Mon-Sat we could sell until 1 AM), and probably 75% of people in line "forgot" that it was a Sunday and the cutoff had passed, so I spent too long explaining to too many customers that I couldn't sell them their booze, so my items scanned per minute and time per customer stats were horrible (also, yes, fully half the grocery stores in the area were and still are 24-hours, versus almost none here).

Considering that Harris Teeter is now owned by Kroger, and Safeway is almost a national chain, I find it hard to believe they don't have the same training protocols and performance standards I and everyone else I know who did their time as grocery store employees did. To head the obvious comments off at the pass, Harris Teeter is non-union and the major grocery store chain in my hometown area is (not the one I worked at, but one where many of my friends did and related the same training experience/performance standards as I experienced). The guy at my local Giant who is never seen without his union button is the fastest cashier I've ever encountered around these parts, and I head straight for his line if I see him. Thus, it appears that it's not a union/non-union thing.

Anon 8:23 said...

*PLU. I now spend too much time with computers, apparently...

Anonymous said...

I was in whole foods in Foggy Bottom. I wanted and Aged Steak which they are one of the few who sell aged steaks. I walk up to the butcher case and asked for and aged strip steak and the nice guy behind the counter told me that he and his co workers were not butchers and could not cut meat and I should come back on a day when a butcher is on site, but he couldn't tell me when those days were. Not surprised my Doctors offices is only staffed by RN and PA the Doctor only visits the office to review cases once a month

Anonymous said...

Cool story, bro.