The Silver Spring Penguin

It’s been a while since any noteworthy business news has popped on the Penguin radar. (We’ve left the thing radiating subatomic particles off the roof of Penguin corporate headquarters despite this recession. Don’t worry, it runs on solar power.)

But just this morning, the newsroom’s diligent radar technician detected three blips of note:

Coordinates 38.9953869, -77.0270788

The Fractured Prune Donut Shoppe is on a direct course for Fenton Street, to a retail space between The Men’s Warehouse clothing store and a rear exit for the Majestic movie theater.

According to Laurie Yankowski, spokesperson for the Downtown Silver Spring shopping center, the Ocean City-based bakery recently signed a lease to fatten pedestrians from 8512 Fenton St. Expect a March 2009 opening, she said.

Earlier discussion placed the donut shop at the former MotoPhoto shop, parked in a driveway leading from Fenton to the Whole Foods Market parking lot. That spot also has been used to temporarily house the Pyramid Atlantic community-arts store, now located on Ellsworth Drive.

Coordinates 38.991330, -77.030393

Cool technology is headed for Giant Foods at The Blairs, in the form of handheld price scanners. The scanners allow shoppers to (what else) scan bar codes as they drop their goodies directly into shopping bags. Shoppers then return the scanners at the cash register, where they settle the tab.

At the Giant on Rockville Pike, where scanners are already in use, bar-coded signs in the bakery department allowed shoppers to register individual Krispy Kremes on their supermarket joysticks. In the produce aisle, electronic scales weighed fruits and veggies, then spat out bar-coded stickers for shoppers to scan.

On the insidious side of cool, the scanners also recognize which aisle shoppers are in, and will beep and display advertisements for goodies in that aisle.

The scanners go live at The Blairs market on Saturday.

Coordinates 38.993216, -77.026495

The central business district’s guide to locally owned shops drops neighborhood-wide this month. The guide (a map, actually) points out about 200 retailers and services in the downtown area, and spells out the benefits of shopping at locally owned businesses.

According to Emily Adelman, who pulled together the guide for the nonprofit LEDC, it pays to buy local. For every $10 spent at a locally owned business, almost $7 of that stays in the hood. Compare that with $4 for every $10 spent at a national chain.

Copies of the guide were unleashed during a launch party Wednesday night at Jackie’s Restaurant. Didn’t score a copy? Local businesses should have them on display by next week, and it’s available as a PDF on the “Buy Local” program’s website.

Disclaimer: The Silver Spring Penguin is the local online media partner for Silver Spring’s “Buy Local” guide. Holler!

Photos by R. Pace/SSP.