Pla-za gets Pain-ted

 

Pla-za Artist Materials on Old Georgetown Road in Bethesda has gotten a paint job. No longer is it plain white, now it is a rich blue.  This comes after their parking lot was resurfaced not long ago.

In adition to seeing the blue wall, you can see part of the newly repaved parking lot.

The side of the store facing Cordell Ave. From this side, the blank blue wall seems a little overwhelming, but still better than the old white wall.  This would be a perfect place for a new mural.

A fond farewell to Lakeforest Mall

 

Lakeforest Mall "Green" entrance

Lakeforest Mall opened in 1978 at 701 Russell Ave, Gaithersburg, Maryland. The mall is closing for good in March of this year.  I went there frequently when I was young and this past weekend I went again for one last look.

There are not many stores still open at Lakeforest Mall. Here are three of them, Style One, Aeropostal, and Home Decor & More.  There are a few others scattered around. Most that remain are having store closing sales so there is still reason to go there.

Cafes in the Forest food court at Lakeforest Mall

Most of the restaurants at the food court have already closed, but one or two remain open.

Macy's doesn't want you to forget the store is closing and everything is on sale. Signs to that effect are plastered everywhere.

Macy's is the last remaining anchor store at Lakeforest. It is currently having a closing sale to sell off remaining inventory and fixtures. When I got there, some people were loading tables and other furniture into a U-Haul.

Update: See some photos of Lakeforest Mall on the last day it was open, March 31, 2023.

Is it my imagination or is toilet paper back in stock?

Friday morning I went shopping, and what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a fully stocked shelf of toilet paper!  What a difference from the past 6 weeks.

Another trip to the grocery store

Recently it seems like my biggest adventure has been going to the grocery store.  I never know what I'll find.  This week was no exception.  After reading a bunch of news articles and based on past weeks, I wasn't expecting much meat, however, they were fully stocked.  They had plenty of chicken, pork, and beef.

Other things that were plentiful were fresh vegetables, milk, yogurt and bread.

A bunch of things had limited variety but were readily available, such as frozen pizza, ice cream, pasta/sauce, baking mixes, and frozen fruit.  There was also sufficient rice, but I didn't see brown rice.

The stock of frozen vegetables has been slowly dwindling and remains available but maybe not the brands and varieties you want.

As time stretches on, new things are being added to the limited supply list.  Canned soup and boxed meals such as mac & cheese and pasta mixes are more limited than they were in past weeks.

This week I saw toilet paper for the first time in about a month.  There wasn't a whole lot of it, and it was at the front of the store, not in the normal aisle, but it was there.

There is some things that are totally unavailable.  I didn't see any antibacterial cleaners or paper towels.  There also wasn't any flour for baking (but there was sugar).  One out of stock item that surprised me was tofu, there wasn't any of that.

Also of note: More people are following the directional arrows on the aisle.  They are hard to get used to and once I went down an aisle the wrong way.  I got about 15 feet down when an employee stopped me and asked me to go around the other direction.

This weeks view of the grocery stores

The big change this week is that Giant has made all its aisles one way.  They have put big red arrows on the floor pointing the direction you should go in.  Compliance with the arrows was mixed.  Most but not all people obeyed them but it is a bit of an adjustment, I accidentally went the wrong way once and a couple of times had to go down an aisle I didn't need anything from to get to one that I did need something from.  I do think it makes it a little easier to maintain social distance so I think it is worth it. They also have stickers on the floor in some places indicating a six foot distance.

There is also now a maximum number of customers allowed in the store.  When I was there there wasn't anyone enforcing this, but there were also fewer than the limit so it didn't matter.  During busier times this may be an issue.

Stocking continues to get better with fewer things in limited supply.  There were only two pineapples when I got there, but the rest of the fruits and vegetables are in sufficient quantity.  One thing I did notice is that they have started to run out of less popular items.  I don't know if it is an actual shortage or if they are just prioritizing stocking the basics.  Pastas and sauces had lots of variety available with only a few items out of stock.

