MD Resident Only Shops in VA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McLean grocery stores (Wegmans, Safeway, Giant, and Lidl) have a surprising number of cars with DC or MD license plates parked outside on the weekends. Ditto for Total Wine in McLean.

You all are weird. I never pay attention to anything about cars in the parking lots. I can't imagine anything more dreadful than walking around a parking lot and taking note of license plates.

They're obsessed and have an inferiority complex.

[Anonymous]

First Balduccis is across the street if you want wine and groceries. Second who cares about retail? Who cares about movie theaters when you can stream anything? It’s not 1985. Times change. Buy it online. We go out for parks, classes, live athletic and music events, farmers markets, etc. not for 1980s style mall trolling. Knock down Montgomery mall for all I care. I can think of a thousand better ways to use the space. Moco does pretty well for these things, but use the whole dmv.

Too many potholes in moco for sure, but your brand new roads will have a bunch in a few years and you’ll have the joy of new taxes and fees in a vain attempt to keep all the new infrastructure from crumbling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:First Balduccis is across the street if you want wine and groceries. Second who cares about retail? Who cares about movie theaters when you can stream anything? It’s not 1985. Times change. Buy it online. We go out for parks, classes, live athletic and music events, farmers markets, etc. not for 1980s style mall trolling. Knock down Montgomery mall for all I care. I can think of a thousand better ways to use the space. Moco does pretty well for these things, but use the whole dmv.

Too many potholes in moco for sure, but your brand new roads will have a bunch in a few years and you’ll have the joy of new taxes and fees in a vain attempt to keep all the new infrastructure from crumbling.

Tysons sucks, but I think we can all agree Montgomery County's liquor laws are nuts.

[Anonymous]

The traffic on 495 going into and leaving Tyson's is insane. I live in DC and don't leave very often to MD or VA, but when I have to go to VA I have to pack a lunch!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:God help me if my panacea ever is Tyson’s corner.

Check out the olney Safeway.

Also you might want to reevaluate your life if you can’t go to a grocery store and not buy alcohol.

The Olney Safeway is 35-40 minutes away from River Road and 495 and much further away from Bethesda than Tysons, which is right across the river.

The Giant on Old Georgetown Rd that OP’s referring to would have been torn down and replaced decades ago in a comparable neighborhood in NW DC or Arlington, McLean, or Vienna or other places with similar HHIs. It is like seeing what the area looked like in 1985 when you step foot in there.

Tyson is 8 miles and Olney is 11 miles.

So no.

Also there is HT at the downtown crown, and a gazillion other options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whenever cross the bridge from MD toward Tysons there is a distinct difference in the amount of graffiti and trash on the side of the road. Once you notice the change you cannot unsee it. It is a stark contrast and underscores OP’s rationale for wanting something better.

Once you cross the bridge it’s a massive construction zone for miles, and been that way for years.

[Anonymous]

That’s nuts. I never go to Virginia besides to the airports

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MD resident. I can walk to Total Wine in Friendship Heights. There’s a Wegman’s not far from me in DC and another one at Twinbrook. I haven’t been to Virginia to shop in years. Whatever works.

This is now the second post that defends MD shopping by referencing stores in DC. The same ones actually.

Pike and Rose IPC is going out of business. The only two theatres within 5-10 miles of Bethesda are the Landmark in Bethesda and the Montgomery Mall AMC. Why deal with the parking issues in Bethesda or the sad depressing state of the AMC in Mont Mall when I can take DD to the Boro, AMC Tysons or the Tysons Galleria CMX, all of which are much nicer than anything in Bethesda? Those are 15-20 minutes from me because of my proximity to River Road exit. The Mosaic theater is 5 minutes further and it has great restaurants and a Neiman and Bloomingdale’s outlet and a Target that’s nicer than anything in MD in the same complex.

The only grocery store besides Whole Foods that’s worth going to in all of MoCo is the Westbard Giant. Everyplace else looks like it would have been torn down in McLean or North Arlington 10 years ago.

Stick your head in the sand all you want and brag about never going to Tysons. A lack of perspective and curiosity isn’t something to brag about.

How do you make it to Tysons corner in 15 min from NWDC when it takes this long or longer to go from Mclean to Tysons? Traffic is terrible most of the day, and traffic on 495 is even worse than on local roads. I call BS.

[Anonymous]

You do you OP, I'd rather starve than go to Tysons

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The traffic on 495 going into and leaving Tyson's is insane. I live in DC and don't leave very often to MD or VA, but when I have to go to VA I have to pack a lunch!

Exactly, this hwy is always packed. And even large residential roads leading to Tysons are packed for hours each day. To get to Tysons from nearby Vienna and Mclean takes 15 min due to traffic and lights, why people who live there shop in their local strip malls. There is no way that it's this easy to drive to Tysons for funzies or essential errands in 20 min. More like 40 min. Especially if you need to get to the hwy from your residential area to start with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The traffic on 495 going into and leaving Tyson's is insane. I live in DC and don't leave very often to MD or VA, but when I have to go to VA I have to pack a lunch!

Exactly, this hwy is always packed. And even large residential roads leading to Tysons are packed for hours each day. To get to Tysons from nearby Vienna and Mclean takes 15 min due to traffic and lights, why people who live there shop in their local strip malls. There is no way that it's this easy to drive to Tysons for funzies or essential errands in 20 min. More like 40 min. Especially if you need to get to the hwy from your residential area to start with.

