Alexandria Police are still searching for a man who robbed the CVS at gunpoint just before midnight on Saturday, Jan. 23.
The store is open 24 hours, and a man brandished a handgun during the robbery. No one was injured and an undisclosed amount of cash was stolen from a register.
“Currently, there are no arrests made related to this incident,” Alexandria Police spokesman Marcel Bassett told ALXnow. “We believe there was one suspect working alone in this incident but it is an open investigation and we do not limit ourselves until an investigation is complete.”
Police did not provide a suspect description.
Notification:: There is a heavy police presence in the 5100 block of Duke Street. This is in response to an armed robbery from a business. No injuries reported. APD is on scene investigating. pic.twitter.com/OJWLMGdM31
— Alexandria Police (@AlexandriaVAPD) January 24, 2022
Sixteen months after being forced to closed due to bankruptcy reorganization, Seattle-based kitchenware retailer Sur La Table is planning to reopen at 326 King Street.
The company won’t say exactly when the reopening will happen, but ALXnow was tipped off after Sur La Table posted a $70,000 a year job for a full-time manager for the store.
“We can confirm that Sur La Table is reopening in the area, but we do not have a timeline we can share at this time,” the company told ALXnow in an email.
Sur La Table, which opened at 326 King Street in 2013, had to close approximately half of its 121 stores around the country. The Old Town store closed at the end of September.
Women’s activewear store Athleta is opening today at 607 King Street in Old Town.
The store opens at 10 a.m. (so now-ish) and it open until 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday. On Sundays, Athleta is open 11 a.m.-6 p.m.
“From Tuesday through Sunday we’ll be running a raffle from local businesses, studios and gyms,” Assistant Manager Michael Heit said in an email. “Raffles include local coffee, southblock giftcards, three month and two month memberships to gyms and studios along with a free year membership to Snap Fitness on King Street!”
Heit said the store will also have smaller giveaway prizes this week, along with samples and coupons to other local businesses.
Currently, as Alexandria dabbles with bouts of cold weather, Heit said cold-weather tights are particularly popular.
“Our cold weather running tight, the Rainier, is by far our most popular item right now for the colder weather months,” Heit said. “We can’t wait to open for everyone to see the gorgeous new space, never would have guessed it had been a La Tasca for all those years!”
Photo via Athleta/Facebook
Faced with a drastic disruption in foot traffic, Alexandria-based Comfort One Shoes had to pivot. The pandemic forced the company to focus its energy on online sales, bringing in more casual merchandise and closing the Union Station location in D.C.
Company President Garrett Breton says the efforts made 2021 sales higher than the pre-pandemic year of 2019.
“The Old Town locations (200 and 201 King Street) are on fire right now,” Breton told ALXnow. “People are wanting to go out and do stuff. They want to see their friends, and they need new shoes, because if you try to put your old dress shoes back on and go to the office, even if it’s one day a week, you’re pretty miserable.”
Comfort One Shoes sells brands around the world like Mephisto, Beautifeel, Ecco and Dansko at its 14 locations in Maryland, Virginia and D.C. The company’s Dupont Circle location has been the most successful of the stores for years, but the reduction in Metro traffic has changed things.
“Before we went into the pandemic Dupont Circle was our number one volume store,” Breton said. “It won’t be for a really long time, maybe never again. It’s based on downtown commuter traffic. People have to walk from the metro to their jobs. I don’t know when offices are coming back. It is what it is.”
Breton became president in January 2020 after the retirement of his father, Maurice, who opened the first Comfort One at 201 King Street nearly 30 years ago. A lifelong Alexandrian and 1998 graduate of Bishop Ireton High School, the younger Breton says that, in the early days of the pandemic, he was challenged to temporarily lay off staff he’d known most of his life. The company employs just under 100 employees, and all its stores closed between one-to-four months in 2020.
During those first months of the pandemic, Breton said, more focus was put on internet sales and he’d have to shift from buying dress shoes to casual shoes and sneakers.
“The online business grew at around 40% at the end of that crazy year (2020), and by last September we exceeded 2019 numbers,” Breton said. “That’s with tons and tons of athletic shoes, and that was not even a part of our business 10 years ago. Nobody is buying dress shoes right now. We’re selling lots of athletic shoes and a lot more slippers — shoes you just slide on to run out quickly.”
A possible firebombing at a convenience store is under investigation.
Alexandria officials have not commented officially yet, but according to radio reports, investigators are looking for four to five men who threw Molotov cocktails into the 7-Eleven on S. Jordan Street at Duke Street around 4:30 p.m. on Monday.
The fire caused significant fire and smoke damage to the store. Fire officials did say there were no injuries reported. Firefighters spent several hours on scene after extinguishing the blaze, which had spread into the ceiling.