A bit change in the rice and beans aisle, especially in the rice.  You can see there is one spot on the shelf that is empty, but plenty of rice.  That doesn't even tell the whole story though, I saw several stacks of cases of rice in other areas of the store and one of the aisle end caps was devoted to rice.  Dried beans are back in stock (except split peas, which this store has had trouble with all winter) and canned beans were also well stocked.  There were two stacks of cases of chick peas on the other side of the aisle, so no shortage there.  In the distance you see some empty shelves where the canned vegetables are, but that is only some brands and varieties, overall there were plenty.

Cake mixes are slowly coming back in stock.  Much better than the past two weeks but nowhere near normal.  There was also a limited supply and selection of flour and sugar. I also couldn't find baking soda which I was shopping for.

Some things are noticeably missing or limited.  First off toilet paper.  I didn't see any of it.  I understand why there was a run on it early on, but I'm surprised that it is still unavailable.  (I also went to Costco a week ago and they were out too).  I did find paper towels at the front of the store with a limit of one, so be sure to check there.  Lysol and Clorox cleaner shelves were empty but a sign said to ask at the register and there was a limit of 1.  I didn't need any so didn't check to see if they were actually available.  Paper plates and cutlery were well stocked, which is an improvement from last week.

Frozen vegetables were pretty picked over, still some but might not be what you want.  Frozen ice cream treats were better than the last couple of weeks but the freezers were out of at least three quarters of the varieties.

This week's grocery update

Overall, the situation at the grocery store continues to improve.  I only took pictures of aisle that were having out of stock situations, so just looking at these photos will make it seem worse than it really is.

Perishable food that is in stock: fresh fruit and vegetables, beef, chicken (they were stocking that while I was there), eggs, milk, bread.  Basically all the perishable food was well stocked though there were the occasional places where some brands or flavors were unavailable, I noticed a limited selection of almond milk.

Also in stock but possibly limited variety: Pasta (mostly just spaghetti available) but plenty of pasta sauce, soup, flour, mac & cheese, tuna, chicken nuggets, frozen meals, frozen pizza.  Cleaning supplies were better stocked than last week but still a bit picked over.  Canned and dried beans as well as canned vegetables are also available in limited quantities and varieties, but more than last week.

This brings us to stuff that was sold out (or mostly sold out)  The top picture on the left is the candy aisle.  The were almost entirely out of candy.  The horror.  I don't know if it is that they are really short on it, or if they just have prioritized stocking essentials.  There was some Easter candy scattered around the store, so if you really need your sugar fix you can get it.  On the right side the empty shelves usually contain boxes of cake and muffin mix.  There were just a couple of options, you can really tell what people don't find appetizing.

Here's the other surprise.  This is the ice cream novelties (ice cream bars and such)  It is almost entirely empty.  On the right side of the pictures is the fake ice cream (halo top, and other non-dairy frozen stuff) There was plenty of that.  Outside of the picture is the actual ice cream.  There was very limited supply of that.

I'm a little surprised that toilet paper (on the right) is still out of stock.  I figured that by now anyone who was going to buy 20 packages already had.  Other paper products like plates and plastic cutlery (on the left) are also out of stock.  I bet they weren't planning on selling so many this early in the year.


Also of note: There were a lot more people wearing masks this week than last week.  It is getting to be fashionable.

How are the grocery stores holding up?

In an effort to have less close contact with people, I haven't been to the grocery store in a week.  Last time I went they were out of stock on a ton of stuff, so I was curious about how well stocked they would be today.  I went early this morning, around 7:30am. First stop was the produce section, as you can see it was well stocked, I didn't see that they were out of anything.

Toilet paper and cleaning supplies were another issue entirely.  I saw no toilet paper or paper towels (although as I was going in, I saw someone leaving with a few roles of paper towels) and there was only a limited supply of Kleenex and paper plates and cups. There were probably only a dozen bottles of sanitizing cleaning sprays. This seems a bit more than they can't put things on the shelf fast enough since I'd expect this to be a priority.

