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<\/p>\nNew Grand Mart opens Thursday in the former Shoppers location, ending months without a nearby full-service grocery store for many residents.<\/p>\n
CAPITOL HEIGHTS, Md. \u2014 Residents in Capitol Heights are celebrating the return of a grocery store to their community as New Grand Mart prepares to open its doors Thursday in a location that has sat vacant since Shoppers closed late last year.<\/p>\n
The new store, located along Marlboro Pike, is expected to provide fresh food options for residents who have spent months traveling outside their neighborhoods to buy groceries.<\/p>\n
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“We finally have another grocery store,” said Joe Ann Ellis, who lives nearby.<\/p>\n
Ellis said the new location will make a significant difference for residents who previously had limited access to fresh food.<\/p>\n
“I live right down the hill, so I’m just grateful they put another store here and I can get here in about five minutes,” she said.<\/p>\n
When Shoppers closed at the end of 2025, many residents expressed concerns about the impact on the community. The closure left some neighbors without easy access to fresh produce, meat and other grocery staples, forcing some to travel longer distances or rely on public transportation to shop.<\/p>\n
“A lot of people in the neighborhood, you have to go down to D.C. into the Safeway or you have to go all the way down Marlboro Pike to Shoppers or Giant,” Ellis said.<\/p>\n
Now, after months of preparation, New Grand Mart is ready to open in the vacant grocery store space.<\/p>\n
“We’ve been working on this grand opening almost three or four months now,” said General Manager Do Lee.<\/p>\n
The international grocery chain specializes in foods from around the world and will offer fresh seafood, produce and specialty items.<\/p>\n
“Our specialty is international food, so we provide high-quality fresh seafood and produce products,” Lee said.<\/p>\n
Store leaders said they chose the location in part because of the community’s need for a nearby grocery store.<\/p>\n
“One of the main reasons we came here was because of the food desert,” said Operations Manager Oliver Lee. “What we’re trying to do is grow together with the community.”<\/p>\n
The company has also focused on hiring locally, including some workers who were affected by the closure of the previous grocery store.<\/p>\n
“We tried to hire as much as we can from within the community to help out and create jobs within the community,” Lee said. “We’re still actively hiring.”<\/p>\n
For residents, the store’s opening represents more than a new place to shop.<\/p>\n
“It’s a convenient place to shop. That’s the main thing, get fresh food,” Ellis said.<\/p>\n
New Grand Mart is scheduled to hold its grand opening Thursday at 10 a.m. The store will then operate seven days a week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Grand Mart opens Thursday in the former Shoppers location, ending months without a nearby full-service grocery store for many residents. CAPITOL HEIGHTS, Md. \u2014 Residents in Capitol Heights are celebrating the return of a grocery store to their community as New Grand Mart prepares to open its doors Thursday in a location that has<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[6807,6804,6805,6802,6806,6803,3259],"class_list":["post-44290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-district-of-columbia","tag-d-c","tag-d-c-dining","tag-d-c-fine-dining","tag-d-c-food","tag-d-c-grocery-stores","tag-d-c-restaurants","tag-washington"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dc\/117392002584299024","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}