La Supermarket Grande

I do most of my grocery shopping at the Giant by PG Plaza. I'm familiar with that location after living in Hyattsville for a year, and in addition to being a nice store, there aren't many other grocery stores in the area to take my business away from there. I shopped at the Giant in Riverdale Plaza occassionally before it closed, but mostly just for quick trips.
So when my wife needed a few ingredients for a recipe she was in the process of making, I decided I didn't want to deal with East-West highway during a high traffic time, and decided to check out the newly opened La Supermarket Grande where the Riverdale Giant was formerly located.

The store's name isn't exactly inviting to English speakers, but I figured my tiny spanish vocabulary would at least get me out of the store safely. It was an interesting visit. The staff at LSG seemed to be all Latin. The cashier who checked me out was able to greet me in English, but I don't think we could have had a deep conversation in my native language. The store's management/owners were asian. From the conversation I heard them having, their English wasn't exactly fluent either. I'm open to diversity, and don't have a problem with immigrants. However, I did get the feeling customer service might be an issue with the language difficulties. I don't think I would feel confident asking an employee for assistance finding an item.

While the store is obviously focused on providing services to our area's latin community, they did have signs for prices and items posted in English. While I wasn't confident in my ability to hold a conversation with LSG's employees, I didn't have trouble understanding how aisles and items were labeled.

The most positive thing I took away from my visit at the LSG was the meat department. Giant's base price for boneless, skinless chicken breasts is 3.99. This is a staple of my diet, but I usually wait until Giant has it on sale for 1.79 or 1.99 a pound. This happens maybe once a month, and often other Giant shoppers have snatched up everything in stock before I do my purchase. LSG's price for boneless, skinless breasts was 1.59 a pound. No discount marked...no bonus card. 1.59 a pound. I hope this isn't a temporary price, because I would love to have access to chicken breast at that price. I also noticed a beef tenderloin roast went for 5.99 a pound. Not sure of the Giant comparison, but it seemed like a good price to me.

The main drawback of this store is the one that was previously facing Giant. SIZE. The shopping experience at an older and smaller grocery store isn't as positive as with a contemporary grocery store. Now, I don't need a monstrous establishment like a Wegman's to enjoy grocery shopping. The Giant on East West Highway is just fine. LSG offers both traditional American items as well as merchandise that is aimed at the local Latin community. With the greater stock of Latin items, it seems like supply of different brands and in quantities is even less. I can't see myself making my usual weekly shopping trips at LSG, although it might be worth it to buy certain items.

The addition of La Supermarket Grande is interesting for the Riverdale area. On blogs about the area, I read a lot about the desire for local businesses. Our area is very diverse, and a successful business will likely have to corner all customers in its desired niche, or appeal to all ethnic and socioeconomic groups. It seems that many Riverdale residents work in government or businesses focused in Washington DC. Local entrepeneurs seem to me to more likely come from the increasing immigrant community in this area. There seem to be a good amount of Latin restaurants that have popped up in the area, especially on the Kenilworth corridor. I won't be surprised to see more Latin owned businesses in the area.

Christmas Season is Here

This weekend truly felt like the beginning of the Christmas season for my family. We drove out to the country and cut down our Christmas tree Saturday morning, and spent the afternoon decorating the tree and putting up lights outside. There are some houses in Riverdale that really get in the Christmas spirit and put up some great displays outside of their homes. However, I wish more of our neighbors would get involved in decorating. I don't expect every house to have elaborate Christmas decorations, but neighborhoods with lots of lights truly feel welcoming during an otherwise dreary winter season. With the early onset of darkness in winter, the lights have a great effect.

After we were satisfied with our day's worth of Christmas preparation, we headed over to the Holiday Festival at Town Center. Their was a very positive vibe at the festival, and it seemed like vendors, musicians, and attendees were all in a friendlier than usual mood. I guess there is something to the idea of holiday spirit! I was happy to see a good turnout, especially among children. There seemed to be plenty of activities to keep people entertained. I'm happy that Riverdale was able to put on a good event. Hopefully the Holiday Festival will become an annual tradition for my family and the rest of the town. I think organizing a fundraiser for a local charity or organization might be something that would fit well with the Holiday Festival. With such a good turnout of people, this would be a good time to try and promote positive citizenship in the community.

PS...I'm happy with the early Christmas gift from Prince George's county. The new recycling bins will be great for promoting a more environmentally conscious town.