Whole Foods Market's Potential Irish Opportunity Dashed in A Flash; Musgrave Group Buys Superquinn

Pictured above is a Musgrave-affiliated 16,000 square-foot Supervalu banner supermarket in Virginia, County Cavan, Ireland, owned by the McEvoy family. The independent-owner-operators of the Supervalu store, which features full-service meat and seafood counters staffed with experienced butchers and fish mongers, along with an in-store bakery, service deli and post office branch, say 70-75% of the food items offered in the supermarket are grown and produced in Ireland.

Wholesaler Musgrave has a major fresh and local foods program, including private brands its developed, that's used by its Supervalu and other banner retailers, including the McEvoys. Superquinn, which Musgrove is buying, also puts a major emphasis on fresh and local foods in its 23 stores in Ireland. The two should be a good fit.

News/Analysis/Commentary

[Companion Story: July 18, 2011: The Superquinn Irish Sweepstakes Offers An Opportunity For Whole Foods Market On the Emerald Isle.]

Writing about breaking news and selling fresh foods have more in common than might first meet the eye. For example, both are extremely perishable and therefore are subject to having a short shelf life.

Such is the case regarding our story of less than 24-hours ago in which we suggested that Ireland's Superquinn supermarket chain, which went into financial receivership and for sale on the auction block yesterday, offered an opportunity for Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods Market in its efforts to grow its business across the pond.

What a difference a day makes tough.

Ireland's Musgrave Group, which is a family-owned grocery wholesaler and operates supermarkets in partnership with independent owners under the Supervalue, Centra and Daybreak banners in Ireland, along with the Budgens and Londis brands in Great Britain and Dialprix in Spain, said today it's buying Superquinn and that it would retain the grocery chain's 2,800 employees at its 23 stores in Ireland.

Chris Martin, Musgrave's CEO, said about the deal today: "Having come to this agreement with the Joint Receivers, we are excited by this opportunity. Purchasing Superquinn, when approved, supports our growth agenda and will sustain our competitiveness. We are looking forward to working with the Superquinn team to develop the future of the business."

Neither Musgrave Group or the creditors and receivers said how much the Irish grocery wholesaler-retailer is paying for Superquinn.

But the Irish Times reported today (here) that according to its sources Musgrave bought Superquinn for about €100 million, which if true is €350 million less than debt-ridden owner Select Retail Holdings paid for it in 2005 when it bought the 51-year-old supermarket chain from founder Fergal Quinn.

The paper also reported today Musgrave Group is buying a distribution center in Blanchardstown, Dublin and 11 properties around the city as part of the deal, which is included in the €100 million price tag.

In our piece yesterday we said Musgrave Group/Supervalue was one of the potential buyers for Superquinn. We didn't expect such a quick deal though, even though based on the confidence the bank creditors and receivers voiced in their statement yesterday it was clear discussion were already in the works with one or more potential buyers.

If Musgrave Group's purchase of Superquinn is approved by the Irish authorities, the retailer, which has a combined market share of between 23-24% with its Supervalu, Centris and Londis bane stores, will overtake United Kingdom-based Tesco as the leading food and grocery retailer in Ireland. Tesco has an about 27% share. Musgrave Group's will rise to about 29-30% with the addition of Superquinn's 23 stores in Ireland. The Supervalue brand (and stores) is the groery wholesaler's leading food and grocery retailing banner in Ireland with an about 19.5% market share.

We think Ireland's Competition Authority will look closely into Murgrave Group's purchase of Superquinn but  will approve it without much difficulty for two primary reasons. Those reasons are:

>Better to have a local retailer, Musgrave, buy another local retailer, Superquinn, than have one from outside Ireland do so. The two fastest-growing grocers in Ireland for example are the German hard-discount chains Lidl and Aldi.

>Musgrave's has pledged to keep all 23 Superquinn stores open and retail its 2,800 employees. That will be a tough promise for the group to make. But its music to the ears not only of the workers but of Ireland's politicians because the country continues to struggle with high unemployment.

In announcing the deal today Musgrave Group CEO Martin said: "Superquinn has been challenged by the scale of its debt burden and the difficult trading environment. This purchase secures the jobs of 2,800 people and on completion of the sale process, Musgrave intends to invest in the stores and work with the Superquinn employees to develop the future of the business."

Musgrave Group was founded in 1876 by brothers Thomas and Stuart Musgrave. Today it's Ireland’s leading food and grocery wholesaler/distributor, serving around 3,300 stores in Ireland, Great Britain and Spain.

The wholesale grocer reported sales of €4.4 billion for its 2010 fiscal year, with a pre-tax profit of €72 million. Sales for 2010 were 3% less than in the previous year. But the 2010 profit amount was 3% higher than the profit for 2009.

Musgrave also eliminated €59 million in debt which it started out with in 2010, closing the year with a net cash surplus of €21 million.

We expect Musgrave to keep the Superquinn banner because of the brand's strong standing and iconic status in Ireland.

We also expect the wholesaler to over time find independent grocer-owners for most or all of the 23 Superquinn stores because Musgrave Group's model and focus is to be a product wholesaler and value-added partner providing financial, operational, marketing, advertising and merchandising services and the like to its independents who own their own stores.

As for our story yesterday, although its shelf-life is already over in terms of timeliness for Whole Foods Market, unlike perishable fresh foods which go away when the sell-by date is up, the story remains useful perhaps as a case history, despite its short shelf-life as part of a breaking news story.

For example, Whole Foods' got its start in the UK, where it has just five stores, by acquiring four markets previously owned by Britain's Fresh & Wild chain. As we detailed in our story yesterday, the natural and organic-focused grocery chain plans to at least double its store count in the UK over the next five years by building new stores. It's signed leases for two new units in metro London thus far and soon will open a store in Scotland.

Perhaps Whole Foods Market, taking its UK origin (Fresh & Wild) and our case history example (Superquinn) as twin points of departure, should start thinking small acquisitions as well as organic growth in the UK and surrounding area, considering the retailer continues to say it's bullish on the region as one of its existing two (the other being Canada) markets outside the U.S.

The Superquinn Irish Sweepstakes Offers An Opportunity For Whole Foods Market On the Emerald Isle

Pictured above: Superquinn's newest supermarket, an urban unit below a residential complex, at Heuston South Quarter, St. Johns Road West, Dublin, Ireland.

News/Analysis/Commentary

A syndicate of banks, including the main debt-holders Bank of Ireland, AIB and National Irish Bank, announced today the 51-year-old Irish supermarket chain Superquinn is being put into financial receivership due to the struggling grocer's debts, which are said by its creditors to be in the range of €400 million, which is about $635 million based on today's Euro-to-dollar conversion rate.

The banks said in the statement today they've appointed Kieran Wallace and Eamonn Richardson of the KMPG accounting firm as the receivers.

The recievers' charge from the bank creditors is to find a buyer for the 23-store Superquinn supermarket chain, which was founded by Fergal Quinn in 1960 and sold by the family to the Select Retail Holdings consortium in 2005 for about €450 million (slightly more than the current debt-load), post-haste.

Here's what one of the receivers, Eamonn Richardson, said today: "The Group [Superquinn owner Select Retail Holdings], which has been operating in a tough trading environment, has been heavily indebted, primarily due to property related loans. Therefore, this receivership, together with the planned sale as a going concern is a positive development for Superquinn, its employees and customers. We hope to be in a position to release further details on a proposed sale in the coming days."

The statement also said Superquinn's current CEO, Andrew Street, will remain in charge of the supermarket chain during the receivership process.

The banks and receiver administrators added in the statement today they're "confident of a successful sale of the business to a suitable buyer with a view to maintaining the Superquinn brand, the existing Superquinn stores, all of the jobs in these stores, and the highly regarded Superquinn product and service offering."

That's a tall order. But we imagine the creditors would settle for any one element out of the four listed above if the acquisition price is right.

The Superquinn brand does have iconic status in Ireland. For readers in the U.S. or elsewhere unfamiliar with the Irish grocer, think Ralphs in Southern California or H-E-B in Texas, for example, two chains with decades of operation and solid brand equity.

Therefore, the buyer - say any of the UK's top grocers like Waitrose, Morrisons, Tesco, Walmart-owned ASDA or Sainsbury's, for example - will have a struggle in deciding whether to change the banner, although if a big chain does buy Superquinn, it would probably eventually change the banner to its own, regardless of what it does in the interim.

Superquinn says it has about 2,800 employees at its stores located throughout Ireland and at its headquarters offices.

