Bloom opens in Annandale Shopping Center
With a ribbon cutting ceremony featuring Mason District Supervisor Penny Gross and local business leaders, the Bloom grocery store in the Annandale Shopping Center opened Tuesday afternoon. First-day shoppers were treated to performances by the Poe Middle School Jazz Band and students from the Hapmudo martial arts studio, as well as free samples.
The new store is much bigger and offers a lot more items than the Magruder’s that used to occupy that spot. The store’s larger footprint, however, means even fewer spaces in what is already a small parking lot for a grocery store and the other businesses on the busy Columbia Pike and Gallows Road intersection. Jon Brobst, the new store’s general manager, says the Annandale United Methodist Church across the street is allowing Bloom employees to use its parking lot, which might alleviate some of the parking problems.
According to Brobst, who used to work at Bloom stores in Fairfax and Herndon, what sets Bloom apart from other grocery stores is its “awesome technology,” its offerings of Angus Beef and a full-service seafood department; and its “awesome staff.” The Bloom chain, a division of Food Lion, stresses camaraderie among its employees through daily huddle sessions and pep rallies. Bloom is a non-union store, and the starting salary is $7.50 an hour.
The store presented a $2,000 check to Annandale Terrace Elementary School, which won a competition for coming up with the best proposal for how it would use the funds to benefit students’ health. Bloom will help the school create a landscaped exercise path with fitness equipment and signs outlining various activities. Bloom also presented checks for $250 to the Knights of Columbus, the United Methodist Church, and the Poe jazz band.
4 responses to “Bloom opens in Annandale Shopping Center”
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I thought it was opening tomorrow…
I agree with Anonymous that it was tomorrow. Oh well. Tom said the traffic was terrible around the parking lot and along Gallows. Guess I will wait until my day off to go.
Forget the new Bloom. Parking is a nightmare, the aisles are too narrow, no 1% milk, they ran out of a lot of the sale items, no recycle bin for plastic bags or 5 cent credit for using your own bag- and the dude who packed my bags put 1/2 gallon of juice on top of the bananas. Back to Giant for me! I already hate shopping, so why add more reasons not to go?
The new Bloom is wonderful! the staff are helpful and friendly without being creepy and annoying, and the store is clean, bright and welcoming. They probably ran out of the sale items because of all the traffic this weekend! The store has been busy and bustling every time I've driven past it this week and what could be better for that small shopping center than more commerce? Previously, the only shops I ever frequented were the Silverado's (rarely) and occasionally Beanetics. The parking lot may appear to be small but there's tons of parking in the back of the stores that no one ever seems to notice. Give the store a chance before you write it off.