Whole Foods

[Pete]

The louvers over the entrance do seem to pivot and allow them to angle them to block sun depending on the time of year.

That overhead door is probably just so they can close it on lousy days and open it when nice. They may also use it to bring in some furniture and lock it up overnight.

[bombermwc]

I'm going to have to contain myself...getting antsy on this thing!!!

[ljbab728]

I'm going to have to contain myself...getting antsy on this thing!!!

Sounds like you have money burning a hole in your pocket then. LOL

[bombermwc]

Well you think Whole Foods and you think $$$. Mostly that's true, but you can't get some of the brands of things anywhere else in town. They have Tiger Brand sauces for Indian food...mmmm. I've yet to find that one anywhere. We found buckwheat pancakce mix there (ugh...not for me, for the grandma-in-law). They have some really good food to eat there in the store, etc.

Coming down to reality though, it's as much for having everything in 1 place as having the prodcut in town. You can get a LOT of the stuff other places already, but you have to go to several stores to get them. This way they'll all be in one place. And actually, quite often I've found that it's a hair cheaper at whole foods because of the economies of scale they have in comparison to the mom and pop places around town.

This thing isn't ever going to replace the Forward Foods or Native Roots of OKC. But it does serve as an option to those of us that enjoy some of the brands. Now you won't find me buying everything there...heck I buy a good amount of my stuff at Aldi folks. Where else can you get a 10 pound bag of russet potatos for $2 for example....it's just potatos, why should I pay more even at Crest?

[metro]

Bomber, I'm a big a WF as anybody, but you can get buckwheat pancake mix anywhere. Try the one at the OSU OKC Farmers market, it's delish, and healthy too.

[Larry OKC]

Bombermwc: Would think that the various Indian markets in the metro would carry it? Have you checked the Indian Spice place there at N. Portland & 39th Expressway (Portland Plaza)...the place that bought the Route 66 bowling alley? Never been inside it so don't know what they carry...

[jbrown84]

Is that stone?? It looks really nice.

[bombermwc]

yes yes, i said that already. it's not that they neccessarily have something that isn't available other places...but that it's all under one roof. So I can make one one trip to the store to get all the specialty stuff rather than going to one place for indian, one place for veggies, one place for cheese, etc.

[betts]

Is that stone?? It looks really nice.

Yes. It's one of the nicest Whole Foods' exteriors I have seen. And you know Aubrey will go all out on the landscaping.

[Pete]

Here are a couple more photos that show the stonework better. I believe it goes all along the back (north) side as well, and the entire rear dock area is actually a tunnel to shield trucks and debris from any angle:

[Brett]

read-a-disgruntled-whole-foods-employees-epic-resignation-letter

[bombermwc]

Disgruntled employees always make the best reading when they put together letters like that. Chances are the guy feels better after being able to vent it out though. I'm sure we all have our issues with our job. I'm a bit confused why anyone would think that Whole Foods would be really that different from any other corporate grocer out there though.

He brought up some points that would be worth asking about though, mainly with purchasing. I've been told that Whole Foods owns up to 90% of the brands they sell, or at least own some part of that company, so it helps to bring the cost down (not that we see it on the sticker price). That seems a bit of a stretch when you look at the brands in the store so I'm curious if anyone knows any more detail on that.

And more into purchasing, he says they don't analyze sales for purchasing purposes? Now that would really surprise me if corporate isn't data mining their products to know what is hot and what is not. The bottom line in the grocery industry is so small, pennies can be the deciding factor in what happens. If their sales system really is as old as he says (i'm betting that store just needs to get some new hardware if it's been around a while), it could be possible that they can't track properly. I worked at K-Mart back in college and their inventory system was laughable as well. You got the illusion that when you ordered something, your order was being matched with sales, but it only got denied if the product was no longer being sold at all. Countless times more than one employee would place an order for the same thing and you end up with a pallet full of something and no where to put it.

