The Buckingham Herald Tribblog

And you went to the mall to shop. Or you drove, and circled for parking, to Clarendon.

You could have wandered from Buckingham south on Glebe Road and found yourself—just over Arlington Boulevard—at the Goodwill.

The squat, stucco-ed-but-not-quite-in-any-architecture-style building houses "Arlington's Best Vintage/Thrift Shop."

That, according to the 2008 ABBIES (Arlington’s Best Business Awards), the contest dubbed the “people’s choice awards” for businesses in the county. The awards were given in 20 categories at the Oct. 22 Arlington County Board meeting.

Terrence Ruffin was very happy that his store won the ABBIE for the best Vintage/Thrift store. He is the manager.

“I think it’s beautiful because it hits both ends of our community,” the end that can afford to shop retro as well as the end that must be thrifty, he said.

It’s the income from the retail store that powers the free training and education programs that Goodwill offers. All of the stock is donated.

Aurora Catilo and her husband Alex come for the books. They are fighting the eventual demise of the printed page—it will all be electronic soon—by picking up classics and recent novels.

“We don’t sell these books. We’re trying to save these books,” Mr. Catilo said.

His wife said, “They have the best books” for her children and for the grandchildren she hopes to have.

“I come about every week,” she said, picking up books, and bric-a-brac, and things from other countries. “I think it’s better than going to a department store.”

Gerry Dault and Edna Durand, an elderly pair of friends in floppy berets, swing by the Goodwill shop about once a month when they go on grocery shopping trips “in the suburbs.” They live in the District.

“You have to have time,” Ms. Durand said, but she can always find herself something. She had a small bag in hand Halloween morning.

Mr. Ruffin has spent two years at the store after working in retail management elsewhere, and he said he has fallen in love with it.

It was going to the graduation ceremonies and hearing people say, “I never thought…” that convinced him. They say they never thought they’d get a GED, or job, and yet thanks to the Goodwill, they did, he said. "Goodwill helps."

All 20 ABBIES for 2008

Labels: abbies, business, chamber of commerce, goodwill, retail

// posted by Steve Thurston @ 2:48 PM 0 comments

1. Development = Upscaling

This seems self-evident, but a lot of people have trouble pulling the thread on the economics of re-development. Sam Chon bought Glebe Market for $1 (or whatever) and is selling it for $100. The buyer has to do something that will cover the purchase and continue to make a profit. So he seeks greater density (height) and charges new tenant stores more,which soon squeezes out Mom and Pop stores in favor of the chains who can afford the rent. This happens everywhere - you find M+Ps in older and low-rise developments where they could afford to buy; you don't find them
in Times Square.

If you track back, even the advent of the M+P was an upscale redevelopment of what was previously farmland (and no doubt people were despairing of losing THAT). You never see redevelopment of buildings to lower, less dense and retro uses. We all love the old days, and the individual and quirky M+Ps that gave a place character before the homogenizing effects of big money loans driving the developer to the common denominator. But until you can convince people to take a loss when they sell... (Nevermind, that local demand convinced the developer that
there would be a market for Trader Joes or Applebees.)

2. The above notwithstanding, Grand Int'l Mart in 7 Corners and Alexandria
may be the kind of ethnic grocery Buckingham is looking for but at a size
that can sustain the new rents.

If you have any influence with the developer, mention it. Their floorplate is larger than Glebe's, but they may be ready for a smaller application.

Reid Goldstein

The writer is referring to last week's HeraldTrib Today column. --ST

Labels: buckingham center, letter, redevelopment, retail

// posted by Steve Thurston @ 9:11 AM 0 comments

My wife and I just read with interest your survey about how to redevelop this corner [the corner of N. Glebe Road at N. Pershing Drive]. We're keenly interested because we live just three blocks away, and partially bought the house two years ago because of the convenience of the Glebe Market: We LOVE walking to the grocery store. (We like the El Paso, the dollar shop, the post office, etc., but the market is the most important by far.)

So, for our late two cents: YES, put in a grocery store, any grocery store. I'll help you twist [Trader] Joe's arm to get him to move in. We shop there (on Rt. 7) all the time, but are also afraid of the Rt. 7-like traffic it would bring. Keep it as small as possible!

And yes, we would love a hardware store; [a] non-Starbucks coffee shop [is] OK, but they're really all the same.

We don't like the idea of more high-rise housing: Who would want to live at such a busy intersection anyway? Why don't they just put offices above the retail? We don't like the idea of large shops or housing on Pershing that will bring more traffic to Pershing (we're just two houses from the corner, on Oakland). We want to keep Pershing as a residential street, and would like the speed limit to be 25 mph, like similar streets in Alexandria and Falls CHurch.

Thanks for reading our opinions!

Ken Moskowitz

PS: We've also considered retail attractions. We would like a DVD rental shop. If there has to be a coffee shop, make it Caribou [Coffee]. If there has to be chain restaurant, we would welcome Panera Bread.

Finally, The Survey Results

Labels: Buckingham, retail, traffic

// posted by Steve Thurston @ 10:59 PM 0 comments

This section produced some interesting comments, though:

“Ice cream” appeared three times in 16 comments.

(Click to enlarge the image.)

On to Survey Results: Government Offices

Labels: retail, survey

// posted by Steve Thurston @ 10:06 AM 0 comments