The chain had 24 stores until 2009, when it closed its store in Dundalk. Superquinn also fired 400 employees the same year, including those who worked at the shuttered supermarket.

It's hard to say because of the heavy debt load, but in our analysis the two leading candidates to acquire Superquinn are probably the UK supermarket chains Waitrose and Morrisons. Of the two, Superquinn's up-market format and fresh foods-focus fit Waitrose best from a merchandising standpoint, in our analysis, although the fit is also a good one for Morrisons.

Tesco, which is the food and grocery sales market share leader in Ireland with a 27.1% share, according to the most recent figures (12 weeks ended April 18, 2011) from Kantar Worldpanel Ireland, might also be interested in acquiring Superquinn, although we believe the competition authorities would likely veto any such deal because of its dominance in the Republic.

Also from Tesco's perspective as the market share leader in Ireland, as it is in the entire UK, the cost-benefit analysis - 23 stores (14 of which are in the metropolitan Dublin area) with about €400 million in debt - makes little sense in terms of a Tesco buy, at least in our analysis.

Ireland's second-largest supermarket chain by market share, Dunnes, (23.6% according to Kantar) and number three Supervalu (19.5%), which isn't affiliated with the U.S. grocery chain of the same name, might also be interested in buying Superquinn, which according to Kantar Ireland has a 6.4% share of the national market, which is down from 6.9% last year.

However, in our analysis, competitiveness would also be a potential political issue for both chains, as would the simple fact Superquinn's heavy debt load might not justify buying a competitor grocer with a declining 6.4% market share, although that share is pretty good for 23 stores.

Walmart's ASDA chain and Sainsbury's, Tesco's top two competitors in the United Kingdom and which according to Kantar have a meager combined 1.5% market share in Ireland, might also be interested in Superquinn, although of the two we think Sainsbury's would be the more likely grocer to perhaps make a bid because of its closer fit (than ASDA's) from a merchandising standpoint with Superquinn. In fact, in our analysis Superquinn would be a good play for Sainsbury's if it can get a good deal.

Whole Foods Market's Irish Opportunity

But it's not just UK-based chains that Superquinn presents an opportunity for in our analysis.

For example, we think the Superquinn "Irish sweepstakes" offers an interesting strategic opportunity for Austin, Texas USA-based Whole Foods Market, which currently has just five stores in the UK, four of which it acquired when it bought the small Fresh & Wild chain a few years ago. The fifth store,Whole Foods' only built-from-the-ground-up unit to date in the UK, is its 80,000 square-foot High Street Kensington mega-market in London, which it opened in 2007. All five stores are in and around London, England.

Earler this year Whole Foods Market co-founder and co-CEO John Mackey said the natural grocery chain plans to at least double the number of stores it has in the UK over the next five years.

Thus far the natural grocer has signed two new leases in London's Richmond and Fulham districts, which is nearly half-way to that doubling. The two stores are scheduled for late 2012 or early 2013 openings.

Whole Foods Market is also opening its first store outside the London area soon, in the city of Gifnock, which is a fairly high-income suburb just south of the city of Glasgow. Walter Robb, Whole Foods' co-CEO, said in a talk given earlier this year we attended that additional stores are being planned in metropolitan Glasgow, Scotland.

The Texas-based natural and organic grocery chain has been struggling and losing money in the UK for years, although its getting closer to break-even with its operations there. In its fiscal 2010 year Whole Foods' lost £3.06 million (about $5.8 million) in its UK operations, which was down significantly from the previous year's loss of £4.36 million (about $7 million).

On top of that improvement, Whole Foods' mega-Kensington High Street store in London turned a profit for the first time since 2007 in the grocer's latest quarter, along with experiencing strong comparable store sales in the double-digits.

Whole Foods Market says its committed to expanding in the UK. In fact, last year co-founder/co-CEO Mackey  said publicly that if the natural-organic grocer had to choose between Canada and the UK - its two international divisions outside the U.S. - it would choose the UK.

Despite this commitment, Whole Food Market suffers from a lack of critical mass in the UK.

It's also not clear to us if Whole Foods' focus on London and the surrounding environs makes much sense, considering the competition from up-market grocer Waitrose, which offers a substantial selection of natural and organic foods and has a strong brand franchise in the UK. This geographical focus in fact is something Whole Foods agrees on in part, which is why it's expanding into Scotland - to geographically diversify.

In our analysis, Ireland, which shares a long kinship with the United States where Whole Foods is a huge success, is as good or better a potential market for the natural grocer as England or Scotland is.

And Superquinn, which shares numerous merchandising and operational elements with Whole Foods Market - a focus on fresh foods; local foods procurement, merchandising and promotion; natural, organic and specialty product offerings; a high-level of customer service; and more - is as good an acquisition fit as Whole Foods' could find across the pond, in our analysis, assuming it could get a good deal on the 23-store chain, considering the heavy debt-load it's carrying.

Superquinn operates as a conventional supermarket along with its specialty and fresh foods focus. This isn't something that fits Whole Foods Market's culture or strategy in the U.S. But Ireland isn't the U.S. And different countries often call for different approaches and strategies, including within those regions or nations.

For example, after it acquired chief rival Wild Oats Markets in 2007, it sold the then hybrid conventional-natural-specialty 30-plus-store Henry's Farmers Market chain to Southern California-based Smart & Final, giving as the reason that operating such a chain wasn't part of its culture or strategic plans. We suspect that might be the case with Superquinn, although it need not be.

But that wouldn't have to be a problem for Whole Foods Market were to acquire the Irish supermarket chain.

For example, under one scenario, it could keep all of the Superquinn units that make sense from a demographic and lifestyle perspective (Whole Foods' key data point in terms of store locations is percentage of college graduates and consumers who've attended college), change the banner to Whole Foods Market on those stores and sell off the remaining Superquinn markets, using the proceeds to help pay down the debt.

Another scenario, regardless of how many units it were to keep, would be to co-brand the stores using the iconic Superquinn brand in combination with the Whole Foods name - or keep the Superquinn name completely, which might be its smartest strategy.

Doing this wouldn't be unheard of for the grocer. For example, Whole Foods Market operates a few stores in the U.S. that don't have the Whole Foods Market name, including the Harry's Farmers Market stores in Georgia, which were acquired via acquisition a number of years ago.

The Harry's stores in fact are a hybrid conventional-natural-organic-specialty format. In other words there's precedent for the natural grocer's doing so.

Therefore, in our analysis it wouldn't be a stretch, and perhaps would be a wise move, for Whole Foods Market to operate the Superquinn stores, in this scenario, as a hybrid format, keeping the best of what the 51-year-old Irish chain offers and adding some of the best elements from Whole Foods, such as its focus on organics. Both Whole Foods Market and Superquinn put a major focus on fresh foods - produce, meats, deli, in-store bakery and fresh-prepared foods - which is a natural marriage.

We also think Whole Foods' decentralized culture and operations structure, particularly as it pertains to its UK operations but also the way it operates in the U.S., would serve it well were it to acquire Superquinn and operate it as a best-of-both-chains-type hybrid conventional-natural-organic-specialty food and grocery chain. It could retain many of the Superquinn people, who all have a local focus, and blend them with the Whole Foods' UK folks, who already understand the grocer's culture, for example.

Superquinn also operates an online ordering and home delivery business, which could allow Whole Foods Market to extend its business and sales on the Emerald Isle far beyond the 23 (or however many Superquinn units it would end-up keeping) brick-and-mortar supermarkets.

When Irish eyes are smiling

The Devil is always in the details when it comes to deals like Superquinn, particularly since the chain has a heavy debt-load, a declining market share and negative sales growth. Kantar Ireland's figures for the period described earlier have Superquinn with negative sales growth of about 5%, for example.

But it is also under such circumstances - heavy debt and a decline in market share - that good deals can also be made. In those cases ... God is in the details.

As far as Whole Foods Market - which recently announced its long-term strategy is to go from slightly over 300 stores currently in America to 1,000 units, which could easily more than triple the grocer's current annual sales of nearly $9 billion - goes outside the U.S. (a few stores in Canada and the UK), an acquisition of Superquinn and a presence in Ireland is certainly something the Austin, Texas-based grocer should seriously look into, in our analysis.

After all, from a historic and cultural perspective, is there really any better and more logical place for an American grocer to go overseas than Ireland, where nearly every resident either has a family member or friend who at one time or another has lived in the U.S?

Whole Foods Market is also a known brand name in Ireland because of the extensive travel and trade relationships between the two countries.

