Whole Foods

[Steve]

I wonder what the plans are for the old Hahn-Cook, Street & Draper Funeral Home...

[Pete]

Steve, on the master plan CHK released about a year ago, that property was shown as future office space for their campus.

[Steve]

I wonder if master plans change ...

[Pete]

It sounds like this is more than just a question.


It would make a lot of sense at that location, to give their employees easy walking access as well as be an anchor for the rest of the proposed development bounded by Classen on the south, Grand on the west and Western on the East.

Also, it would provide traffic to the adjacent Classen Curve and the redeveloped NH Plaza.

[foodiefan]

We're hoping for it to be in the Edmond area. After being to the one in Tulsa, I think Edmond could support a similar store without any issue.

Naah. . .Edmond had their chance several years ago with Pratt Foods. When it first opened up it was very close to WF or CM.

[Shake2005]

Chesapeake probably isn't going to be needing any additional office space in the foreseeable future with gas at a seven year low.

Hope this happens.

[progressiveboy]

Classen Curve area. This is becoming the biggest worst secret ever. But the powers that be want to announce it on their timetable ...

I bet your right on this one. I saw last weeks building permits for OKC and it showed permits taken out by Smith and Pickle for retail permits for $2.5 million and $1.5 million in the 5800 block of N. Grand. I'll bet money that this is where the store is locating.

[Pete]

5800 NW Grand is Classen Curve and I'm sure WF will not be going in there.

Those permits were likely for build out of CC tenants.

[jstanthrnme]

What about the vacant spot that held Linen's 'N Things at Belle Isle? Probably not likely with Wal-Mart so close, but its an idea.

[BDP]

When 3.2 law was enacted in Oklahoma you could consider it a progressive drinking law. It just hasn't been updated with the times. It was a way around the Volstead act.

I know.

Again, I don't think it's as stupid as no cold beer in a liquor store, because that effectively means that you can not buy cold beer in excess of 3.2 AT ALL in the state.

[Shake2005]

What about the vacant spot that held Linen's 'N Things at Belle Isle? Probably not likely with Wal-Mart so close, but its an idea.

Wal-Mart and Whole Foods are not in competition with each other.

[RedDirt717]

I keep hearing that Oklahoma is going to be voting for REAL beer (6.0) instead of watered down beer (3.2).. any truth to this?? My sources were not reliable at all, just a couple of buddies that drink like fish... it was probably just wishful thinking on their part.

It's been floating around. Yah.

6 point beer the way you think of it isn't really 6% alcohol.

Beers are weighed by weight and volume.

Oklahoma beer is actually by WEIGHT and not by VOLUME. “6-point” beer is measured by volume. So our 3.2% by weight can’t be anything less than 4% by volume. So we trick ourselves into believing that the beer we buy in Texas is actually twice as strong. Their actually not that much different in real alcohol content.

Anyway, some people are wanting to change the law simply because people are spending their money across the boarder, even though there isn't much of a difference in the beer strength.

[JohnDenver]

It's been floating around. Yah.

6 point beer the way you think of it isn't really 6% alcohol.

Beers are weighed by weight and volume.
...
Anyway, some people are wanting to change the law simply because people are spending their money across the boarder, even though there isn't much of a difference in the beer strength.

That is a silly argument, even if you are splitting hairs between weight and volume. Beers drinker, like myself, enjoy craft beers or micro brews, which often times have up to 8% alcohol by volume. These will certainly never make their way into the grocery store and be sold cold. That is the main point.

Whole Foods has a HUGE beer selection, cold and ready to go. They can't do that here.

...and THAT is the point of the 3.2 OK law. It isn't about which Keystone Light is stronger. It is that we prefer beer that is better (and stronger by fact) then Keystone and Bud Light.

On game day, I get off work and head to a friends house for the PPV, I just can't stop off at the store @ 9:15 and buy a six pack ofMaudite and it certainly isn't stay cold in my car all day. I bet if I kept it in my car all day, I would be breaking some obscure law.

Just look at all the beers we can't buy because they are over 4.5% alcohol (by volume). Makes a grown man cry.

