Photo by Chelsea Boone. The Safeway on Hamilton Street in Hyattsville closed Saturday. Bestway, a Hispanic market, will take the 30-year-old grocery store's place.

Published on: Thursday, February 09, 2012

By Chelsea Boone

After 30 years of business, the Safeway on Hamilton Street in Hyattsville closed its doors for good Saturday.

“I remember when I moved to Hyattsville in 1968 there were only two Safeways,” said Peggy Dee, Hyattsville resident and Prince George’s Sentinel columnist, as she reminisced about the grocery store where she shopped for years.

The Hamilton Street Safeway was not one of them — it opened in 1982. Dee said she began shopping at the Hamilton Street grocer and has been doing so for the past 30 years. She has even built relationships with the employees.

“We know all the personnel,” Dee said. “They were almost like family.”

As of Saturday, she will have to shop elsewhere. The Safeway is being replaced with Bestway, an independent Hispanic food retail store, which some residents see as a good fit for the city’s booming Hispanic population.

There are also other new grocery stores that have developed or are set to be developed in the areas surrounding Hyattsville.

A new discount supermarket, Aldi, was built in Cheverly last December, as previously reported by The Sentinel, making it the seventh Aldi to open in Prince George’s County. 

A Whole Foods grocery store is set to open in late 2014 in Riverdale Park and has been met with mixed feelings from residents. In addition to the grocery store, there will be retail and office space, a health center, small shops and restaurants. Some residents have been reported not seeing a need for an additional grocery store. However, some younger residents are reported to be in favor of the new grocery store. Nearby Arts District Hyattsville residents are also in favor of the Whole Foods, with some even going as far as drafting an email of their support and sending it to local and county officials.

While these changes may be exciting for some, residents like Dee still appreciate the grocers they have turned to for years.

“I’m just sad to see it close,” she said about the Safeway.