Like the U.S., Ireland is in an economic slump. But also like in the U.S., there continues to exist in Ireland a food and grocery retailing up-market. Superquinn offers a opportunity for Whole Foods Market to perhaps participate in that niche, as well as to jump-start its strategy across the pond and from there across the channel.

Like we said, both the Devil and God are in the details. But we do think Superquinn is worth a look for Whole Foods Market. After all, co-founder and co-CEO John Mackey's Irish eyes do remain clearly focused across the pond.

The 'Art' in Food Retailing On the First Day of Summer at Whole Foods Market in New York City's Chelsea District

Like most grocery stores and supermarkets, Whole Foods Markets' six stores in New York City have butchers, bakers, baggers, stock clerks, produce men and women, and grocery checkers, all working away throughout the day.

But that's where the similarities end.

In addition to the workers doing the daily tasks inherent in the various job positions noted above, each of the six Whole Foods' stores in the Big Apple also have two full time artists on staff. The artists job: To create.

And create the in-store artists do. Their works improve and adorn the inside of the six Whole Foods' stores in Manhattan in a variety of ways, as well as often being displayed outside the stores so passers by are able to enjoy the works of art as they walk by.

That was the case today outside the Whole Foods Market store at 250 7th Avenue in Manhattan's Chelsea District, which is home to numerous artists and has its own art district.

In honor of Summer Solstice today, which marks the first day of summer, the Whole Foods store in Chelsea displayed the work of art pictured at top, which was painted by Steve Feldman, one of the store's two full time artists. Feldman calls his painting "Beast of Summer."

Along with calling it enjoyable, we also call it another example of the many creative ways Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods Market, Inc. differentiates itself from its competitors, while at the same time offering a public service.

That public service: Providing free works of art for people who find themselves strolling by the Whole Foods store in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood to enjoy, including the piece on display today, which has a theme fit for the first day of summer.
Enjoy your summer.

[Readers: Click on these links - Whole Foods Market, Whole Foods Market Inc. - to read past stories about Whole Foods Market in Fresh & Easy Buzz.]

A Natural & Organic Kind of Thing: Finding Love at Whole Foods Market

Whole Foods Market is famous for offering nearly everything under the sun that's natural and organic, from fresh foods and grocery products to beer, wine and clothing made from organic cotton, all with a focus on customer service.

But despite being a foremost expert in hooking up shoppers with all things natural and organic, Whole Foods Market hasn't in the 30-years it's been around been able to figure out how to offer one of the most natural and organic aspects of life - love - in its 304 stores in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom ... until today.

That's right, today the Austin, Texas-based natural-organic grocery chain is announcing in the must-view video at top that love - a natural and organic process that's a bit harder to explain than organic farming, for example - is now available at Whole Foods Market. And like all things at Whole Foods, finding love is a team effort, even on April Fool's Day.

Whole Foods Market's Two Newest California Stores, Santa Rosa and Just-Opened Huntington Beach, Are at Shopping Malls

Southern Califoria Market Region report: New Store Openings

The Whole Foods Market store (pictured above) that opened its doors yesterday in Huntington Beach, (Southern) California is the second new Whole Foods unit to open in a three week period that's at a shopping mall location.

The 30,000 square-foot store is located at the Bella Terra Mall, at Edinger and Beach Boulevards in Huntington Beach. It's Whole Foods Market's 300th store. Whole Foods, which has annual sales of about $8 billion, has stores in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom.

On September 22, Whole Foods Market opened its newest and second store in Santa Rosa, in Northern California. That store, like the Huntington Beach market opened yesterday, is at a shopping mall location - 390 Coddingtown Mall. [See - September 21, 2010: A Look Inside Whole Foods Market's Newest Store, A Mall Location in Santa Rosa, California and September 19, 2010 Whole Foods Market Gives Itself A 30th Birthday Present: 299th Store Opens This Week in Santa Rosa, California.]

Like the Coddington Mall Whole Foods store, the Huntington Beach market has a facade and entrance facing the parking lot outside the main shopping mall. Shoppers are also able to enter the store from inside the Bella Terra Mall.

Shopping mall locations aren't a tradition for Whole Foods Market. In fact, it's only something the grocer started pursuing recently.

Whole Foods isn't alone in this regard. After flirting with shopping mall-based locations in the 1980's, most U.S. grocery chains have avoided the spots like the plague ever since.

However, a number of grocers besides Whole Foods are looking at shopping malls once again as secondary locations, in large part because the recession and commercial real estate crisis has made mall operators hungry for retailers that can bring in foot-traffic. Enter grocery stores. As a result, many mall operators are offer grocers locations for far less dollars per-square-foot than ever before in recent history. An example is hard-discount grocery chain Aldi USA, which plans to open a number of stores in shopping mall locations this year and next.

We don't see shopping malls becoming a magnet for grocery stores. However, locations like the two California malls where Whole Foods has opened the stores, where there's both stand-alone and in-mall access, can make very good sense for grocer's to explore.

Whole Foods' new store in Huntington Beach also shows off the grocer's keen ability to localize its units, building on its decentralized operations structure and culture.

Huntington Beach, including the neighborhood surrounding the Terra Bella Mall Whole Foods Market store, has a substantial Vietnamese population and community. Additionally, Huntington Beach, which is know as "Surf City USA," has a surfing culture - and is filled with surfers.

Whole Foods' has taken these demographic and cultural characteristics of the city and incorporated them into its new 30,000 square-foot store.

For example, the store, which features a massive fresh-prepared foods selection and an eat-in area, is offering what it's calling "Local Flavors," which are selections of ready-to-eat and ready-to-heat Vietnamese cuisine such as Sesame Peanut Cold Noodle Salad, Sweet and Spicy and Tamarind and Pho soups, Vietnamese Skirt Steak and Spicy Lemon Tamarind Tofu entrees, Vietnamese-inspired pizza and many more similar prepared foods items.

There's also a full selection of stir fry sets of pre-cut strips of pork, lamb, chicken and beef paired with vegetables, for easy cooking at home.

The items are as much (or more so) Vietnamese-inspired, meaning geared for all ethnic groups but offered as part of the localization of the store in celebration of the city's vibrant Vietnamese community. For example, most first and many second generation Vietnamese-Americans don't buy prepared foods all that often and prefer to cut their own meat for stir-fry at home.

Huntington Beach's surfer culture is equally represented in the new store - in the pizza and beer bar.

The in-store pizza and beer bar, which has seating for customers, offers hot pizza from an oven and has a variety of cold beers on tap, and is designed to be a local gathering place for shoppers to meet up with friends. The "bar" also features a live real time feed of the surf conditions in Huntington Beach so surfers can keep track of the waves. Being able to monitor the local waves while having pizza and beer is a surfers dream. As such, we expect the "bar" to become a hangout once word gets out about the real time feed.

As a part of its fresh-prepared foods offering, the store also offers shoppers "Beach Bar, such as: 405," which features a selection of rotating ethnic foods and flavors from all over the world such as: beef and chicken empanada plates; a variety of bruschetta and marinated garlic plates, and unique dishes like arepas (flat cornmeal patties from Venezuela and Columbia stuffed with chicken, cheese or meat) and Jade Pearl Marbles (rice balls made with Jade Pearl rice, vegetables and herbs) served with sesame miso dipping sauce.

Additionally, the in-store "Beach Bar 405" also offers a full selection of comfort foods like fried macaroni and cheese balls, chicken wings, nachos and french fries.

Below are some of the other key departmental features and focal points of the new Huntington Beach Whole Foods Market store:

Meat: specialty meats featured in the meat department include: savory cured meat from the in-house smoke bacon program, smoked pork bellies, shabu shabu meat, duck and game birds. And that's just fpor starters.

Seafood: The fresh fish and seafood offering is extensive. It includes whole fresh fish and fish fillets, seafood and shellfish of every kind, including numerous varieties and sizes of shrimp, pre-packed wild-caught and responsibly farmed fish packs with vegetables for steaming or stir frying, fish smoked in-house daily and more.

Cheese: there's a full selection of cheeses sourced locally and from around the world. Also: pre-packed cheese packs, like the "International Assortment" or "The Cheese Mongers Pick" are featured in the department. Customers can create their own pairings of cheese with jellies, honeys from Honey Pacifica, a local honey producer, truffle oils, spreads, sauces and tapenades

Beer and Wine: Create your own six pack. The 'Mix and Match 6-Pack' offered in the department lets customers create their own set of hand-crafted beers from around the world, including varieties from the Orange County-based brewery, The Bruery. Wines made from grapes from Vietnam, as well as traditional favorites from Santa Barbara and other well-regarded regions are featured in the department. The store also is one of the first Whole Foods stores in the country that will carry what will be the grocer's challenge - an inexpensive but quality wine - to Trader's Joe's famous "Two Buck Chuck."