Fire investigators remained at the store well into the evening.
Officials have been investigating similar fires at 7-Eleven stores in the D.C. area, mostly in Prince George’s County, during the past few months. The most recent was a fire reported early New Year’s Day in Forestville.
https://twitter.com/HeelWillMahoney/status/1478143843086315520
Images courtesy Will Mahoney (@HeelWillMahoney)
A Maryland man was arrested earlier this month for allegedly shoplifting $350 worth of merchandise from the Target at Potomac Yard.
The incident occurred on Wednesday, Nov. 24. The Target loss prevention manager told police that two suspects walked into the store, and that he recognized one of them as a frequent shopper, according to a search warrant affidavit.
Using store cameras, the prevention manager followed the suspects, who both had carts, and observed them place items within two storage containers that were in the baskets.
“At one point, (a suspect) places a blazer he had been wearing into the shopping cart to conceal additional items,” police said in the search warrant.
The suspects then went to the self-checkout area of the store, where one of them allegedly scanned the top storage box in one of the baskets twice. The suspects then walked out of the store with everything concealed in the storage bins.
The stolen items were listed as:
- One PC gaming headset valued at $99
- One quilt blanket valued at $99
- One Instant Pot Pressure Cooker valued at $59.99
- Three Pokemon card packages valued at $4.99 apiece, totaling $14.97
- Three Pokemon card multi-pack packages valued at $12.99 apiece, totaling $38.97
- One Pokemon Elite Trainer Box valued at $39.99
The suspects were then seen by employees leaving the area in a Maryland car. A check of the license plate and credit card used found that both belonged to one of the suspect’s girlfriends. The suspect who allegedly drove his girlfriend’s car and used her credit card was charged with petit larceny earlier this month and goes to court on Jan. 14. The other suspect wore a face mask and has not been identified.
After decades at the corner of King and Washington Streets in Old Town, national retailers Banana Republic and Gap Outlet are closing their doors forever on January 24, 2021.
All merchandise is currently marked between 20% and 40% at Banana Republic (628 King Street), and up to 70% off at Gap Outlet (622 King Street).
Both stores belong to The Gap, Inc., and staff at both locations said that Gap Outlet was underperforming, with most business coming in on weekends.
Banana Republic and Gap Outlet have long been anchors near the “Middle King” intersection in Old Town. The block has seen a number of businesses close down in recent years, including La Tasca in May 2020, Wallgreens last year, and Java Grill last summer. Burke and Herbert Bank at 621 King Street is also closed.
The original building at 628 and 622 King Street was constructed as a 600-seat theatre in 1854. During the Civil War, the building was named Washington Hall General Hospital, and contained 100 beds for Union soldiers. The building would become a laundromat and insurance firm before burning down.
“The two lots were then combined and a new structure on the site was built for retail purposes, a Lerner’s store which prospered well into the mid-twentieth century when downtown Alexandria was the center of shopping in Northern Virginia,”according to the Office of Historic Alexandria.
The building is owned by the family of Wellington Goddin, and was last appraised for $6.2 million in January 2021.
Grocery delivery chain Foxtrot is coming to a prime location in Old Town.
The Washington Business Journal first reported that Douglas Development Corp. arranged the lease for the 4,500 square-foot two-story building at 701 King Street. This will be the third Foxtrot store in the region, and could open as soon as eight months from now, Matthew Jemal, senior vice president at Douglas Development Corp. told ALXnow.
“They approached us, and the concept is great,” Jemal said. “We’ve been to a few of their locations in D.C. I think it’ll do really well in Old Town.”
It’s the latest development in the company’s efforts to lease a number of its Old Town properties, all of which are a stone’s throw from each other. They recently engineered the lease signing a block away by Athleta at the former La Tasca restaurant at 607 King Street.
Douglas Development Corp. is also looking to rent the former Citibank space at 110 S. Washington Street, and will be managing the lease for the H&M store at 614 King Street, which ends in 2024, Jemal said.
Courtesy Google Maps
Lee Raynes says she’s got this one. There’s no dampening of her spirits, because the new owner of Bellies & Babies is on a spiritual journey and the pandemic is just a bus stop.
Raynes bought the Del Ray consignment shop from owner Dawn Luepke last fall and took over at the beginning of the year. She had two months of a mild winter’s worth of business before COVID-19 effectively shut down foot traffic along Mount Vernon Avenue and limited the number of customers she could let into the shop.
“I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing,” Raynes told ALXnow. “I have been on a journey of self-discovery for five years now, and it takes a long time to change. It doesn’t just happen.”
Now most of her sales are made on Facebook and Instagram, and she says more than 500 customers have established charge accounts so that they can make impulse buys should any item of interest pop up. She also recently closed the shop during the week except by appointment, and is open on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and on Sunday from noon to 4 p.m.
