World Domination Continues: Whole Foods to Open 8th Maryland Location

• May 7, 2010

by Mark Wellborn

The high-end grocery stores just keep popping up in the DC area.

On May 18th, Whole Foods will open its eighth Maryland location in Friendship Heights. The opening comes just about two weeks after the new and improved Social Safeway’s much-anticipated grand opening. The Georgetown Safeway is open 24 hours a day and has offerings like a sushi bar and a 2,500 bottle wine cellar.

The new Whole Foods store will have the usual array of expensive seasonal and local offerings that can be found at most of its other stores, but this location will also offer options like homemade gelato and popsicles and free public Wi-Fi.

It will be interesting to see what impact the arrival of Whole Foods will have on the area. Friendship Heights was given a complete facelift a few years ago, and long-standing stores like Woodward and Lothrop were replaced with high-end department chains (Bloomingdales) and luxury shops (Tiffany’s, Louis Vuitton). The new look to the neighborhood has had luke warm results, as the traffic at most of the stores has been pretty sparse and the neighborhood’s new residential complexes have not been selling as well as expected.

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This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/whole_foods_continues_opens_may_18th/2051