Bakery: organic breads made fresh daily include French baguettes, a Vietnamese favorite from the years of French occupation, plus a variety of Vietnamese coconut cakes, as well as tapioca desserts, cream puffs and cream horns. There are numerous gluten-free and vegan baked goods offered.

Produce: Whole Foods says it's offering as much quality locally-grown produce as it can source in the department, including products from Orange County Produce, featuring in-season and unique, ethnic selections such as baby bok choy, baby celery and greens for Asian cooking grown at Yasutomi Farm and a large selection of fresh squeezed citrus and vegetable juices.. Huntington Beach is in Orange County.

Floral: flowers and plants from local vendors are features, including lilies and Gerber daisies from local Fox Point Farm and succulents and indoor plants grown at Farm-Deer Springs, another local grower. The department is also offering eco-friendly cards, to pair with floral gifts, from Jillson and Roberts, a line of locally-made cards designed by kids through the Art for Education program.

Pickle Barrels: Roll out the barrel. The store offers a variety of bulk Alexander Valley pickles in barrels. The varieties include: Manhattan, Bread & Butter, Hot & Spicy and famous Rick's Picks, which have to be tasted to be described.

Bulk foods and more: The store offers more than 60 herbs and spices in bulk. There's also numerous types of olive oil, including two California brands, available in bulk dispensers. Containers are available at the store but shoppers are encourages to bring their own reusable containers

Whole Body: A major offering in the stores body care section is a selection of value oriented bulk natural soaps, bath salts, shower gels, shampoos, conditioners and lotions. There's also make-up, supplements, including herbs and essentials from Southern California-based Paradise Herbs, and a huge selection of organic baby products.

Like all Whole Foods' stores, the new Huntington Beach unit puts a major emphasis on offering locally-produced and made foods and other products, as we've outlined above.

Store Team Leader Pat Cox says the store currently offers products from over 50 local purveyors and vendors - and that the list is growing. For example, the in-house coffee poured in the store's cafe comes from local vendor Portola Handcrafted Coffee Roasters.

The new store makes 30 stores for Whole Foods in Southern California. The 30 units range in size from 25,000-30,000 square-feet to the nearly 80,000 square-foot Southern California flagship store in Pasadena.

There are 62 Whole Foods stores in California.

Whole Foods Market currently has four new stores in development in Southern California - one each in Del Mar, Encinitas, Malibu and Oxnard. The grocer continues to search for new store locations in the region.

Related Stories

September 21, 2010: A Look Inside Whole Foods Market's Newest Store, A Mall Location in Santa Rosa, California

September 19, 2010: Whole Foods Market Gives Itself A 30th Birthday Present: 299th Store Opens This Week in Santa Rosa, California

September 18, 2010: Keep On Truckin' - Whole Foods Market Celebrates 30 Years This Weekend.

July 14, 2010: Tony Bennett Has Nothing on Whole Foods Market When it Comes to Loving San Francisco...That City By the Bay

May 9, 2010: A Whopping 15 of Whole Foods Market's 41 New Stores in Development are in California - And Nine of The 15 Are In Northern CA

June 14, 2010: Newly-Named Whole Foods Market CO-CEO Walter Robb Comes Full Circle With the Opening of the New Store in Mill Valley CA

A Look Inside Whole Foods Market's Newest Store, A Mall Location in Santa Rosa, California

Were they alive today, the late hipster beat poets, Allen Ginsburg and Jack Kerouac, who created the beat generation and movement while living in San Francisco in the 1950's-1960's, where they spent many hours in the cafe's of North Beach writing poetry, and who were known to dig the bucolic scene and locally-grown herbs produced in nearby Sonoma County, would feel right at home writing poetry at the hip 'Organic Aromatic' drinks bar in the new Cottington Mall Whole Foods Market store in Santa Rosa, California.

Northern California Special Report

Over the weekend, we wrote about Whole Foods Market, Inc.'s celebration of its 30th birthday which took place on Saturday and Sunday.

We also reported on the Austin, Texas-based grocer's plans to open its 299th store on Wednesday (September 22), at the Coddington Mall in the Northern California city of Santa Rosa. Santa Rosa is in Sonoma County, in the northern San Francisco Bay Area.

The stories: September 19, 2010: Whole Foods Market Gives Itself A 30th Birthday Present: 299th Store Opens This Week in Santa Rosa, California and September 18, 2010: Keep On Truckin' - Whole Foods Market Celebrates 30 Years This Weekend.]

A look 'in-store'

As we noted in our September 19 piece, the new Santa Rosa Whole Foods' store, the grocer's second in the city, is nearly 50,000 square-feet and features most of Whole Foods' latest-version in-store departments and special features, including an expansive fresh-prepared foods area, which features an in-store dining area that seats 70 people.

The store has an outside-the-mall facade and entrance. But the in-store restaurant also connects to the inside shopping mall, allowing mall shoppers to walk right in from their mall shopping and get a bite to eat.

Below are a few of the in-store special features and departments at the new Santa Rosa Whole Foods Market store opening on Wednesday:

>The Tap House: It's an in-store pub/beer lounge, with seating, offering 16 locally-produced craft brews on tap. The design, country-modern, fits in with what one might expect a local pub in Sonoma County might look like. (See a picture of the Tap House in the slideshow linked at the end of this piece.)

>The Organic Aromantic Drinks Bar (pictured at top): Along with every type of coffee and tea drink you can imagine, the hip drinks bar, which has a sit-down area right across from it, features numerous other beverages, including the popular healthy and according to some folks magical beverage Kombucha, which is offered on tap. Shoppers can have a glass - or fill-up a reusable container; size of their choice.

>Frozen Yogurt and Gelato Bar: It's an in-store version of the corner frozen and yogurt shop, except it's self-serve. Shoppers can build their own frozen yogurt or Italian ice cream treats from a selection of dozens of varieties and toppings.

>In-Store Bakery: Breads, cakes, pies, pastries, snacks and more - conventional, organic, vegan and gluten-free. Many are fresh-baked in the bakery's high-tech ovens.

>The Butcher Shop: The department offers nearly every concievable meat option, from the basics to dry-aged, organic and sustainably-raised beef, pork, lamb, poultry and more. There's pre-packaged meats as well as unpackaged meat and poultry offered from a butcher counter.

The butcher shop puts a particular focus on offering meat and poultry from numerous local purveyors, including what its calling the "super-local beef program," which sources drectly from North Bay Area ranchers.

The shop also features Whole Foods' 5-step animal welfare program, which rates how chicken, beef, pork and other meats are raised.

The department also features a full-selection of value-added (marinated, ect.) meat items for quick cooking at home.

Their's also a full-service fish and seafood counter. And because Santa Rosa is near the Sonoma Coast, a special emphasis is being put on offering locally-caught seasonal fish and seafood varieties in the department. The department also features Whole Foods Market's just-introduced color-coded seafood sustainability rating system and chart, which rank-orders fish and seafood varieties offered using simple color codes.

The Cheese Shop: It's got it all, from local cheeses (which are numerous in the region), to imports. Like in many of Whole Foods' other stores, this one is a complete cheese-shop-within-a-grocery-store.

Produce, With A Local Emphasis: The store's produce department is big - and packed with fresh fruits and vegetables. Because the region is home to so many sustainable and organic fresh fruit and vegetable growers, the store, like Whole Foods' other markets in the region, is putting a najor emphasis on the quantity of locally-grown produce items available in the department, with the local origin of each item noted on signage.

In fact, "Local" is big throughout the store. For example, Whole Foods says the store will initially feature products of all types from at least 125 Sonoma County farmers and producers, with more to be added. The local products range from fresh produce, meats and prepared foods, to flowers, plants, honey, cheeses, craft beers, wines, packaged grocery products and more. Additionally, products from scores more local (within an about 100-mile distance) purveyors will be offered in the store.

Gluten-Free and Vegan: There's a special store-within-a-store section featuring an expansive selection of gluten-free and animal-free packaged food and grocery items, along with recipes and other information about living a gluten and animal free lifestyle.

Bulk Foods and Bulk Spices: The store features a mega-bulk foods and bulk-spices section. The bulk products range from basics like flours and oats, to snacks. There's also a selection of thirty-something different varieties/flavors of bulk granola, offered in clear, gravity-fed dispensers. Also included are dozens of different varieties of spices, from the basic to the exotic, along with at least that many varieties of sea salt, from plain to smoked and flavored. The bulk spices and sea salts are also merchandised in attractive, clear dispensers.