It takes 15-20 minutes max to get from River Road and 495 or Old Georgetown and 495 to Tysons on the weekends as long as you leave before 1 or 2 pm. Ditto for Sunday and for weekdays after 7. No one usually leaves their house to go shopping at 5pm or 6pm on the weekdays in the middle of rush hour. It is a PIA to get anywhere around the DMV at that time.

And to the poster who said Olney was 11 miles and Tysons was 8 from River Road and 495. It literally takes 10 minutes to get from River and Seven Locks to Tysons right now and 26 to get from the same location to Olney. Yes, it is late at night with no traffic, but it would still be a lot faster after 7 pm on weekdays and on weekends as well. A lot of people don’t realize how close Tysons is to people in W school clusters, especially Churchhill and Whitman.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MD resident. I can walk to Total Wine in Friendship Heights. There’s a Wegman’s not far from me in DC and another one at Twinbrook. I haven’t been to Virginia to shop in years. Whatever works.

This is now the second post that defends MD shopping by referencing stores in DC. The same ones actually.

Pike and Rose IPC is going out of business. The only two theatres within 5-10 miles of Bethesda are the Landmark in Bethesda and the Montgomery Mall AMC. Why deal with the parking issues in Bethesda or the sad depressing state of the AMC in Mont Mall when I can take DD to the Boro, AMC Tysons or the Tysons Galleria CMX, all of which are much nicer than anything in Bethesda? Those are 15-20 minutes from me because of my proximity to River Road exit. The Mosaic theater is 5 minutes further and it has great restaurants and a Neiman and Bloomingdale’s outlet and a Target that’s nicer than anything in MD in the same complex.

The only grocery store besides Whole Foods that’s worth going to in all of MoCo is the Westbard Giant. Everyplace else looks like it would have been torn down in McLean or North Arlington 10 years ago.

Stick your head in the sand all you want and brag about never going to Tysons. A lack of perspective and curiosity isn’t something to brag about.

How do you make it to Tysons corner in 15 min from NWDC when it takes this long or longer to go from Mclean to Tysons? Traffic is terrible most of the day, and traffic on 495 is even worse than on local roads. I call BS.

The original post was from someone who lives in Bethesda near 495.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whenever cross the bridge from MD toward Tysons there is a distinct difference in the amount of graffiti and trash on the side of the road. Once you notice the change you cannot unsee it. It is a stark contrast and underscores OP’s rationale for wanting something better.

Once you cross the bridge it’s a massive construction zone for miles, and been that way for years.

Construction is finished on the hot lanes and I would love for Maryland to construct anything, but apparently we don’t have as much money for public infrastructure as VA or are able to manage to complete anything on time and on budget.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whenever cross the bridge from MD toward Tysons there is a distinct difference in the amount of graffiti and trash on the side of the road. Once you notice the change you cannot unsee it. It is a stark contrast and underscores OP’s rationale for wanting something better.

Once you cross the bridge it’s a massive construction zone for miles, and been that way for years.

Construction is finished on the hot lanes and I would love for Maryland to construct anything, but apparently we don’t have as much money for public infrastructure as VA or are able to manage to complete anything on time and on budget.

The HOT lanes are stupid, as Virginians themselves will tell you:

https://www.reddit.com/r/nova/comments/1poxs2y/shocking_to_no_one_the_495_express_lanes/

You either need to do these things along the entire beltway, or not do them at all. But having them for a portion of the beltway makes no sense. But I'm sure having even more toll roads in Virginia will make the private corporation who built them a lot of money, just as is the case with all the other roads that Virginia has privatized by adding tolls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whenever cross the bridge from MD toward Tysons there is a distinct difference in the amount of graffiti and trash on the side of the road. Once you notice the change you cannot unsee it. It is a stark contrast and underscores OP’s rationale for wanting something better.

Once you cross the bridge it’s a massive construction zone for miles, and been that way for years.

Construction is finished on the hot lanes and I would love for Maryland to construct anything, but apparently we don’t have as much money for public infrastructure as VA or are able to manage to complete anything on time and on budget.

The HOT lanes are stupid, as Virginians themselves will tell you:

https://www.reddit.com/r/nova/comments/1poxs2y/shocking_to_no_one_the_495_express_lanes/

You either need to do these things along the entire beltway, or not do them at all. But having them for a portion of the beltway makes no sense. But I'm sure having even more toll roads in Virginia will make the private corporation who built them a lot of money, just as is the case with all the other roads that Virginia has privatized by adding tolls.

At least Virginia builds infrastructure. The only two major projects in MoCo in the past 10-20 years are a toll road (200) and a bypass north of Olney on 97 that no one even needed, with money that could have spent a million other places.

Besides that, there was the extremely over budget and mismanaged Silver Spring Transit Center that had to be redone because the contractor was using cheap, deficient cement.

https://washingtonian.com/2015/09/16/a-timeline-of-failure-for-the-silver-spring-transit-center/

And then there’s the Purple Line, which is $1B over budget and should have been open 3-5 years ago. You go to Virginia and the highways are constantly being upgraded and the Silver Line is up and running, with job centers along the whole line from Falls Church to Ashburn.

Meanwhile Maryland has crumbling infrastructure and can’t even manage the few infrastructure projects that they start. And the taxes are more in MD. For what? I’d expect VA level infrastructure, at least, for the taxes I pay.