Aggravated assault at Safeway in Germantown

Montgomery County police responded to a report of shoplifting and aggravated assault at the Safeway store at 19718 Germantown Road on April 29, 2026. The incident was reported at 3:48 PM that afternoon. According to police, the suspect stole merchandise and then brandished a knife outside the store. Police describe the suspect only as a Black male of unknown age. If you have any information about this incident, call police at (301) 279-8000.

Sula Latin Market opens in Gaithersburg

Sula Latin Market has opened at 122 E. Diamond Avenue in Olde Towne Gaithersburg. Just ignore the "coming soon" banner on the building. The Latin grocery store is located right across the street from Cancun Mexican Cuisine. Operating hours for the supermarket are 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM, seven days a week.

Renovations ahead for Germantown Safeway

The Safeway at 19718 Germantown Road will be undergoing renovations in the coming months. Changes will include removal of one of the existing entrances to the grocery store, something stores like Target have been doing in recent months, due to rampant shoplifting and looting in Montgomery County. That entrance will become an emergency exit. New display cases, checkouts, and shelving will be installed, along with some remodeling updates of the interior design. The work is expected to begin before the end of spring.

El Nazareno Latin Market burglarized in Germantown

Montgomery County police responded to a report of a burglary at El Nazareno Latin Market at 19609 Frederick Road in Germantown in the early morning hours of April 2, 2025. Officers responding to the scene found evidence of forced entry at the store. Inside, they determined that money and property had been stolen from the business.

Police describe the suspect in the burglary only as a "male." If you have any information that would assist detectives in closing this case, call police at (301) 279-8000.

Amazon Fresh Shady Grove Road store opening in reversal of plans by retail giant (Photos)

Amazon will open its Amazon Fresh grocery store at 15790 Shady Grove Road at the 270 Center on the border of Rockville and Gaithersburg after all, according to signage posted at the property. This saga began when I broke the story about Amazon leasing the space way back on September 1, 2020. The retail giant completed the interior fit-out of the store by the late summer of 2022, and spent months installing its Just Walk Out system electronics. It then postponed the grand opening to 2023, only to abruptly remove all signage from the building in April of 2023. Many other Amazon Fresh stores - some of them fully-constructed like the Shady Grove location - were also "paused" or canceled around the same time.

But after 14 months of abandonment of the project, Amazon suddenly posted help wanted ads for the Shady Grove Road store at the start of this month. Was this a glitch in Amazon's job site? On June 5, I emailed all three leasing representatives for 270 Center to ask if Amazon had reversed its decision. All three declined to reply to my inquiries. 

The secret can no longer be contained, however. On Sunday, a large banner was posted on the blank storefront with the familiar Amazon logo. Inside the store, more Amazon signage is visible. Parking space reservation signs for curbside pickup and Amazon Flex drivers are massed in the store's vestibule. And self-checkout machines are not only in place, but are activated with lit screens. 

Amazon's decision to go forward with the store is a triple win for the community. It will greatly increase foot traffic to 270 Center and its other tenants, a benefit the property owner has had to wait for nearly four years to realize. Second, Amazon Fresh delivery will now be extended to parts of the area where it has been unavailable. Finally, along with the new Aldi at the Walnut Hill Shopping Center, south Gaithersburg, Derwood, and upper Rockville residents will now have two grocery stores whose business models are centered around competitive pricing. Aldi is expected to open in July; Amazon has not announced the opening date for the Amazon Fresh as of this writing.

Gaithersburg Megamart construction update (Photos)

There still isn't any signage installed at the future Megamart grocery store at 7 Dalamar Street in Gaithersburg. What has been done since my last update? Red awnings were installed on the supermarket facade. The freshly-paved parking lot has been striped with crosswalks and 114 parking spaces. And Megamart trucks are already parked in (or across) some of them.

Aldi signs lease at Walnut Hill Shopping Center in Gaithersburg

The explosion of German grocery store chains in Montgomery County continues. Aldi has just signed a lease to replace Weis Markets at the Walnut Hill Shopping Center at 16529 S. Frederick Avenue in Gaithersburg. The planned 21,000-square-foot supermarket will anchor the high-visibility retail property, which the owner plans to renovate. Sheetz is also eager to open a second Gaithersburg location at this shopping center, as I reported last year.

Photo courtesy KLNB

Giant limiting self-checkout to 20 items or less, due to "a significant increase in crime"

The other shoe has dropped in Giant's changes to its self-checkout system, and it's landed directly on the shopper's head. Self-checkout will now be limited to 20 items or less, due to "a significant increase in crime and theft that we and many other retailers are experiencing across our market area," Giant President Ira Kress said in a message to customers. He said the new limit, along with the weighing scale recently added to the self-checkout units, will "mitigate the impact of theft to our business."