The meat section looked like it might be more of a stocking situation than a shortage.  There was plenty of beef and ham, but no chicken or pork. (also plenty of fish and shrimp).

Pasta's and soups had limited selection, but if you weren't picky about which type of pasta there was plenty, including of the kind that is on sale this week.

Canned vegetables, rice, and beans also seems more like them not being able to stock fast enough, some types and brands there were plenty of (like black beans) Others were out of stock or very low (there were 4 cans of chick peas, I took two).

A few of the other staples I didn't take pictures of, but, there was no flour, plenty of sugar, no eggs, and plenty of bread and milk.  All in all, it looks like things are holding up very well given the circumstances.

So I went to the grocery store this morning....

I went food shopping early this morning and I would say there is no reason to panic about empty shelves.  Yes, there were a lot of products that were out, but it seemed to be more about them being able to restock fast enough.  Take the above picture, it looks like there is no bread right?  But it it because there is a shortage or just because the daily bread delivery hasn't arrived?  I believe it is the latter, because if you look closely you see there is bread at the far end of the shelf.  That is the full stocking of Martin's potato bread products (sliced bread and various types of rolls).

While I was there I saw about 8 people stocking shelves.  The two cards on the left of the above picture is full of pasta sauce and pasta noodles, straight ahead is a pallet of flour and sugar.  I also saw a pallet of various types of tomatoes at the front of the store and two employees were getting ready to restock the prepared lettuces and salads.

At the time I was there they only had matchstick cut carrots which was disappointing.

I also found it interesting that there was no organic milk but plenty of non-organic milk.  I don't know if that is a commentary on the people who live in Bethesda or if they had just re-stocked one type of milk and hadn't yet got to the other.

Prepping for the Impending Doom snow

It is getting close to time for the snow to start and everyone is doing last minute preparations I went to Giant and Balducci's around noon today to see how they were coping.  Balducci's was busy but not much worse than the average weekend, all the registers were open with 2 or 3 people in line for each.  I didn't notice anything out of stock and there were several employees stocking shelves.

Giant was a bit of a different story.  Again, they had a bunch of people stocking shelves, especially in the dairy area, but it looks like they have run out of milk, eggs are almost gone, and other areas of the store (such as the soup aisle) had limited selection available.

The place was also packed.  The line for the self checkout was well over half way down the aisle behind it, the express lane had a similar number of people in it.

The gas station across the street was busy, with all pumps being used, but not more than one car waiting in line.

I didn't see many plows out in Bethesda, but towards Silver Spring they were starting to stack them up on the side of the road to be ready.

RIP White Flint Mall

Last weekend I went to White Flint Mall to see what was left.  The Boomingdales part was torn down last year and the rest of the mall has rapidly emptied out.  The only stores I saw were the post office (which closed last Friday), a jewellery store, the Dave & Busters (which lost a court fight to stay), PF Changs, and Lord & Taylors.  The rest of the Mall's three levels are empty.

The main entrance.  The Cheesecake factory used to be on the right, but now it is at Montgomery Mall.

The forever "Temporarily out of service" escalator going up to where the Borders bookstore was a few years agoi.

The Bloomingdales end of the mall has been blocked off with black plywood.

The food court doesn't have any restaurants in it anymore but there are tables and chairs left if you want to bring your own lunch.

One of the painting in the food court.

The mall directory is blank now, which is an odd sight to see.

The Bethesda Mattress District

Did you know that Bethesda has a Mattress District? Yup, it's true, lots of places to buy mattresses all conveniently close to each other.  We have a Mattress Discounters, then 3 or 4 stores down is a Mattress Warehouse, then, 2 stores after that, they are putting in a Sleepy's.  Directly across the street is a Healthy Back Store.  Wow, the selection.

I think a Mattress district is more useful than a Hammock district.