>Health and Wellness Center: Last but far from least - and we have by no means listed all of the store's special features - the new Santa Rosa Whole Foods Market store has one of the grocer's first in-store health and wellness Centers.

The health and wellness center includes a large room where community educational seminars and discussions on health and wellness topics and issues will take place. Their also will be wellness club. Club members will get discounts on various healthy foods items sold in the store as part of their membership benefits.

A look 'in-store' - in pictures

Although the store opens on Wednesday, and has a big grand opening event on Sunday, September 26 - which includes a BBQ from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., featuring free grilled meat and seafood, along with side dishes, desserts and drinks, plus live music and a family fair, in which those attending can meet local ranchers and attend workshops about buying, cutting, marinating and cooking meat - Whole Foods invited a group of media folks and others in the store on Monday for a preview of what's to come on September 22, when the doors open to the shopping public.

One of the people attending the store preview yesterday, who happens to be a regular Fresh & Easy Buzz reader and correspondent, provided us with a nice overview of the store, offering a bird's-eye view written report, along with sending us a link to an excellent photographic slide slow of the store, taken by a staff photographer for the local daily newspaper, the [Santa Rosa] Press Democrat, and published in the paper.

The slide show contains 24 photographs of the inside and outside of the store, including pictures of most of the features detailed above.

As you'll see when viewing the photographs, and as we've described above, if the new Santa Rosa Whole Foods store had a middle name, it would be... "Local," which it is, from its localized store design elements, departmental signage, and shelf tags, to its store-wide focus on merchandising locally-grown and produced food, grocery, beverage and even non-foods products.

[You can view the slideshow here.]

A good time for a birthday party - and store number 299

With the 30th anniversary opening of the new store in Santa Rosa on Wednesday, store number 299 for the chain, it's likely Whole Foods Market's celebration of its 30th birthday, which officially is today, will continue on for a few more days.

It's hard to blame them. Whole Foods Market had a tough 2007-2009 but got its game back in early 2010 in spades. As such, the 30th birthday and 299th store comes at a good time for the grocer and its 54,000 employees (which it calls team members) in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom.

Reader Resource

Stories in our 2010 'Northern Califoria Special Report' series:

September 20, 2010: About Today's Walmart Stores, Inc. Smaller Stores Media Frenzy: We Scooped it On July 6, 2010

September 19, 2010: Whole Foods Market Gives Itself A 30th Birthday Present: 299th Store Opens This Week in Santa Rosa, California

September 18, 2010: Keep On Truckin' - Whole Foods Market Celebrates 30 Years This Weekend

September 14, 2010: Eight Plus One: Napa Unit Added to Eight Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores Opening in Northern CA in Early 2011

September 5, 2010: BevMo Chain Ends Full Time Employment For Store Workers; They Say No Way and Join With UFCW Union to Demand 'A Better BevMo'

September 3, 2010: How the California Grocers Association and its Members Can Snatch Victory From the Jaws of the Defeat of California's Plastic Bag Ban

August 25, 2010: Going Rural: New Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Store Planned for Sutter Creek in Northern California

August 23, 2010: Hybrid 'Good Eats' Market-Cafe From Raley's CEO Michael Teel & Company Opens Today in Sacramento CA

August 22, 2010: The Insider: Challenges & Opportunities: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Will Supply its Northern CA Stores From its Riverside County DC in Southern CA

August 21, 2010: April 2010 Prediction Correct: February 2011 Target to Open First Eight Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores in Northern California

August 19, 2010: Tesco Will Open its First Eight Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores in Northern California in 'Early 2011.'

August 17, 2010: Henry's Farmers Market 'Beats' Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to Northern California Despite Multi-Year Head Start; Elk Grove Store Opens Tomorrow

July 29, 2010: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Putting Together List of Managers Interested in Transferring to Northern California

July 25, 2010: Safeway to Start Construction on New Pleasanton, California Flagship Store Soon; Thanksgiving 2011 Target Opening

July 22, 2010: 'The Insider' - After Four Years in the High Weeds in Northern & Central California, Kroger Co. is Emerging to Grow its Foods Co Chain

July 21, 2010: Vacant Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Store in Pacifica, California Has the City's Mayor in a Pickle

July 18, 2010: 'The Insider' - When it Comes to Northern California - its Competitors are Rome Burning and Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is Nero Playing the Fiddle

July 14, 2010: Tony Bennett Has Nothing on Whole Foods Market When it Comes to Loving San Francisco...That City By the Bay

July 6, 2010: Walmart Looking for Store Sites in Northern California For 20,000 Sq-Ft Neighborhood Market by Walmart Prototype Store

June 28, 2010: Smart & Final to Open its New Format SmartCo Foods Stores in California and Arizona

June 26, 2010: Tesco Planning to Announce in July When First Northern California Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores to Open

June 14, 2010: Newly-Named Whole Foods Market CO-CEO Walter Robb Comes Full Circle With the Opening of the New Store in Mill Valley CA

June 5, 2010: Sprouts Farmers Market Opens First Northern California Store in Sunnyvale; Strikes Up Partnership With Local Non-Profit Farm

May 29, 2010: Going Rural: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to Build First Store in Los Banos, California

May 28, 2010: First Phase of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market-Anchored Condo Development in San Francisco's Bayview Set For Completion in June

April 19, 2010: Tesco Debating Whether to Launch Fresh & Easy Into Northern California This Fiscal Year... or Wait

May 9, 2010: A Whopping 15 of Whole Foods Market's 41 New Stores in Development are in California - And Nine of The 15 Are In Northern CA

May 8, 2010: Sprouts, and Likely Henry's to Beat Fresh & Easy to Northern California Despite it's Big Head Start

May 6, 2010: Going Smaller & Getting 'Hybrid': Walmart's Smaller Supercenter in Vacant Retail Buildings Strategy Began in 2008

April 19, 2010: Tesco Debating Whether to Launch Fresh & Easy Into Northern California This Fiscal Year... or Wait

[Also: click here , here and here for a selection of past stories on Fresh & Easy and Northern Calfornia.

Whole Foods Market Gives Itself A 30th Birthday Present: 299th Store Opens This Week in Santa Rosa, California

Northern California Market Special Report

Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods Market is celebrating it 30th birthday this weekend. Special events and promotions are being held at its 298 stores, located in 40 U.S. states and three countries, which include Canada and the United Kingdom in addition to the U.S.

[Related story - September 18, 2010: Keep On Truckin' - Whole Foods Market Celebrates 30 Years This Weekend]

In yesterday's piece (linked above), we noted that Whole Foods Market will open it's 299th store, a birthday week milestone of sorts, on Wednesday, September 22.

Store 299 in Northern California

Interestingly, but far from surprising, Whole Foods' newest store, number 299, is in Northern California, in the San Francisco Bay Area city of Santa Rosa, in Sonoma County. The store is also a milestone unit of sorts in that it has one of Whole Foods' first health and wellness centers inside.

The new store is at 390 Coddingtown Mall. It's the grocer's second unit in Santa Rosa. The other Whole Foods store in the city is at 1181 Yulupa Avenue.

The reason the location of the birthday week new store opening isn't surprising, is because Northern California, and particularly the San Francisco Bay Area, is Whole Foods' leading U.S. region of focus in terms of having the highest percentage of new stores in development, as we first reported and detailed in this May 9, 2010 story: A Whopping 15 of Whole Foods Market's 41 New Stores in Development are in California - And Nine of The 15 Are In Northern CA. Also see - June 14, 2010: Newly-Named Whole Foods Market CO-CEO Walter Robb Comes Full Circle With the Opening of the New Store in Mill Valley CA.

New Santa Rosa store

The new Whole Foods' store opening on Wednesday in Santa Rosa is a whopper, and features most all of the grocer's in-store specialty departments, along with something new.

At 49,700 square-feet, the Coddington Mall/Santa Rosa Whole Foods' store features an expansive fresh-prepared foods department featuring a universe of grab-and-go foods, ready-to-heat foods, and food bars offering numerous varieties of comfort, higher-end and ethnic foods. It also has a sit-down dining area for eating in-store.

The nearly 50,000 square-foot store also features a tap room and bar with 16 varieties of beer on tap and plenty of wine, a self-serve ice cream and gelato bar, a huge produce department, which will feature fruits and vegetables from dozens of local growers, a fresh meat department with both pre-packaged, self-service meats and a full-service butcher counter, big bulk food and health and body care departments, and much more.

