Only grocery store in a D.C. ward with 85K people might close over theft losses
8:50 AM on August 13, 2023
Inside, the Giant on Alabama Avenue in Ward 8 was abuzz with shoppers loading up on produce, diapers and snacks for the weekend. But outside, the mood was a bit more anxious, as shoppers wandered over to Trayon White Sr.’s pop-up resource fair to hear the Ward 8 D.C. Council member deliver what sounded like a dire plea to save the store.
“This is a message to our community that we stand in solidarity about keeping this grocery option open,” White said to a throng of news cameras.
He had just had a meeting with Giant’s regional leadership, and had come away feeling a need to sound the alarm. The Giant on Alabama Avenue is the only major grocery store in the entire ward, serving more than 85,000 people, and White had the sense its future could be at risk. The management reported an uptick in shoplifting and crime at the Ward 8 location. The managers had, according to White, spent hundreds of thousands on security upgrades and yet, White said, were losing hundreds of thousands of dollars per month because of theft. They didn’t say they were planning on closing the store. But still, White was worried, and now so were some of the residents who relied on it.
Inside, the Giant on Alabama Avenue in Ward 8 was abuzz with shoppers loading up on produce, diapers and snacks for the weekend. But outside, the mood was a bit more anxious, as shoppers wandered over to Trayon White Sr.’s pop-up resource fair to hear the Ward 8 D.C. Council member deliver what sounded like a dire plea to save the store.
“This is a message to our community that we stand in solidarity about keeping this grocery option open,” White said to a throng of news cameras.
He had just had a meeting with Giant’s regional leadership, and had come away feeling a need to sound the alarm. The Giant on Alabama Avenue is the only major grocery store in the entire ward, serving more than 85,000 people, and White had the sense its future could be at risk. The management reported an uptick in shoplifting and crime at the Ward 8 location. The managers had, according to White, spent hundreds of thousands on security upgrades and yet, White said, were losing hundreds of thousands of dollars per month because of theft. They didn’t say they were planning on closing the store. But still, White was worried, and now so were some of the residents who relied on it.
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