Whole Foods update: Some thoughts on Tuesday’s meeting

As several people noted here and elsewhere, that was a big crowd just to find out when a grocery store was opening. Lakewood Neighborhood Association Henda Salmeron said Tuesday night that the 100 or so people who attended was easily the largest turnout at a meeting during her tenure on the board.

I was especially struck by Whole Foods’ sunny disposition as its executives discussed the new store. I think that was as close as an apology as we’re going to get from the chain for the way it handled the situation. I’m guessing Whole Foods took a PR hit, and not just for blaming the neighborhood and the city for not allowing it build a new store the way it wanted.

The last thing you want to do is tick off your customers. I think someone at the Austin headquarters said: “Hey, we originally told them the store was going to open at the end of 2007, and it didn’t. Whose fault is that?”

Why has it taken so long to get this thing done? No one addressed the question directly, but Seth Stutzman, Whole Foods’ southwest regional vice president, did say he was involved with major planning for the Park Lane store. This explains a lot, since the Park Lane store is going to be an 80,000 square foot extravaganza similar to the Austin flagship. If Stutzman was working on that project, he wasn’t going to have much time to mess with the 40,000 square foot Lakewood store. And since the chain is famous for its lean and mean staffing structure, there wasn’t anyone else to do it, either.

A couple of other notes from Tuesday night:

• This will be what the company calls a Generation 8 store. The Greenville location is a Generation 1 store, and is one of the oldest in the chain.

• It won’t have a spa, which the remodeled Preston/Forest store does. Several women sighed in disappointment.

• We won’t see any floor plans for the store before it opens, said Scott Simons, who handles marketing for this area. He cited competitive reasons.

• The new store won’t have a community room, similar to what Central Market does at Lovers Lane. Stutzman said the location isn’t big enough.

• One of the biggest disappointments, if crowd reaction is an indicator, is that there won’t be a second-floor or rooftop restaurant on the new store.

Finally, I have spent a good deal of time covering community meetings over the past nine months, here and in Lake Highlands. This is the first one I have attended where wine was served (since it was at Times Ten Cellars). The audience seemed to appreciate that little extra.

Technorati Tags: Whole Foods,Lakewood,grocery stores

Comments

[Norman Alston]

You had better be careful about having wine at public meetings. Been there.

[JKR]

Especially at an East Dallas meeting! But really it wasn't contentious until the Wachovia people got up and a man who lives around the corner got the crowd going about the vacant 'lot' next to the bank and the huge Wachovia sign. I almost felt sorry for the nice Real Estate lady, who is local.

A disappointment about the 'new' building is that there will apparently be no outside patio, which would have been perfect under the trees on the west side. From their plan it appears that there will be a wide, winding sidewalk there instead. I guess it has to do with not being able to open a whole in the building to get that coveted LEED certification.

I think it was funny how the corporate(Gen 8!)-environmental speak was received by some of us longtimers in the crowd. Maybe they have a sunny disposition because they are "light harvesting".

[JKR]

* hole - that really wasn't a pun.

[Robert]

Nothing like booze to quell a (potentially) angry crowd.

[Nadine]

I am Kind of glad it wont have a "spa" or be an 80,000 sq ft monstrosity. I have rented in Lakewood for the last 2years and my husband and I are buying our first house in lakewood. We moved from Austin (the far west and Hyde park area for those who know Austin)and think out of Dallas, this is the most "old" austin-y like place. {not like downtown austin is getting now with its posh clubs and ugly high rise condos that will be rented to no doubt 95% pretentious yahoos.} Nor is this area like Plano with big mini mall after mini mall and huge obese stores that push consuming consuming consuming. It is sad though that there wont be a little patio. looks like we'll have to walk down to matts to enjoy patio space during the day or pachugo when it opens (if that will have any outside tables)My hope for this whole foods that it will be a cleaner more organized version of the Greenville location. Something nice and simple where people can shop at instead of having to trek up to Lovers at the central market or fighting through mockingbird traffic to get to krogers.

I think this so called "small" whole foods is perfect fit for our neighborhood. a 2 story pretentious spa/grocery store/community meeting place isnt what lakewood is about. at least that's what i have gathered for the small amount of time that I've lived here and interacted with its inhabitants.