Whole Foods To Open 7,000 Square Foot Stores

[Alpha8472]

Whole Foods will open up smaller stores ranging from 7,000 to 14,000 square feet. These will be a quick shop format for Urban locations.

https://chainstoreage.com/whole-foods-r ... -will-look

[marketreportblog]

These are about the size of many other supermarkets in New York City. I would estimate that the average NYC supermarket is 15-20,000 square feet, with plenty below 15 or even 10,000. The one they're opening first is a former Food Emporium.

Now, Whole Foods actually used this "Daily Shop" format before -- on a smaller store attached to one of their full size locations. That store has been through a few things, like a dedicated pet products store (I think), a natural HABA store, and a coffee shop, and it's currently vacant.

It'll be interesting to see how they do with this format in NYC and outside it.

[ClownLoach]

Boring, niche format.
Basically a WFM version of Amazon Go.

Interestingly it doesn't appear to have Just Walk Out. It also has no decor and feels completely devoid of soul, which is not appropriate for the WFM brand. Such lack of investment tells me how little confidence they have in the format.

This is only going to work in a few very isolated, dense urban markets like NYC. Nothing revolutionary here, just evolutionary.

Maybe they get a couple of dozen built, total, across the country. Yawn.

At least they're giving it a distinctive name to indicate it isn't the same full line store, avoiding the problem Target currently has.

[babs]

So essentially a well funded Green Zebra market that ran out of cash after the pandemic. Those were about 5000 sq ft stores in Portland

[storewanderer]

They have some of these small size stores in the bay area already but they are standard Whole Foods banner and just as described in locations where a full size store cannot fit.

They probably figured out these little stores get far higher ROI so they will go forward and expand them. Of course the number of locations where these will get great ROI and where they will dilute the brand will be a delicate balance.

Service departments look limited to a service coffee in the photos. Why even bother with service coffee, there is going to be a variety of existing coffee shops nearby anyway. Why waste space with THAT?

[HCal]

I thought the small store fad died in the 2000s. Walmart abandoned "Marketside", Safeway/Vons gave up on "The Market", and of course Fresh & Easy was a colossal failure.

But someone has to keep throwing money at it hoping they figure it out...

[buckguy]

These are about the size of many other supermarkets in New York City. I would estimate that the average NYC supermarket is 15-20,000 square feet, with plenty below 15 or even 10,000. The one they're opening first is a former Food Emporium.

Now, Whole Foods actually used this "Daily Shop" format before -- on a smaller store attached to one of their full size locations. That store has been through a few things, like a dedicated pet products store (I think), a natural HABA store, and a coffee shop, and it's currently vacant.

It'll be interesting to see how they do with this format in NYC and outside it.

Basically, they're recreating the wheel in NYC. The smaller Food Emporiums were leftover conventional A&Ps and there already are stores that fill Whole Foods' niche in places like the Upper West Side.

They are jumping on an emerging trend, though. Streets Markets in DC has expanded rapidly with stores at the smaller end of what's planned and there are several chains in Chicago like this. Bob Mariano's new operation has stores that are somewhat larger than this. Foxtrot, which combines this with small sit down areas is in both DC and Chicago, and has expanded to less dense cities like Dallas. Their stores are a bit smaller than what Whole Foods is proposing; interestingly, they're owned by Descartes which is a tech/logistics company, a sort of niche version of Amazon.

[veteran+]

Whole Foods will open up smaller stores ranging from 7,000 to 14,000 square feet. These will be a quick shop format for Urban locations.

https://chainstoreage.com/whole-foods-r ... -will-look

Under the "guidance" of Amazon anything.........................this will fail.

Great idea for cities like NY, wrong company.

[ClownLoach]

They have some of these small size stores in the bay area already but they are standard Whole Foods banner and just as described in locations where a full size store cannot fit.

They probably figured out these little stores get far higher ROI so they will go forward and expand them. Of course the number of locations where these will get great ROI and where they will dilute the brand will be a delicate balance.

Service departments look limited to a service coffee in the photos. Why even bother with service coffee, there is going to be a variety of existing coffee shops nearby anyway. Why waste space with THAT?