Something new: In-store health & wellness center

The Santa Rosa store will also have one of the grocer's first "health and wellness centers," which includes a community lecture room in the store where informational sessions, educational seminars, discussions and meetings on health and wellness topics and issues will take place. It's the something new mentioned above.

Here's what Whole Foods Market Co-CEo John Mackey said about the health and wellness center and club concept, from our story yesterday: "We're going to do five wellness clubs where we're going to have intensive educational programs, a healthy dining club. Once you graduate from the club, you'll get a membership card that will give you discounts on produce and other really healthy items we sell."

Northern California of strategic importance

The Coddington Mall location is a unique one for Whole Foods, or for any grocery store for that matter, since the retailer seldom if ever locates its stores in mall centers. The Coddington Mall store though has an outside facing and entrance - its not an actual inside-the mall-entrance-only venue - which makes it similar to being in a traditional shopping center. The owners of the mall/center are trying to increase business for its existing stores. They say they are banking on the new Whole Foods store opening Wednesday to draw increased and new foot traffic to the shopping venue.

Northern California is strategically significant to Whole Foods Market in terms of its future store growth, as well as sales and profits. The region, where co-CEO Walter Robb got his start in the business, is also home to many of the grocer's most important, and most innovative, suppliers. As such, it's fitting that if the new store opening on birthday week can't be in Texas, it should be in Northern California, as Whole Foods Market celebrates its 30th birthday this weekend, and into next week.

Whole Foods Market: First 30 Years
Much of Whole Foods' growth in store-count and sales since 1984 has come from acquisitions, its biggest being the 2008 acquisition of rival natural/organic retailing chain Wild Oats. The grocer's most recent acquisition, just a couple months ago, is much smaller than the $500 million purchase of Wild Oats. It's Greenville Grocery, which consists of a couple stores in Greenville, South Carolina.

Below is a list of all of Whole Foods Market, Inc.'s acquisitions since 1984 (in ranked order, from first to most recent). Note: 'Food for Thought,' on the list below, was a multi-store independent natural foods retailer based in Sonoma County, California. The Whole Foods store at 1181 Yulupa Avenue in Santa Rosa was previously a Food For Thought unit.

•Whole Food Company
•Wellspring Grocery
•Bread & Circus
•Mrs. Goochʹs Natural Foods Market
•Bread of Life • Fresh Fields Markets
•Merchant of Vino
•Allegro Coffee
•Natureʹs Heartland
•Food for Thought
•Harry’s Farmers Market • Select Fish
•Fresh and Wild
•Wild Oats Markets
•Greenlife Grocery

First 30 Years: Milestones

>Whole Foods Market went public on January 23, 1992, at a split‐adjusted IPO price of $2.125 per share. Whole Foods' stock closed at $37.09 per share on Friday's NASDAQ market close.

>Since 1993, Whole Foods Market has given back at least five percent of its after‐tax profits to the community through what it calls quarterly 5% days, as well as through donations to non‐profit organizations and schools.

>Whole Foods' has been on Fortune magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work For" list every year since it was first published in 1998.

>Whole Foods Market became the first National Certified Organic Grocer in the U.S., doing so in June 2003.

>On average, approximately 20 percent of Whole Foods Market’s fresh produce is locally.

>Whole Foods Market joined Twitter in 2008 and today has more than 1.5 million followers.

>Click here for a list of additional milestones in Whole Foods Market's first 30 years. You can also view other 30-year Whole Foods' highlights and related information here.

Reader Resources

'Northern California Market Special Report' 2010 series stories:

September 14, 2010: Eight Plus One: Napa Unit Added to Eight Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores Opening in Northern CA in Early 2011

September 5, 2010: BevMo Chain Ends Full Time Employment For Store Workers; They Say No Way and Join With UFCW Union to Demand 'A Better BevMo'

September 3, 2010: How the California Grocers Association and its Members Can Snatch Victory From the Jaws of the Defeat of California's Plastic Bag Ban

August 27, 2010: After Nearly Three Years, Construction Begins On One of Two Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores Set For Antioch, California

August 25, 2010: Going Rural: New Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Store Planned for Sutter Creek in Northern California

August 23, 2010: Hybrid 'Good Eats' Market-Cafe From Raley's CEO Michael Teel & Company Opens Today in Sacramento CA

August 22, 2010: The Insider: Challenges & Opportunities: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Will Supply its Northern CA Stores From its Riverside County DC in Southern CA

August 21, 2010: April 2010 Prediction Correct: February 2011 Target to Open First Eight Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores in Northern California

August 19, 2010: Tesco Will Open its First Eight Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores in Northern California in 'Early 2011.'

August 17, 2010: Henry's Farmers Market 'Beats' Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to Northern California Despite Multi-Year Head Start; Elk Grove Store Opens Tomorrow

July 29, 2010: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Putting Together List of Managers Interested in Transferring to Northern CaliforniaJ

July 25, 2010: Safeway to Start Construction on New Pleasanton, California Flagship Store Soon; Thanksgiving 2011 Target Opening

July 22, 2010: 'The Insider' - After Four Years in the High Weeds in Northern & Central California, Kroger Co. is Emerging to Grow its Foods Co Chain

July 21, 2010: Vacant Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Store in Pacifica, California Has the City's Mayor in a Pickle

July 18, 2010: 'The Insider' - When it Comes to Northern California - its Competitors are Rome Burning and Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is Nero Playing the Fiddle

July 14, 2010: Tony Bennett Has Nothing on Whole Foods Market When it Comes to Loving San Francisco...That City By the Bay

July 6, 2010: Walmart Looking for Store Sites in Northern California For 20,000 Sq-Ft Neighborhood Market by Walmart Prototype Store

June 28, 2010: Smart & Final to Open its New Format SmartCo Foods Stores in California and Arizona

June 26, 2010: Tesco Planning to Announce in July When First Northern California Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores to Open

June 14, 2010: Newly-Named Whole Foods Market CO-CEO Walter Robb Comes Full Circle With the Opening of the New Store in Mill Valley CA

June 5, 2010: Sprouts Farmers Market Opens First Northern California Store in Sunnyvale; Strikes Up Partnership With Local Non-Profit Farm

May 29, 2010: Going Rural: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to Build First Store in Los Banos, California

May 28, 2010: First Phase of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market-Anchored Condo Development in San Francisco's Bayview Set For Completion in June

April 19, 2010: Tesco Debating Whether to Launch Fresh & Easy Into Northern California This Fiscal Year... or Wait

May 9, 2010: A Whopping 15 of Whole Foods Market's 41 New Stores in Development are in California - And Nine of The 15 Are In Northern CA

May 8, 2010: Sprouts, and Likely Henry's to Beat Fresh & Easy to Northern California Despite it's Big Head Start

May 6, 2010: Going Smaller & Getting 'Hybrid': Walmart's Smaller Supercenter in Vacant Retail Buildings Strategy Began in 2008

April 19, 2010: Tesco Debating Whether to Launch Fresh & Easy Into Northern California This Fiscal Year... or Wait

[Also: click here , here and here for a selection of past stories on Fresh & Easy and Northern Calfornia.

Keep On Truckin' - Whole Foods Market Celebrates 30 Years This Weekend

Serendipity and Opportunity + Planning, Innovation and Hard Work = A Formula For Success For John Mackey and Whole Foods Market

Sometimes the light's all shinin' on me
Other times I can barely see
Lately it occurs to me
What a long, strange trip its been...

- Truckin' - The Grateful Dead (Listen to the song)

This weekend, Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods Market, Inc. is celebrating its 30th birthday. In a spirit similar to the lyrics above from the Grateful Dead song, Truckin', Whole Foods' 30-year journey has been a "strange trip," in the 1960's definition of the term. However, it hasn't been all that long. But in its fairly brief 30-year history, the grocer has achieved more, both quantitatively and qualitatively, than most food and grocery retailers do in a lifetime.

It was just 30-years ago, on September 20, 1980, when 25-year-old John Mackey, sporting bushy red hair and a matching mustache (see the link to the video below to see the young Mackey), and partner Renee Lawson Hardy, along with 19 store team members, opened the first Whole Foods store in Austin, Texas.

That first store wasn't even called Whole Foods Market. Instead, the name was 'Safer Way Natural Food Store,' a suggestion the market would be a "safer," alternative - as in offering healthier foods - the then, and still, giant supermarket chain with a similar name. That's pure Mackey. Iconoclastic from the start.
The first Whole Foods Market (banner) store, pictured above, came later, in 1981. (You can watch a video about the store here.)

Renee Lawson Hardy later left Whole Foods. But many others joined Mackey for his great adventure in natural, organic, healthy and upscale food and grocery retailing.

