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It’s 9:30 p.m. and rainy, but you feel like a cookie. You ran out of coffee creamer that morning, too—-and you just used your last foot of dental floss.
Wait till tomorrow and hit Safeway on the way home from work? No, these are needs that must be addressed now. You’re heading to your local corner store.
That is, if you have one. If you live in the District neighborhoods that aren’t zoned for them, you’re out of luck (though the Office of Planning wants to change that)—-and strip malls, CVS, and big-box stores just aren’t the same.
Plenty of people hate their local corner stores; they say they attract ne’er-do-wells and drunks, or they pump scratch-offs and junk food into neighborhoods that don’t need either. (That’s also a sentiment likely to surface in groceries-deprived neighborhoods that are more dependent on those same stores.) In places with the luxury of options, meanwhile, some shops breed fierce loyalty—-to the point of customers writing five-star Yelp reviews for them and raising thousands of dollars to keep them in business.
Fortunate enough to live near a great corner store? Washington City Paper wants to know about it. Tell us about your favorite one in this poll, below. Keep in mind your feedback may be published. We also may contact you, so use a real email address, please.
Photo by Flickr user Daquella Manera used under a Creative Commons license.