The shop sells children’s toys and clothes at deeply discounted rates. The items are provided by more than 3,000 consigners.
“It’s just whatever people bring me I put out to the world,” Raynes said. “I am just a conduit.”
Raynes wants people to know her story, about how she left her marriage of 20 years, quit her career as the operations manager for a photography company and ventured into a new life. The 42-year-old native of Westchester County, New York, then started her own concierge service (which she hopes to integrate into Bellies & Babies), and now lives within walking distance from her shop with her nine-year-old son.
“I had to do a lot of self-work to figure out what it looks like to fix not being happy, you know? And so I went on a journey of trying anything,” she said. “I tried meditation, I tried acupuncture, lots of yoga, pilates, pretty much anything recommended.”
Raynes added, “A lot of it worked. I am much more spiritual, and I am far less judgmental than I ever used to be. I was unhappy in both my marriage and my work. So, I decided that I couldn’t change both in one year. I separated from my husband and then gave a year’s notice to my work and said, ‘I will train my protege.’ And that’s what I did. I separated from my husband and then I hired somebody to train and then that following year I left that job and decided to look at what I was good at, and what I enjoyed doing.”
One day last year, Raynes walked into Bellies & Babies and started talking to Luepke about the shop, and Luepke asked if she was interested in buying it. Raynes recalls the answer she gave as appreciative, yet unrealistic in tone, as if such a thing would never really happen. But the idea of owning the shop grew in her mind, and Raynes, who also received positive advice from her psychic on the matter, jumped at the chance when Luepke posted a note on social media announcing that she was selling.
“I love being saturated in this neighborhood. This is Del Ray,” Raynes said. “I mean, you can’t name one other place like it, not even Old Town. It’s not the same. I’ve always wanted to live near a city but not in a city.”
Raynes has taken a deep financial hit because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I have taken a huge financial hit, and it sucks, but it isn’t gonna break me,” she said. “I look at the other people who were bidding on this company who were putting their life savings on the line. They were going in wholeheartedly and Dawn made the decision that it wasn’t the right fit. I find that fascinating, because had this pandemic hit, and one of those people were the ones that bought it they would be completely wiped out.”
Regardless of the circumstances, she said she’s happy with the decision to buy the shop.
“A lot of people are willing to settle. And I felt like I had settled enough. In my marriage, in my life, in my career. I was done with settling,” Raynes said. “I decided that I was no longer going to be an innocent bystander in my own life. I wanted to choose instead of just let life happen to me.”
In other words, she said that the shop has provided her with a sense of ownership.
“I chose this path, and I will move through it,” she said. “I think, really, sometimes you need a reality check of what is important. And I think that one thing the pandemic has taught us is priorities of what really is important. Is it money? Is it the store? Is it family? Is it friends? Is it the condition of your house? Is the fulfillment in your work? For me, it’s helping my neighbors. What is it for you?”
Who needs at kitchen! kidcraft $45! Some cosmetic marks but overall in good condition.
Posted by Bellies & Babies Consignment Boutique on Wednesday, April 29, 2020
New Inova Facility Planned — “Inova Health System plans to open a new health care facility on part of Oakville Triangle, giving another try to the 13-acre site on Richmond Highway in Alexandria across from a planned Virginia Tech campus and a short distance from Amazon.com Inc.’s second headquarters.” [Washington Business Journal]
Christmas Attic Closes — “One of Alexandria’s most beloved businesses, The Christmas Attic at 125 S. Union St., has closed its doors after nearly 50 years in business near the Alexandria waterfront. The year-round winter wonderland offered a special shopping experience.” [Alexandria Living]
Food Truck Serves Fido — “A food truck for dogs? Yup, and not a truck that rolls up and hands out kibble. Woofbowl serves up treats like burgers, fries, and pho… [The truck] frequently pulls up to Del Ray’s Saturday Farmers Market.” [Zebra]
Port City IPA Release Party Tonight — “Introducing a brand new beer to our Limited Release lineup, Star Sailor White IPA! Made with 100% VA Grown Wheat, this hop forward hazy golden beer has fruity notes that will leave you refreshed and ready for star gazing.” [Port City Brewing]
St. Pat’s Parade This Weekend — “Alexandria will turn green at the 39th annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade and Fun Dog Show on Saturday, March 7. The festivities are sponsored by the Ballyshaners, a nonprofit dedicated to Irish heritage, and are expected to include more than 2,000 participants.” [ALXnow]
Reminder: Daylight Saving Time Returns — “Love it or hate it, our annual ritual of early March – daylight saving time – is coming this weekend. At 2 a.m. Sunday, the few analog clocks still around must ‘spring forward’ an hour, turning 1:59:59 a.m. into 3 a.m.” [USA Today]