Under the new system, parents shopping for large families, or anyone who prefers to get their shopping out of the way once a week, will essentially be forced to go through the traditional checkout lines. However, Giant has tended to shut those down as the evening goes on, angering customers who were averse to self-checkout machines. Kress did not specify if Giant will now keep cashiers at the old checkout lines until closing at stores. But he did acknowledge what will be a major impact on many Giant customers.

"We know that these changes may cause some inconvenience or be disruptive to the experience you are used to," Kress said, "and I assure you we are making these changes out of necessity to prioritize the safety of our associates and customers." A shoplifter was recently caught on video assaulting a security guard at the Bethesda Row Giant store. Corporate policy appeared to limit the guard's ability to escalate his response; even after being struck in the face, he could only plaintively continue to ask the shoplifter to show him a receipt. 

Once again, we see how the failure of our elected officials to respond to increasing crime - one of the most basic responsibilities of their offices - creates negative impacts for the law-abiding residents of our community. It's interesting that business leaders will admit crime is increasing, and is a major problem, before our elected officials will.

Gaithersburg Amazon Fresh store: "Go big," or go home?

A long-completed but yet-to-open Amazon Fresh store filled with empty shelves on Shady Grove Road has become the local poster child for a nationwide freeze on Amazon's expansion plans in the grocery sector. Amazon successfully opened Amazon Fresh stores in Friendship Heights and Chevy Chase Lake, but the 270 Center store on the border of Rockville and Gaithersburg has been frozen in time since the fall of 2022. Yesterday, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy offered the first update on the cloudy future of the retail giant's bricks-and-mortar grocery adventure to the Financial Times, and it was a vaguely positive one.

Empty shelves inside the completed-but-unopened
Shady Grove Amazon Fresh store

Amazon plans to "go big" on expansion of its physical grocery stores this year, Jassy said in an exclusive interview with the FT. He said the halt he ordered on the openings and leasing of new locations cost the company $720 million in Q4 of 2022, and blamed the problems that warranted the pause on the pandemic. He said that now "we're hopeful that in 2023 we have a format we want to go big on, on the physical side."

That sounds like we can expect the Shady Grove store to go forward this year, and that the hysterical forecasts of all Amazon Fresh stores closing will prove to have been premature. Surprisingly, Jassy sounded more bullish on bricks-and-mortar stores than on the company's Amazon Fresh online delivery service, saying "people want to actually touch and feel" the foods they are buying before making a purchase. The FT noted that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos had promised to remain engaged on the grocery push after stepping aside as CEO in 2021. It's likely Bezos wasn't too pleased to hear the company hesitate on a plan that was meant to facilitate major growth in Amazon's online same-day-delivery service, which is dependent upon having neighborhood hubs like the Amazon Fresh grocery stores function as warehouses.

Bezos has a home in Washington, D.C. You can be sure he is going to be monitoring the progress of a Shady Grove store that is practically right under his nose in Montgomery County.

Shelves still not stocked at new Amazon Fresh store in Gaithersburg (Photos)

The interior of the new Amazon Fresh store opening soon at 15790 Shady Grove Road on the border of Rockville and Gaithersburg is complete, but merchandise is still not on the shelves and displays. I do see many shipping boxes filled with adhesive labels for price guns inside the front entrance. That is clearly a necessary step toward stocking the shelves. 

While we are waiting for the opening, there are two new in-store benefits for Amazon Prime members at Amazon Fresh grocery stores, including this one when it opens. The first is 20% off "everyday essential" items year-round. Second, is 20% off on a rotating selection of prepared foods, that will change about once a week. You can identify eligible items by their blue bubble tag that reads, "Prime Member Exclusive Deal."

Gaithersburg Amazon Fresh construction update (Photos)

The cart return, and signs for curbside pick-up customers, are now out in the parking lot in front of the future Amazon Fresh grocery store in the 270 Center on Shady Grove Road, on the border of Rockville and Gaithersburg. A sign inside the store now reads "Gaithersburg," so that's where Amazon comes down on the subject (and leaves the door open for a more centrally-located Rockville store in the future). More has been added to the interior, but there still isn't anything on the many shelves yet. so opening day is still a ways off.

Amazon Fresh Gaithersburg construction update (Photos)

We're getting our first look inside the future Amazon Fresh grocery store at 15790 Shady Grove Road in the 270 Center, on the border of Rockville and Gaithersburg. Some of the window coverings and barricades have been removed, allowing a closer view. This will be the second Amazon Fresh store to open in Montgomery County; the first is in Friendship Heights.

Montgomery Village Lidl update (Photos)

Construction of the Montgomery Village Lidl grocery store at 19201 Montgomery Village Avenue seems to have lagged at times in recent months, but now the shelving, and refrigerated and frozen display cases are finally in place. They just need to be stocked with grocery merchandise. Full-time store supervisors are being hired for this location, starting at $20.50 an hour. The job also provides more than 20 vacation days per year.

German competition in sight!