And the store appears to be completely blank, no real decor or signage. The one thing that was always nice about WFM is the custom decor for every store. This is just white walls and a few splatters of green paint here and there. Cost cutting to its most illogical extreme. Looks horrible. And their coffee is terrible which is why nearly every regular WFM no longer has a full dedicated coffeebar and just throws together a few basic drinks at the juice bar.

Why would I want to go to this boring place when there are other more interesting small markets throughout NYC? Why is this so plain and devoid of offerings when Eataly is crammed into a similar size space and has nearly endless offerings throughout the store? (I still prefer the tiny NYC original to the larger and more refined locations that have opened around the country)

Even better, they already had this exact concept and even same name in NYC previously. What happened to that "Daily Shop"? Because it doesn't seem to exist anymore indicating it failed.

Like I said this is a non event, there is only room for a couple of dozen of these sporadically throughout the country in the most dense and urban spaces.

The real reason I think they resurrected this already once failed concept is to distract from investors who are probably wondering what the heck is going on with Amazon Fresh operations. A fair question considering they took a nearly billion dollar charge (loss) to wind down the operation last year and have yet to do so.

[marketreportblog]

They have some of these small size stores in the bay area already but they are standard Whole Foods banner and just as described in locations where a full size store cannot fit.

They probably figured out these little stores get far higher ROI so they will go forward and expand them. Of course the number of locations where these will get great ROI and where they will dilute the brand will be a delicate balance.

Service departments look limited to a service coffee in the photos. Why even bother with service coffee, there is going to be a variety of existing coffee shops nearby anyway. Why waste space with THAT?

And the store appears to be completely blank, no real decor or signage. The one thing that was always nice about WFM is the custom decor for every store. This is just white walls and a few splatters of green paint here and there. Cost cutting to its most illogical extreme. Looks horrible. And their coffee is terrible which is why nearly every regular WFM no longer has a full dedicated coffeebar and just throws together a few basic drinks at the juice bar.

Why would I want to go to this boring place when there are other more interesting small markets throughout NYC? Why is this so plain and devoid of offerings when Eataly is crammed into a similar size space and has nearly endless offerings throughout the store? (I still prefer the tiny NYC original to the larger and more refined locations that have opened around the country)

Even better, they already had this exact concept and even same name in NYC previously. What happened to that "Daily Shop"? Because it doesn't seem to exist anymore indicating it failed.

Like I said this is a non event, there is only room for a couple of dozen of these sporadically throughout the country in the most dense and urban spaces.

The real reason I think they resurrected this already once failed concept is to distract from investors who are probably wondering what the heck is going on with Amazon Fresh operations. A fair question considering they took a nearly billion dollar charge (loss) to wind down the operation last year and have yet to do so.

You've both nailed the problems with this concept and why even in NYC it's a questionable move.

For comparison: Antillana Fresh Meat Market, 1025 Westchester Ave, Bronx, NY. This is a store I know well in the South Bronx, in a neighborhood I've gotten to know really well. 5000 square feet, full supermarket. Large produce department, meat department and full butcher, service deli, full line of grocery, dairy, and frozen. There's a florist outside, too. Seems to do a good business. If you want a really full supermarket, a block and a half northeast on Westchester Ave is a 13,500 square foot Key Food.

Or for something different: SS Natural, 72-56 Austin St, Forest Hills, Queens. It's an independent natural food store. Large deli, bakery, prepared foods, salad bar, juice bar. Aisles and aisles of groceries and natural foods. Frozen, dairy, service butcher, large cheese department. Best part? There are two full produce departments -- on the right side of the store is a normal produce department, on the left side is another one of all organic produce. 8000 square feet. A block north is a 6500 square foot, mainstream/full line Foodtown supermarket.

There's no doubt that Whole Foods has had a major impact on the NYC grocery market over the years with their large-format stores. The problem is they're trying to do something that's already being done in countless places across the city, but they won't be able to do it better. Cheaper, maybe, but what has the overall impact of big-chain supermarkets been on NYC? The independents are stubborn and really, really good. Expanding beyond their (admittedly successful) large format in New York City is risky.