One of those who joined him, in 1989, is Walter Robb, who was named Whole Foods Market's co-CEO earlier this year.

The story of Robb's joining Whole Foods Market is worth telling, as it exemplifies the 'Serendipity and Opportunity + Planning, Innovation and Hard Work' formula, which in many ways sums up John Mackey's 30-year journey with Whole Foods, which next Wednesday will hit the 300 store mark. Those 300 stores are in 40 U.S. states. And in addition to the U.S., the natural/organic grocer, which now has $8 billion-plus in annual sales, has stores in Canada and the United Kingdom.

After owning his own small natural foods market, Mountain Marketplace, in Weaverville, in Northern California's north coast region for 10 years (1976-1986), then managing one of the two then popular (and now closed) Living Foods natural foods stores in Marin County for a couple years, Robb struck out on his own as an independent marketing and sales agent for various natural and organic foods companies in Northern California, where he lived. [Take a look at Walter Robb in the produce section of his Mountain Marketplace store.]

At the same time he acquired the lease on a plot of land in Marin County's Mill Valley. On the plot was a vacant metal Quonset Hut that was previously home to an independent butcher shop called Jerry's Meats. Robb's plan was to renovate the building and open his own natural foods store at the location.

But circumstances - and John Mackey - intervened. Mackey, chomping at the bit to expand Whole Foods Market further in Northern California, offered Walter Robb a deal: Sell the lease to Whole Foods, take charge of designing the store, and become its manager. Robb said yes. The store, the 14,000 square-foot Whole Foods unit on Miller Avenue in Mill Valley, opened in 1991, less than a year after construction started.

Robb went on to become the president of Whole Foods' Northern California region, a position he held for a number of years. He then was promoted by Mackey to a corporate executive position, then made Whole Foods Market's Co-president. Earlier this year Robb joined John Mackey as co-CEO. [See: Newly-Named Whole Foods Market CO-CEO Walter Robb Comes Full Circle With the Opening of the New Store in Mill Valley CA.]

This is classic Mackey. He saw an opportunity in Mill Valley - and in Walter Robb - who he was friendly with at the time, and brought him on board, getting Whole Foods' first store in Mill Valley as part of the deal. It was a deal good for both Whole Foods Market, John Mackey and Robb. The store on Miller Avenue has turned out to be among Whole Foods' top units in sales-per-square-foot. Robb turned out to be a good catch for Whole Foods. And Whole Foods has been very good to Robb.

Serendipity played a huge part as well. Had the stars been in a slightly different formation, Robb might have said no to Mackey, and opened the Mill Valley store as his own natural foods market. But opportunity, followed by planning and hard work, struck.

The corporate co-CEO arrangement has a history of being less than easy. That's one reason you don't see it often. But Mackey and Robb appear to work well together. Perhaps the history described above has a little to do with their good relationship.

The two co-CEO's, who balance each other well, were interviewed today by Austin, Texas television station KVUE for its evening newscast. You can view the two-minute video of the newscast piece here.

For its birthday celebration, Whole Foods has created a virtual shopping cart full of information about its first 30 years. At this link, you can view fact sheets, a photo album, which includes pictures of the 'Safer Way' store and the first Whole Foods Market banner store, videos and more, all charting John Mackey's and Whole Foods' grocery retailing journey over the last 30 years. We suggest looking through the materials. They're among the best we've seen a grocer produce for its birthday, be it a 30th or 100th anniversary.

Additionally, Whole Foods is holding a variety of special events and promotions for its 30th birthday this weekend. To see what's happening click here.

Fresh & Easy Buzz writes often about Whole Foods. You can read a selection of our stories here. (In an upcoming piece, we'll look at what the next 30 years might hold for Whole Foods Market.)

But our focus today, primarily, is to wish the innovative grocery chain - and founder and co-CEO John Mackey - a happy birthday.

Mackey, with Walter Robb now sharing the CEO duties, is still combining Serendipity and opportunity with planning, innovation and hard work. John Mackey also continues to speak out on various issues of the day, ranging from health care reform to labor unions and much more, from his Libertarian perspective

What's "in-store" next for Whole Foods Market? We'll let John Mackey tell you:

"We're going to do five wellness clubs where we're going to have intensive educational programs, a healthy dining club. Once you graduate from the club, you'll get a membership card that will give you discounts on produce and other really healthy items we sell."

Keep on Truckin'

The next 30 years should be very interesting for Whole Foods Market - and the grocery retailing business.

U.S. food and grocery retailing has been made better (and consumers have benefited too) - and far more interesting - having Whole Foods Market and John Mackey around for the last 30 years. May there be many more birthdays for the Whole Foods team.

Tony Bennett Has Nothing on Whole Foods Market When it Comes to Loving San Francisco...That City By the Bay

The 2001 Market mixed-use project features a 30,000 square-foot Whole Foods market store as its ground-floor retail anchor, with 82 residential condominium units above.

Northern California Market Special Report

Singer Tony Bennett, who's signature song is "I Left My Heart in San Francisco," has nothing on Whole Foods Market when it comes to loving that cool, grey 'City by the Bay.'

In this May 9, 2010 story - A Whopping 15 of Whole Foods Market's 41 New Stores in Development are in California - And Nine of The 15 Are In Northern CA - we reported that 15 of Whole Foods Market, Inc.'s current 41 new stores in development in the U.S. are in Northern California, with all but one of those 15 units being in the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area, home to about 7 million residents. Since we published the story, one of the 15 stores in development - the Mill Valley unit on Blithedale (the second Whole Foods' store in the city) has opened. [See our June 14, 2010 feature story: Newly-Named Whole Foods Market CO-CEO Walter Robb Comes Full Circle With the Opening of the New Store in Mill Valley CA.]

One of the 15 Northern California stores (14 are in the Bay Area) in development included in our May 9 piece is a future Whole Foods Market unit in San Francisco's Castro District. Since we ran the story, we've learned considerable details about the store's location. And the future store will be a good one for Whole Foods, based on those details, and our knowledge of the market and neighborhood.

The future Whole Foods Market store, which will be at 2001 Market Street (at the corner of Dolores Street) in San Francisco, is part of a major sustainable and neighborhood-oriented mixed-use (residential-commercial) development called 2001 Market. The project is a partnership between The Prado Group real estate development company, Whole Foods Market, architect's William McDonough + Partners and BAR Architects, and Lanscape design firm April Phillips Design Works.

The artist's rendering above depicts the neighborhood-friendly design of the planned 2001 Market Street ground-floor anchor Whole Foods Market store.

The 2001 Market development is proposed as an urban mixed-use project which offers high-quality housing located above a planned 30,000 square-foot neighborhood-oriented Whole Foods Market store. The Whole Foods' unit is being designed to be neighborhood and pedestrian friendly, including having features like bicycle parking, so shoppers in the neighborhood, which has lots of foot traffic, can bike back-and-forth to the store.

The neighborhood is actually more commonly referred to as Upper Market rather than the Castro District, which is next door. But the two areas overlap, so are often referred to synonomously.

Here's how the developer and design team describes the development's mission:

"The goal of the 2001 Market project is to bring people, housing, community-serving retail, and social vitality to this prominent corner site. With sustainability as a core value."

[Read what the developer and design team have laid out as the vision for the 2001 Market project here]

The development, which as currently planned has 82 residential condominiums above the 30,000 square-foot ground floor Whole Foods Market store, would replace what is the currently vacant S&C Ford auto dealership. The auto dealership has been vacant for some time, and the City of San Francisco is anxious to see the site developed. The grocer is the retail anchor for the development.

Developer The Prado Group says it expects to present the plans for 2001 Market to the San Francisco Planning Commission in September 2010. If approved, the developer and design team plan to start construction in mid-2011, with a target date for the Whole Foods' store opening in early-2012, followed by the 82 residential units coming on line in mid-2012.

[You can learn additional details about the project, including viewing a number of artist renderings of the proposed development and ground floor Whole Foods market store, at the developer's 2001 Market website.]

Whole Foods Market currently has four locations in San Francisco, in the following neighborhoods:

>Franklin, at 1765 California Street

>Potrero Hill, at 450 Rhode Island Street

>South of Market, at 399 4th Street

>Noe Valley, at 3950 24th Street

The stores range in size from 44,000/45,000 square-feet (Potrero Hill), to about 14,000 square-feet (Noe Valley).

The Noe Valley store is the newest Whole Foods Market unit in San Francisco, having opened in late 2009. The 14,000 square-foot store is already doing nearly $600,000 in weekly sales, according to our sources.