[bluedogok]

I don't think they own the bulk of the brands they sell, just like Wal-Mart doesn't. I see many of the same brands of items in Central Market, Sunflower, Sprouts, Sun Harvest and even in the "finer foods" section of Spec's liquor store.

They have hired people from Wal-Mart and HEB to develop their purchasing systems, I would think it resemble Wal-Mart much more than it does anyone else.

Sounds like the guy was fired judging from his rant. Whole Foods is a corporation just like any other, they all have some inane policies sent down from above, even our "mid-sized" architectural firm has a bunch of them sent down from Indianapolis, she thinks she is running a large multi-national with the policies, not 35 in in Indy and 9 in Austin and 3 in San Antonio. We didn't seem to have that much bureaucracy at Benham and we were around 800 employees worldwide before the Atkins buyout.

Sounds like the person needed to work at mom-n-pop store or a co-op if they wanted the warm fuzzies.

[OKCTalker]

Whole Foods' CEO will be on CNBC at 2:15 CDT today. They announced this week that they'll be opening a store in Detroit which has NO national grocery chains. They'll receive $5 million in government subsidies & incentives, including $6/sf rent. Local grocers (and I'm sure many taxpayers) are understandably upset that a business is being paid to open shop. Sound like anything we've been through here before, like with Bass Pro?

[bombermwc]

Um, yes but who in Detroit is going to be able to afford to items in a WF? Are they aware that 3 out of 4 homes are abandoned and that the population is a flicker of what it once was? Detroit proper is barely surviving.

[soonerguru]

Um, yes but who in Detroit is going to be able to afford to items in a WF? Are they aware that 3 out of 4 homes are abandoned and that the population is a flicker of what it once was? Detroit proper is barely surviving.

I've read that Detroit is on the upswing. The big 3 have been hiring and the auto industry is the healthiest its been in years. And I didn't see the story, but "opening in Detroit" could mean "opening in one of the many super-rich suburbs." There are a number of VERY wealthy suburbs around Detroit.

[windowphobe]

The store, in fact, will be in midtown Detroit, at John R and Mack, near the Detroit Medical Center. It's not an impoverished section of the Motor City, exactly, but it's not in a super-rich suburb either.

Although this deserves note: it's only 20,000 square feet.

http://wholefoodsmarket.com/stores/midtown/

[bombermwc]

The DMC isn't in an impoverished area???? Since when? 90% of the patients there are uninsured and were that way long before the economic downfall. The homeless walk-in rate there is astounding. The employees there don't leave campus because of the state of the neighborhood (it's much like St. Anthony used to be here before all the changes). Gunshot wounds are the norm there. I'm speaking from experience with connections there rather than spouting opinion from half a country away.

Michigan healthcare in general is having a hard time, so it's not just the DMC, but they are definitely an example of the hard times. Yet another reason I'm quite confused by this being the location.

That being said, if it's near the hospital, and such a small store....they could be looking to work right off the DMC staff then. In that case, it's totally viable. Last time i was in a WF in Little Rock, a doctor from Children's Hospital stopped to talk to me and my wife when he saw our boys. Turns out, he has 8 of his own. Apparently when you are a doctor, you can afford to feed 8 kids from WF. His cart was overflowing and I know it had to be pushing the 3-$400 mark with what he had.

[Jettmiester]

Now, when is this baby supposed to open?

[metro]

Oct./Nov.

[Jettmiester]

Thanks!

[Questor]

Well darn, the paper had reported they were running ahead of schedule and might complete in September a month or so ago. Guess they have fallen back a bit.

[Pete]

Yes, the original announced opening date was December but a month ago the WF people said it could be open as early as September.

They are already taking job applications "thru August 26th":

http://www.careerbuilder.com/JobSeek...T68C2Q2RNC8T1L

[redrunner]

Lot's of trees and landscaping going in today.

[Dustin]

From P Bar Farms in Hydro.