Giant's Bethesda Row was 24-hours in the past, and Giant continues to have a 24-hour store in the Georgetown Square shopping center north of town on Old Georgetown Road. CVS operates two 24-hour stores in downtown Bethesda, one diagonally across from the Bradley Boulevard Safeway, and one at Wisconsin and Cheltenham across from 7-Eleven and Fairmont Plaza. Both CVS stores carry a limited-but-decent selection of groceries.
Obviously, a 24-hour Harris Teeter at 8300 Wisconsin will be more convenient for those in the Woodmont Triangle or East Bethesda, particularly if they prefer to walk to the store for a handful of items. But for those closer or driving (with the latter being the vast majority of shoppers), the future is now.
35 comments:
Would people consider Robert Dyer as the anit-christ? I'm not so sure and I would like to solicit opinions on the matter.
Since Hans Riemer got the blame for Barnes & Noble closing one hour earlier on weeknights, will he get the credit for this?
Wait, Dyer is the Anti-Christ?! Whoa.....
BUT ROBERT HOW DOES THIS IMPACT OUR NIGHTTIME ECONOMY? (aka, the only time Robert leaves the basement)
I prefer to call it the VAMPIRE ECONOMY!
WAIT! Is Dyer the Anti-Christ or a Vampire OR IS HE BOTH?!
7:58: Vampire Economy definitely describes the m.o. of Hans Riemer's Wall Street campaign donors Bain Capital and Mitch Rales, pioneers in outsourcing of American jobs to China.
7:03: No, because nobody hangs out at the grocery store at night, and it doesn't have a public plaza out front like Barnes & Noble.
7:27: "Anger and victimization at the loss of absolute power to control your message." - Jon Stewart
8:07: You sound like you're ready for a straitjacket.
Oh, so this 24-hour opening is DIFFERENT than Barnes & Noble closing an hour earlier because people won't hang out in front of the Barnes & Noble as much?????
Clown.
Is Dyer the biggest joke of the century?
I'm pretty sure it's the truth.
8:19: And because they won't be able to hang out INSIDE Barnes & Noble, as they were previously able to do until 11. Oops.
8:29: If I was, they wouldn't be paying you to hang out here and post harassing comments all day and night. How does it feel to be a mere tool of the MoCo Machine and its inept, impotent politicians?
"the MoCo Machine"
Thank God it's a holiday today. I can DRINK now that Dyer has said the magic word again.
Bottoms up!
Anonymous is clueless if he thinks Barnes & Noble is just a bookstore.
I will troll your site even if I don't get paid.
I get paid more money to troll you than you'll ever know Dyer ............. DYER SUCKS!
Barnes & Noble is a bookstore where most of the customers hang out for hours without actually buying any books. It's essentially a much larger version of Starbucks but with 80% of its floor space taken up by inventory.
Yes, because what nighttime economy = is hanging out at 10:45 p.m. at the Barnes & Noble reading the latest edition of Foreign Policy and sipping lattes. (which nobody did any way you moron)
Yes, somehow I don't think that the folks who used to hang out at B&N between 10 and 11 p.m. on weeknights were just waiting for the clubs to open.
10:20 AM & 10:29 AM illustrate the fallacy of the "nightlife economy" task force.
Why ignore those under 21 and people not interested in drinking? And for those that do, where are the "clubs" in Bethesda that you speak of?
While I agree it's not exactly the same thing, the commenter had a good point that it's not quite fair to arbitrarily blame the council for one and not credit the council for the other.
From the Montgomery County Nighttime Economy Task Force website, here is their mission:
"The Nighttime Economy Task Force will examine policies, resources and amenities that address Montgomery County's nightlife offerings. Specifically, the task force will address policies that can boost entertainment offerings throughout the county, increase financial prospects of employment and business development while also helping to enhance the sense of community throughout the communities that make up our county."
Does the B&N on Bethesda Row fit the bill, to a degree just as much as a big community grocery store staying open 24 hours. It is all related.
To say these actions are a direct result of the task force's recommendations and any actions the council and county have taken as a result of said recommendations - that's a bit of a stretch either way, especially so soon after said recommendations were released. No one expected changes and improvement overnight based on the task force's recommendations. We are all just hoping for positive gains as we improve the system.
I hope that Barnes & Noble will be in Bethesda for a long time, but I think in the near future they will need to sell or sublet part of their property. They have way more space than what they need today. The space actually devoted to selling books has shrunk quite a bit. The map section has been halved in size. The CD section has shrunk from most of the floor space of the audio-video section to about one-eighth. Stationery, non-book gifts, games and toys now take up a significant part of the floor space.
"We are all just hoping for positive gains..." Are you a County employee? I think there is a significant difference between grocery stores and. B&N. There have always been attempts by grocery chains to run 24-hour stores. They have started and stopped decades before Hans Riemer moved to Montgomery County from California.
But a central nighttime gathering place like B&N cutting back hours is a negative indicator for the nighttime economy, which your quote clearly indicates is focused on nightlife, not grocery shopping. The closures of multiple nightclubs also falls squarely under their definition of the nighttime economy, leaving Bethesda with a net loss in that regard. I see no signs of success so far from the Nighttime Economy initiative.
"Are you a County employee?"
Here we go 'round the mulberry bush again...
As an aside, would you be ok with your under 21 kid being out so late? Regardless if they are contributing to the nighttime economy?
Not a county employee.
I think the nighttime economy initiative is a nice effort. I don't think we can blame any recent failures directly on said initiative
Btw why are you ignoring my basic questions in the other threads? While answering others.
These old developers, planners, other bloggers and Reimer are all creepy as hell. All obsessed with millenials.
Flynn,
Are you telling me that in high school and college, you were in bed asleep by 10pm?
LOL, Dyer is so thin-skinned.
Well, what I was trying to say to Flynn, before I was so rudely deleted, is that if I had children, or more precisely, adult son(s) and/or daughter(s) who were over 18 but not yet 21, I doubt I would feel the need to give them any curfew.
Flynn, I'm 8:01 PM. Why aren't you responding? I'm trying to have dialog with you.
Good point, and certainly I wasn't arguing any direction - merely polling parents out of curiosity. Myself not having any children. :)
Does Montgomery County look at college kids much in their nighttime initiative? Montgomery College is the only higher education located in the county, although I guess with all of the UMD commuters living at home - that could be their target with the 18-21 college group you're talking about here.
Do kids living at home 18-21 in or out of college get curfews? Or just let them do whatever?
I lived at home part of the time I went to UMD and did not have a curfew. I also admittedly sucked at school, so... :)
High school most folks I knew had a curfew around 10-12. So certainly we were contributing to the nightime economy when we went out. We were also equally causing trouble and costing the county in dealing with us too I'm sure.
Although some could argue that staying home and focusing on our studies instead of hitting up Tower Records back in the day would have attributed to a better education and more success long term, which might contribute to the overall economy more than my teenage purchasing power at Starbucks and B&N. Lol.
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