Whole Foods stops growing

[ClownLoach]

18 months ago, Whole Foods announced that they were accelerating their growth again after a period of stagnation and closures. They put together a roster of about 40 new locations which have pretty much all opened now.

Today, there is only one store left in the pipeline of stores under development on the Whole Foods website. Has Amazon given up on their arguably more successful format?

Interestingly, they have updated their copyright to "Whole Foods Market IP, Inc" although the website now prominently has "An Amazon Company" logo at the bottom.

https://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/stores ... e-openings

[mbz321]

Supposedly, they are going to be opening a store in Doylestown, PA (an upper middle class Philly suburb)...I would guess by late 2024. The space has been gutted (was previously a Marshalls/Homegoods that relocated. And kind of funny given Amazon's ownership of Whole Foods, a new Barnes and Noble is also supposed to take a small portion of the space!), but I haven't been by to see if there has been any more progression.

And honestly, the store doesn't really fulfill a need as there is a Wegmans only a few minutes down the road (as well as one of the few operating, and absolutely dead, Amazon Fresh stores in PA), and a few specialty grocers in the other direction. I would be kind of surprised if it does actually come to fruition.

[ClownLoach]

Supposedly, they are going to be opening a store in Doylestown, PA (an upper middle class Philly suburb)...I would guess by late 2024. The space has been gutted (was previously a Marshalls/Homegoods that relocated. And kind of funny given Amazon's ownership of Whole Foods, a new Barnes and Noble is also supposed to take a small portion of the space!), but I haven't been by to see if there has been any more progression.

And honestly, the store doesn't really fulfill a need as there is a Wegmans only a few minutes down the road (as well as one of the few operating, and absolutely dead, Amazon Fresh stores in PA), and a few specialty grocers in the other direction. I would be kind of surprised if it does actually come to fruition.

I wonder if it is still on because they generally have listed stores online a year or more in advance. This dynamic list suddenly is down to a single store which is what caught my attention. I think they need to pause store development until they fix their issues.

[veteran+]

I recently spoke to the Store Manager at the chaotic nightmare WF near The Grove shopping center in Los Angeles.

Amazon was negotiating to move over to the adjacent closed BIG Kmart.....................negotiations have stopped

[Alpha8472]

Amazon doesn't want to spend any money on Whole Foods. It is being all but abandoned.

Amazon will neglect Whole Foods while wasting money on Amazon Fresh. In the end, perhaps all of the stores will just start closing down one at a time.

[storewanderer]

Amazon doesn't want to spend any money on Whole Foods. It is being all but abandoned.

Amazon will neglect Whole Foods while wasting money on Amazon Fresh. In the end, perhaps all of the stores will just start closing down one at a time.

I don't see Whole Foods closing. Maybe some stores here and there in markets where they shouldn't have gone in the first place. They have a very loyal customer base and continue to enjoy a strong reputation for mix and quality despite that their quality has completely nosedived especially the past couple of years. I would still say they have a unique mix.

The question is how do you break Whole Foods out of Amazon? There is still a LOT of strong talent left at Whole Foods who could right the situation throughout the stores and in middle management.

[Bluelightspecial]

I recently spoke to the Store Manager at the chaotic nightmare WF near The Grove shopping center in Los Angeles.

Amazon was negotiating to move over to the adjacent closed BIG Kmart.....................negotiations have stopped

Actually that whole center, including the old Kmart is planned for a redevelopment, which includes a Whole Foods.

https://www.regencycenters.com/property ... m-on-Third

[veteran+]

I recently spoke to the Store Manager at the chaotic nightmare WF near The Grove shopping center in Los Angeles.

Amazon was negotiating to move over to the adjacent closed BIG Kmart.....................negotiations have stopped

Actually that whole center, including the old Kmart is planned for a redevelopment, which includes a Whole Foods.

https://www.regencycenters.com/property ... m-on-Third

Oh WOW!!!!!

Thanks for that info

Over 62,000sqft for the WF? That is amazing for the area!

But...........................will all that be approved by the City? That intersection (the very busy Grove and famous Farmer's Market share that intersection) is without hyperbole a REAL nightmare. And parking for all the properties are quite awful.

P.S. 10 minute drive for a 5 mile radius????

[ClownLoach]

I recently spoke to the Store Manager at the chaotic nightmare WF near The Grove shopping center in Los Angeles.

Amazon was negotiating to move over to the adjacent closed BIG Kmart.....................negotiations have stopped

Actually that whole center, including the old Kmart is planned for a redevelopment, which includes a Whole Foods.

https://www.regencycenters.com/property ... m-on-Third

Oh WOW!!!!!

Thanks for that info

Over 62,000sqft for the WF? That is amazing for the area!

But...........................will all that be approved by the City? That intersection (the very busy Grove and famous Farmer's Market share that intersection) is without hyperbole a REAL nightmare. And parking for all the properties are quite awful.

P.S. 10 minute drive for a 5 mile radius????

For some reason the website wasn't responding when I tried to reply with this. They've been messing around with the idea of building that strip mall into high rise luxury condos and other such nonsense with a token replacement Whole Foods at surface level with some kind of subterranean parking forever. There were other developers fighting over it. My understanding is that every time a proposal comes in the greedy developers come up with something more grand and lavish but because of their greed it never gets done. They have supposedly been planning on redevelopment for over a decade. This looks like a lower intensity proposal as it maintains surface parking. As such it'll never get built when they can double the housing going all the way. I would not get excited about the 62K WFM size either as the buildings already that size have been stripped of unique features and larger SKU counts in recent years and the stores get consolidated towards the back wall to make leaseable space, a bar, and excessive seating up front. Basically the store is the same underwhelming format with extra seating. They put one of these in Long Beach at 60K and it pales in comparison to the originals built that size (El Segundo and Tustin) before they were scaled back.

[Bluelightspecial]

Actually that whole center, including the old Kmart is planned for a redevelopment, which includes a Whole Foods.

https://www.regencycenters.com/property ... m-on-Third

Oh WOW!!!!!

Thanks for that info

Over 62,000sqft for the WF? That is amazing for the area!

But...........................will all that be approved by the City? That intersection (the very busy Grove and famous Farmer's Market share that intersection) is without hyperbole a REAL nightmare. And parking for all the properties are quite awful.

P.S. 10 minute drive for a 5 mile radius????

For some reason the website wasn't responding when I tried to reply with this. They've been messing around with the idea of building that strip mall into high rise luxury condos and other such nonsense with a token replacement Whole Foods at surface level with some kind of subterranean parking forever. There were other developers fighting over it. My understanding is that every time a proposal comes in the greedy developers come up with something more grand and lavish but because of their greed it never gets done. They have supposedly been planning on redevelopment for over a decade. This looks like a lower intensity proposal as it maintains surface parking. As such it'll never get built when they can double the housing going all the way. I would not get excited about the 62K WFM size either as the buildings already that size have been stripped of unique features and larger SKU counts in recent years and the stores get consolidated towards the back wall to make leaseable space, a bar, and excessive seating up front. Basically the store is the same underwhelming format with extra seating. They put one of these in Long Beach at 60K and it pales in comparison to the originals built that size (El Segundo and Tustin) before they were scaled back.

According to the city's Planning Commission site, the project was conditionally approved in May of 2022, so looks like you are going to get that bigger Whole Foods.