So it was announced 4/30 that our local Whole Foods was shutting down and closing in one week. Everything in the store 50% off, alcohol 30% off.
I had to do the first run on my lunch and there were no carts. So what do you buy that you can stack with one hand and carry/balance with the other?
What I got. First trip it was starting to get picked over
First trip caviar, heirloom tomatoes, pasta.
Second trip I had at least a hand basket, so what would you buy that you could stuff into a hand basket?
Second trip
Second trip, whole frozen vacuum bagged sides of Sablefish ($7/lb), rainbow carrots, parmesan, neals yard, buffalo mozzarella Henriot champagne, vermouth, bitters Today went again at lunch and found a small shopping cart. Third trip really picked over
Roederer Anderson Valley ($17), Chinon, white Burg, assorted balsamics, Calabrian Chile, more carrots, acorn squash, broccoli rabe, poblano, leeks, various herbsI’ll probably go back for one more cruise around the store in a day or two. It was never a great Whole Foods, but will miss it.
Edited to add: Just checked my receipt. They gave the 10% case discount on top of the 30% discount so stuff was closer to 40% off. I need to go back for some more stuff if they have any left.
Nope gone. When WF opened it was placed across the street (a two lane street at that) from a Fresh Market. It is in a shopping center that had a couple of major tenants leave as well. Now that the shopping center has been revitalized, fully leased and thriving, they are exiting a 20 year lease with 13 years left on it.
They closed the one in Prescott, Az, which was right next door to a fine wine shop. Very convenient. Store never got traction; people favored TJ’s and CostCo.
I thought the location decision was a little questionable. They read the zip $ demo correctly (highest in the city, next to the next highest) but not the traffic study where people will do anything to avoid the area. Combine that with the major high$ pop density requiring an impossible left turn to accomplish the exit vs. Fresh Market’s easy right turn. At one point, when we had 1,500 people in our building which is 5 minutes away, they did a great lunch takeout trade. But then the 'rona and our building has maybe 40 people in it.
We’re getting an Aldi just down the road from it. They are remodeling a Baby Superstore. This may have factored into it as well.
There was a recent announcement that WF was closing a number of its stores (6, IIRC). Two were in Chicago. One store is in the Lincoln Park/DePaul neighborhood, which has other WFs nearish by. The other is in Englewood, which is a bit of a food desert. The WF always seemed like an odd fit, and clearly, it didn’t fit. I am sure the city will additional buckets of money to replace the Englewood store with another grocery.
The Lincoln Park store was always busy but catered almost entirely to student traffic - take out etc rather than major shopping.
The Englewood was touted as WF trying to respond to food deserts and supporting neighborhood development — not sure that was ever more than press release and maybe tax breaks?
Well Roederer Anderson at $15 net after 30% plus 10% is a steal in this market. Taittinger la francais at net $26 is another steal. We have a high priced market in general for wine. The roederer at Costco was $23.99 when they had it.
Jasper Hill Farm cheese. Loved what I ordered here on newbiepalooza and have been buying whatever they sell at my local WF ever since. 50% off would be awesome.
