Safeway officials warned members of Advisory Neighborhood Commission 5C Sept. 29 that the Edgewood store at 4th Street and Rhode Island Avenue NE is losing money, a factor the company cited as the main reason for closing the other two D.C. stores on Oct. 3.

"When we announced the closings, a lot of people in the community told us they wished we had let them know the stores were in trouble so they could have done something to help," said Greg TenEyck, director of public affairs for Safeway. "Well, now you know. The Edge-wood store needs support."

Although TenEyck would not reveal details about the store’s financial status, he said the losses are not as severe as those at the two closed stores, each of which was losing about $500,000 per year. Edgewood store manager Richard Nicholson said the store is not breaking even.

One reason the Edgewood store has survived is a recent deal cut with Redstone Development Corp. officials to lower the rent, TenEyck said.

ANC 5C Commissioner Rick Sowell said he took TenEyck’s words as "a warning" that the store would eventually close.

But Safeway said the store can be saved. A $250,000 facelift completed last week — including new floors, ceilings, signs and wheelchair accessible checkouts — is intended to lure more customers to the store.

"We’re hopeful that more people would shop there," TenEyck said. "That’s part of the reason the store at 301 Rhode Island (NW) closed. It’s only about a mile away and we’re hopeful that closing the one store would help the other."

Nicholson said sales have picked up at the Edgewood store since the other nearby Safeway closed.

Meanwhile, the search for permanent tenants or buyers for the closed stores continues.

Two developers have expressed interest in the Bloomingdale site in North-west Washington, TenEyck said.

Since shuttle service began Oct. 3, about 50 people have traveled at Safeway’s expense from the closed Congress Heights store to the gleaming Safeway store at Good Hope Marketplace, about a mile away at Alabama Avenue and Good Hope Road in Southeast Washington. Under an arrangement with Southeast Area Transit, a local business affiliated with the Anacostia Economic Development Corp., bus and van service will continue four days a week for 30 days.

Ward 8 activist Eugene Dewitt Kinlow said plans are in the works to run a weekly farmers market in the parking lot of the Congress Heights store.

Safeway has committed Ed Tippett, its director of retail support, to work with community groups to arrange security and transportation and to find a permanent tenant for the sites.

Copyright 1998, The Common Denominator