The Noe Valley neighborhood is highly dense. It's also home to many professionals who have among the highest average-income levels in the city.

The store, which previously was home to a Kroger-owned Bell Market, which was part of the Cala/Bell chain that Kroger folded up in the Bay Area, selling some stores and closing others, is the only substantial grocery store in the highly-populated neighborhood, which also has perfect Whole Foods Market demographics: a high-percentage of college educated residents, thousands of foodies and organic food devotees, and an abundance of young professionals.

Whole Foods Market plans to open a fifth store in the City by the Bay, either at the end of 2010 or in early 2011. That unit will be in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, located in a building that previously was home to a Kroger-owned Cala Foods store. The 2001 Market store will make five Whole Foods units in San Francisco.

The Austin, Texas-based natural and organic foods grocery chain is also looking for additional store locations in San Francisco, as it is throughout the Bay Area and in Northern California, beyond the 15 stores in the region it currently has in development.

Meanwhile, Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market - which has three planned future store locations in San Francisco (two confirmed and one we've reported exists but is unconfirmed by the retailer) - 18 (confirmed) in the Bay Area, and 37 (confirmed) in Northern California as a whole, has yet to say when it plans to start opening some of its stores in the region. Based on our recent reporting, the grocer could announce its plans for Northern California by the end of this month. [June 26, 2010: Tesco Planning to Announce in July When First Northern California Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores to Open]

It's been well over two years since Tesco announced its planned 37 Fresh & Easy store locations in Northern California. The grocer originally planned to start opening some of the stores in late-2008/early-2009 but has continued to postpone the launch.

Meanwhile, in the two-plus years since Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market announced its plans - and 37 stores - in Northern California, much change - and growth by competitors - has occured in the market region.

Here's a snapshot:

>Modesto, California-based Save Mart Supermarkets completed its acquisition of the nearly 200 Albertsons supermarkets it purchased from Cerebus-owned Albertson's LLC, rebranding all the stores to the Lucky banner, as well as remodeling a number of the stores. The majority of the Lucky stores are in the San Francisco Bay Area and Metropolitan Sacramento regions - the two areas where the 37 future Fresh & Easy stores are located. Save Mart is now the number two market share leader in both of these markets. It's second to Safeway Stores, Inc. in the Bay Area and number two after market share leader Raley's in the Sacramento region.

>Bay Area-based Safeway Stores, Inc. has expanded and remodeled numerous supermarkets in Northern California - and has many more remodels in the works. The grocery chain also opened its first small-format (actually "smaller-format," since at 21,000-24,000 square-feet its considerably larger than the first unit, in Long Beach, California, which is about 15,000 square-feet) "The Market" store in San Jose, California (summer 2009). Safeway also has a handful of new stores proposed for Northern California, including a new flagship supermarket in the east Bay Area city of Pleasanton, where its corporate headquarters is located.

>Walmart Stores, Inc. has converted some of its discount format stores in Northern California into hybrid supercenters, which offer a complete selection of fresh food and groceries. More conversions are planned by Walmart, if it can get approvals by local governments. The retailer also has numerous new supercenters planned throughout Northern California, particularly in the Central Valley, in cities like Stockton, Ceres, Patterson, Livingston, Atwater and others.

Additionally, as we've previously reported, Walmart is in the market for vacant big box store buildings, ranging in size from about 75,000 -to- 100,000 square-feet, in the Bay Area. The retailer plans to turn these buildings into smaller-than traditional-size supercenters like the one it opened in the Central Valley city of Modesto in 2008. [See - May 6, 2010: Going Smaller & Getting 'Hybrid': Walmart's Smaller Supercenter in Vacant Retail Buildings Strategy Began in 2008 plus the links at the bottom of the post.]

Further, as we reported in this July 6, 2010 story - Walmart Looking for Store Sites in Northern California For 20,000 Sq-Ft Neighborhood Market by Walmart Prototype Store - Walmart is also searching for store sites in Northern California for it's 20,000 square-foot food and grocery focused prototype store.

>Southern California-based Trader Joe's has opened a number of new stores in Northern California in the last two-plus years, primarily in the Bay Area. Those new stores include its first unit in Berkeley, across the Bay Bridge from San Francisco, which opened a couple weeks ago. Trader Joe's has a number of new stores in development in Northern California, including a fourth unit in San Francisco's Castro district, not far from the planned Whole Foods at 2001 Market Street.

>Arizona-based Sprouts Farmers Market, which competes with Fresh & Easy in Arizona and Southern California, opened its first Northern California store in June in the south Bay Area city of Sunnyvale. More units are planned for the Bay Area and elsewhere in Northern California. [See - June 5, 2010: Sprouts Farmers Market Opens First Northern California Store in Sunnyvale; Strikes Up Partnership With Local Non-Profit Farm]

>Smart & Final-owned Henry's Farmers Market, which is a competitor of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market in Southern California, is set to open its first store in Northern California in late August 2010. That store will be located in Elk Grove, near Sacramento. Two of the 19 confirmed Sacramento-area Fresh & Easy stores are planned for Elk Grove. Like Sprouts Farmers Market, Henry's plans additional units in Northern California. [See - May 8, 2010: Sprouts, and Likely Henry's to Beat Fresh & Easy to Northern California Despite it's Big Head Start]

>Additional retailers, including Costco and Target, plus other smaller chains and independents, are growing their respective food and grocery retailing presence and store-counts in Northern California. For example, Costco is opening a few new stores in the region, along with adding additional food and grocery SKUs to its stores. Target is adding its P Fresh fresh food and grocery sections in some of its discount format stores in Northern California, as well as adding expanded grocery sections and SKUs in other units.

>Lastly, we've detailed Whole Foods Market's focus on Northern California, particularly the San Francisco Bay Area.

Speaking of Whole Foods - we think it's safe to say the grocer (and based on our snapshot above, numerous other grocers) is bullish on Northern California, and the Bay Area in particular. It's also fairly clear Whole Foods Market, like Tony Bennett, loves San Francisco - that cool, grey City by the Bay.

The Fresh & Easy Buzz 2010 Northern California Market Special Report Series:

July 6, 2010: Walmart Looking for Store Sites in Northern California For 20,000 Sq-Ft Neighborhood Market by Walmart Prototype Store

June 28, 2010: Smart & Final to Open its New Format SmartCo Foods Stores in California and Arizona

June 26, 2010: Tesco Planning to Announce in July When First Northern California Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores to Open

June 14, 2010: Newly-Named Whole Foods Market CO-CEO Walter Robb Comes Full Circle With the Opening of the New Store in Mill Valley CA

June 5, 2010: Sprouts Farmers Market Opens First Northern California Store in Sunnyvale; Strikes Up Partnership With Local Non-Profit Farm

May 29, 2010: Going Rural: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to Build First Store in Los Banos, California

May 28, 2010: First Phase of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market-Anchored Condo Development in San Francisco's Bayview Set For Completion in June

April 19, 2010: Tesco Debating Whether to Launch Fresh & Easy Into Northern California This Fiscal Year... or Wait

May 9, 2010: A Whopping 15 of Whole Foods Market's 41 New Stores in Development are in California - And Nine of The 15 Are In Northern CA

May 8, 2010: Sprouts, and Likely Henry's to Beat Fresh & Easy to Northern California Despite it's Big Head Start

May 6, 2010: Going Smaller & Getting 'Hybrid': Walmart's Smaller Supercenter in Vacant Retail Buildings Strategy Began in 2008

Related Stories:

May 28, 2010: First Phase of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market-Anchored Condo Development in San Francisco's Bayview Set For Completion in June

April 13, 2009: Despite Postponing its Northern California Launch Again Earlier This Year Tesco's Fresh & Easy Planning Third San Francisco Store; First Stockton Unit

April 13, 2008: San Francisco: Cool Bay Breezes, A City Full of History, Cable Cars--And A 'Fresh & Easy' State of Mind

June 1, 2008: Upcoming New Markets Special Report: From Food Desert to Urban Oasis? Tuesday Election Could Change San Francisco's Bayview-Hunters Point Forever

May 15, 2008: Fresh But Never Easy: Tesco's Long But Rapid South-North March in the Nation-State of California

July 29, 2008: Tesco's Fresh & Easy and San Francisco's Tenderloin Redux: Upcoming Developments Offer First Mover Opportunity For Fresh & Easy or Competitors

January 24, 2008: Fresh & Easy Locking-Up Leases For Northern California Invasion

January 30, 2008: Fresh & Easy Goes On the Record: Announces 18 Northern California Stores in the Bay Area