[PennyQuilts]

Beers drinker, like myself, enjoy craft beers or micro brews, which often times have up to 8% alcohol by volume. These will certainly never make their way into the grocery store and be sold cold. That is the main point.

Whole Foods has a HUGE beer selection, cold and ready to go. They can't do that here.

...and THAT is the point of the 3.2 OK law. It isn't about which Keystone Light is stronger. It is that we prefer beer that is better (and stronger by fact) then Keystone and Bud Light.
Just look at all the beers we can't buy because they are over 4.5% alcohol (by volume). Makes a grown man cry.

Husband was saying pretty much exactly the same thing, recently.

[FritterGirl]

My money is on:

1. Memorial Road - possible, but I'd see it only if they couldn't get their first location choice

2. North Edmond - not central enough. They want to maximize the demo, so will put it within reach of more of the population.

3. Nichols Hills - see #4, below. If McClendon is at all behind this deal, my guess is he doesn't want to hurt Crescent as a long-time established market in this community. NH Plaza not nearly big enough to handle it.

4. Downtown/Classen Area - Possibility.

5. Norman near OU - see #2, above. Again, not enough population density within a specific radius.

They want to keep it centralized so people from all areas of the metro would be more likely to visit. If you plan a WF, not too far from Penn Square Market, which draws from all parts, you'd be betting on people coming up from Norman and coming down from North Edmond to shop.

The people on the outskirts will drive centrally to shop. The reverse is rarlely true.

[metro]

Not to mention, Chesapeake/McClendon is being luring them here, so it's without a doubt going to be in the area where it's been rumored for awhile, the Classen Curve/Western Ave. area.

[ejillparker]

What about 63rd and May where CompUSA was, next door to Half Price Books?

[Pete]

I think it's pretty clear from Steve's comments where this is going to be located; on the old Hahn-Cook site just west of the CHK campus.

[jbrown84]

What about the vacant spot that held Linen's 'N Things at Belle Isle? Probably not likely with Wal-Mart so close, but its an idea.

Too small. Not upscale enough.

What about 63rd and May where CompUSA was, next door to Half Price Books?

Also way too small.

[tuck]

I wonder if master plans change ...

Steve, you're just being mean now. lol

[Steve]

Tuck, I'm sure you could shed more light here. Go ahead...

[tuck]

Appears everyone has registered their "guess", my comment..."we will just have to be patient a bit longer."

[BDP]

That is a silly argument, even if you are splitting hairs between weight and volume. Beers drinker, like myself, enjoy craft beers or micro brews, which often times have up to 8% alcohol by volume.

Actually, it's pretty accurate. Even the list you provided has very few beers that make it to 6.0 by volume. The whole "6 point Texas beer" thing is really a myth, and even most micros and crafts don't often go much more than 6.

It's also pretty much a myth that Whole Foods doesn't locate where it can't sell wine or beer in excess of 3.2. You can't (or at least couldn't) in New York, and Whole Foods has been there for a while and of course they have one, by way of buy-out, in Tulsa. It's more of a factor of whether they think the demographics suggest the community can and will pay their mark up for organic and prepared foods, in general.

Still, it's stupid that you can't buy cold beer in excess of 3.2 in Oklahoma at all, even in a liquor store. It seems to me that we should be able to change that easier than we could get beer and wine in a grocery store, simply because it not only protects the liquor stores, but increases their market reach, and you can still make the argument that it's easier to police, because no one under 21 can even enter a liquor store. Yes, their hours would still be crappy, but it just seems it would take a lot less legislative energy to get some refrigerators into our liquor stores than it would to get beer and wine in to our grocery stores' refrigerators.

[metro]

I'll be glad in 18 months or so when WF opens up so hopefully I don't have to listen to the same crappy argument on they aren't going to come here because of our liquor laws.

[Pete]

That argument is never going to end, as there are still plenty of stores not in Oklahoma, like Trader Joe's and Costco.

And when a big national retailer opens hundreds of stores around the U.S. and multiple locations abroad before coming to OKC, you know there are forces at work other than demographics.