Q&A: The Proposed Rockville Town Square Grocery, Part I

Rockville residents might’ve been most interested in two tidbits from Thursday’s county licensing board hearing.

First, , clearing a hurdle that had foiled previous attempts to open a grocery store in Rockville Town Square.

Second, Ellwood Thompson’s owner Rick Hood said that the market could open for business in February “at earliest.”

But the sworn testimony of the hearing revealed other details about the proposed market and the hurdles that still lie in the path of Federal Realty Investment Trust and its prospective tenant even as the two sides say they are close to finalizing a lease agreement.

The following are some basic—and some unresolved—questions about the proposed market, along with answers found in Thursday's hearing.

This is the first of two parts.

What is Ellwood Thompson’s Local Market?

“It’s a family business,” Hood said of the Richmond, VA store, which calls itself a “local independent” and is the only one of its kind. “It’s not a chain,” Hood told the board. “We’ve always been focused around the community and so local vendors, local farmers, are key to our business.”

Customers are interested in “local not regional” and in leading a healthy lifestyle. For those reasons the store offers organic produce and supplements along with a bakery and a section of micro-brewed beers and organic wine. The store also includes a meat and seafood department, prepared foods and bulk foods.

The Richmond store is open 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days a week.

Why is it a grocery and not a supermarket?

Ellwood Thompson’s does not carry household items.

“We focus on specialty food items,” Hood said. “We don’t focus on cleaning supplies and tissues.”

The distinction between a grocery and a supermarket is an important one for the Board of License Commissioners in Montgomery County, where state law prohibits chain supermarkets from selling beer and wine. In most cases, only those stores that held licenses before the law was changed may sell beer and wine.

The county’s Board of License Commissioners voted 4-0 to approve the license. One commissioner abstained.

Just how big a part of the store will beer and wine be?

Beer and wine accounts for 5 percent to 10 percent of the Richmond store’s floor space and about 6 percent of its total sales in 2010, Hood said. The beer and wine section is not separated from other parts of the store, he said.

“Our store in Richmond is 15,000 square feet,” Hood told the board. “This store is going to be 19,000 [square feet], but very similar.”

At the Richmond store, there is a section in the back that hosts wine tastings once a week on Fridays and Saturdays, said store director Tommy Langford. Employees check identification of participants “right there,” he said.

The Class A license granted to the proposed Rockville store would allow it to hold tastings.

So if the owner is named Hood, who is Ellwood Thompson?

Ellwood Thompson’s takes its name from the crossroads where it sits at Ellwood Avenue and Thompson Street in Richmond.

As for the proposed store, “We are talking very intensely about whether the name will be Ellwood Thompson’s or whether the name will come from the history and geography and community of Rockville,” Hood told the licensing board.