Gaithersburg has managed to get both a Bottom Dollar and a Bloom, and they're both. . . odd.
Bottom Dollar is pretty much exactly what it claims to be, a discount grocery store. If anyone's ever been to a Sav-A-Lot or similar, it's the same idea. Cut costs everywhere, including bagging (they sell you plastic bags or you can use boxes, a la Costco), to make packaged goods cheaper. Packaged goods are generally cheaper, some ethnic food is actually well represented, and well, meat and produce don't seem to be an FDA inspector's nightmare (yet. . . they did just open), but there's very little selection. The decor definitely has a creepy, focus group inspired feel to it, though.
Bloom appears to be somewhere in that weird area between a Safeway and a Whole Foods. I've heard of Wegman's and Harris Teeter from my VA brethren, but have yet to visit either. At any rate, it's mostly a regular grocery store, but they make sure the gourmet sections are expanded a bit more, and the fresh goods stock more high end stuff. They have cooking tips all over the place (like a Trader Joe's, but in a more creepy, sterile way), and the aforementioned price scanners. I think the produce section is where the real weirdness is, because there's no rhyme nor reason to it. Yes, the produce looks decent, and they attempt to stock organics, but the variety is the most random assortment of stuff I've ever seen. It's not like, say, Macgruder's, where the assortment of exotics is there because of the local ethnic diversity. No, there's just random stuff floating around, trying to show off how exotic and diverse they are. I honestly saw whole stalks of sugar cane the last time I was there. It didn't look very healthy (I had just come back from Brazil, so I know what healthy looks like), but they had it, as if to say "Look how different we are!"
And yes, I get both flyers as well, and was mentioned previously, the sales make no sense at all. The whole thing looks like a weird floundering attempt for Food Lion to get any customers they possibly can, all the while making some consultants really, really rich before they cut and run.
On a side note, a nearby Food Lion closed and has been replaced by a Harris Teeter. I'm not sure if it's opened yet, but if it is, I'm willing to see why my VA friends are so cult-like about the chain.
~EEE~
