D.C.

D.C. Council member fears for the future of Ward 8’s only grocery store

By Meagan Flynn
August 11, 2023 at 7:40 p.m. EDT



Shoppers in Giant in 2019. City leaders are concerned about the future of the only grocery store in D.C.'s Ward 8. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)

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.

“If we don’t have this one, there will be nowhere else,” said Traci Pratt, a 58-year-old Ward 8 resident who has been shopping at the Giant ever since it opened in 2007. ... The anxiety surrounding a single grocery store in Ward 8 underscores the limited access to quality food east of the Anacostia River, leaving officials like White to cling tightly to the community’s only available option when its future appears rocky. “This is more than just a food store — it’s a central part of our community hub,” White said.

It’s not entirely clear just how rocky things are for Giant. The store declined to provide financial information to The Washington Post about the impact of shoplifting, but in a statement, made an assurance that it does not have any “current plans” to shut down. ... “However, we need to be able to run our stores safely and profitably,” read the statement, sent by spokesperson Felis Andrade. “The reality is that theft and violence at this store is significant, and getting worse, not better. As a result, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to operate under these conditions.”

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Jaclyn Peiser contributed to this report.

By Meagan Flynn
Meagan Flynn covers D.C. government and politics on The Post's Metro team. Twitter https://twitter.com/Meagan_Flynn