Georgetown Cupcake by @Heylovedc.
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
- Artist’s rendering of suspect in Georgetown sexual assault released.
- First weekend of the new Safeway, what did you think? GM heard word that traffic was pretty bad since the lights do not appear to have been adjusted. Hopefully when the hoopla dies down, the crowds will be smaller.
The Georgetown Metropolitan 
It’s a 1000% improvement over the old safeway in terms of actual grocery store. The produce, meat, and fish is much better. Not the best of DC, but it is a safeway after all. Parking is a disaster. They should make one entrance for entering, and one for exiting. The light is not calibrated and you have to wait a long time to get out. It took me 15 minutes on Friday to get out. The security guards just made matters worse. Unfortunately i don’t think this is a solution as there are the lights on S street and R street that cause backups. Before this store reopened i thought parking was going to be the biggest tissue, or at least getting out. Turns out the biggest problem is they hired the same people as last time. They probably had 3 times the amount of people needed working there to make the grand opening a hit. But what good is it when it takes 3 people to do one job. There were no less than 10 workers standing at the front greeting customers. Or at least that;s what they were supposed to do. Instead they chatted about their boyfriends and blocked access to the carts. I had to ask four separate employees where the rice was. And it took me over a half hour to check out. I’ve never waited longer than 10 minutes at whole foods, even when the store is packed. I’ve never waited more than 10 minutes at trader joes, even when the line is around the store and out the door. One lady trying to go quickly used the self check out counter. It took, 2 employees and the manager to figure out how to do it. And guess what, they didn’t, she had to go to customer service so they could check her out. I’m sorry, but for all the benefits of the new grocery store (better produce, meat, seafood, bread) it;s all washed away by the terrible employees and parking. I;d rather spend the extra $10 and go to whole foods, or take the extra 10 minutes and go to Harris Teeter in Kalorama . That would still be quicker. Lets hope they work the kinks out of the system.
I had a good experience on Saturday morning. As to the traffic, perhaps it was just the time of day, but there was no line to get out of the parking lots and to turn onto Wisconsin, but there was a significant back-up on Wisconsin itself — it seemed to me that they had changed the timing of the lights so that the people coming out had a longer green, but that this meant the red on Wisconsin was so much longer than it used to be that traffic going north and southbound on Wisconsin was backed up for a block or two — not good for those just trying to get through that area.
I thought the store was great — much nicer than before and with lots more choices, but still with highly competitive prices.
My only suggestion is that they not play the music so loud — it’s a grocery store, not a disco — and play something more relaxing than the edgy rock they had on.
But all in all it’s a huge boon for the neighborhood.
My experience with the employees was very different from that of “Annon.” I went on Saturday and found the employees to be courteous, helpful, and knowledgeable.