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.