Whole Foods Closures

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Alpha8472
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Whole Foods Closures

Post by Alpha8472 »

Six stores are closing: 2 in Alabama, 2 Chicago, Tarzana, California, and Brookline, Maine.

Is there any chance that these might be converted to Amazon Fresh? Or how about Amazon clothing stores?
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Re: Whole Foods Closures

Post by buckguy »

They are regular WFs. The Alabama stores are 6 or 7 years old. The DePaul store in Chicago was a Dominick's which probably was a better fit for the location and they have other stores about a mile and a half in each direction. The Englewood store was an experiment in a neighborhood that had seen better days---there would be a market for them on the South Side but it would either be near the lake or on the very far SW side. Brookline is in Mass, not Maine and the store was not far from 3 other locations. The Tarzana store looks like it has significant competition and by LA standards isn't too far from two other stores. WF also has opened new stores in southern California in the last year.

If there is any take away it's that they are looking at locations that might be somewhat redundant and market that have underperformed, although 6 out of 530 is a drop in the bucket. Montgomery and Mobile seem big enough to support a store each, but they may simply not be a good fit for those markets.

before Amazon bought them, WF was being pressured by Wall Street to sell high rent locations, with the ones in Manhattan being singled out. Those were odd choices because those locations do enormous volumes, esp. when you compare them to nearby competitors.
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Re: Whole Foods Closures

Post by DFWRetaileWatcher »

Below is the link to an article about this news:

https://www.boston25news.com/news/local ... UOZ3ZODUQ/
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Re: Whole Foods Closures

Post by DFWRetaileWatcher »

buckguy wrote: April 30th, 2022, 5:59 pm They are regular WFs. The Alabama stores are 6 or 7 years old. The DePaul store in Chicago was a Dominick's which probably was a better fit for the location and they have other stores about a mile and a half in each direction. The Englewood store was an experiment in a neighborhood that had seen better days---there would be a market for them on the South Side but it would either be near the lake or on the very far SW side. Brookline is in Mass, not Maine and the store was not far from 3 other locations. The Tarzana store looks like it has significant competition and by LA standards isn't too far from two other stores. WF also has opened new stores in southern California in the last year.

If there is any take away it's that they are looking at locations that might be somewhat redundant and market that have underperformed, although 6 out of 530 is a drop in the bucket. Montgomery and Mobile seem big enough to support a store each, but they may simply not be a good fit for those markets.

before Amazon bought them, WF was being pressured by Wall Street to sell high rent locations, with the ones in Manhattan being singled out. Those were odd choices because those locations do enormous volumes, esp. when you compare them to nearby competitors.
I'm actually surprised Mobile & Montgomery had a Whole Foods.
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Re: Whole Foods Closures

Post by marketreportblog »

Alpha8472 wrote: April 30th, 2022, 12:35 pm Six stores are closing: 2 in Alabama, 2 Chicago, Tarzana, California, and Brookline, Maine.

Is there any chance that these might be converted to Amazon Fresh? Or how about Amazon clothing stores?
Actually, Brookline, Massachusetts! That's one of the smallest if not the smallest Whole Foods out there. Four aisles, 6,000 square feet. It opened in 2012 when Whole Foods bought the local Boston chain Johnnie's Foodmaster. That one was a small-format Johnnie's Fresh Market, which was also more upscale. I'm surprised it made it this long -- or that Whole Foods even bought it at all. Brookline is also home to a few other small supermarkets, including a 24,000 square foot Stop & Shop and a 15,000 square foot Star Market.

Other stores may be converted to Amazon Fresh, but that one is probably just a goner. And hasn't Amazon stopped all other physical retail or announced plans to end all their brick-and-mortar retail operations except for the grocery stores? I doubt they'd convert them within Amazon brands.
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Re: Whole Foods Closures

Post by pseudo3d »

The Englewood store looks pretty rough, and was probably a result of some sort of political deal. At the same time, it probably never turned a profit in its six years (or was marginal at best), the shrinkage must have been high.

Mobile, AL's was a highly renovated Stein Mart but was probably another grocer originally. I wonder if any of the stores will be re-tenanted as "normal" grocers.
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Re: Whole Foods Closures

Post by rwsandiego »

pseudo3d wrote: May 1st, 2022, 7:26 pm The Englewood store looks pretty rough, and was probably a result of some sort of political deal....
The City of Chicago actively courted Whole Foods to build a store in Englewood because they are a "healthy" grocer. Jewel-Osco, Food4Less, Tony's, Pete's, and Cermak Fresh Market all sell produce and meat and would have been a much better fit for the community. The claims that the store closure causes a food desert are not 100% accurate. There's an Aldi three blocks away, and several independents that look to be more than just liquor stores.
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Re: Whole Foods Closures

Post by storewanderer »

Closing 1% of the store base does not seem to be too big of an alarm. I am surprised some other locations are not closing. I can think of a couple iffy ones off hand- South Lake Tahoe, CA and Wichita, KS. Also probably a handfull in OR/WA.
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