Sprouts

[bluedogok]

I'm sure it probably came from elsewhere, just stating that most of Mackey's early ideas probably originated from Wheatsville. It sounds a lot to me like an idea that could originate in Vermont or New Hampshire.

Also, I claim absolutely no Texas heritage, I will NEVER claim to be a Texan. I've only been down here for 10 of my 47 years (91-93 in Dallas and in Austin since 2003), the other 37 were spent in Oklahoma, my first six months in Altus and the remainder in OKC.

[ksearls]

They have been grinding fresh peanut butter for as long as I can remember at Cresent Market. Not sure if they invented it but pretty sure thats how peanut butter is made.

[metro]

I never said WF invented it, but they are probably the first chain to do so in store.

[soonerguru]

Went with the wife and daughter last night and we loved the place! Got lots of Hatch chilies and spent a ton of money on random stuff. My daughter enjoyed filling the plastic (recycled) honey bear with fresh Oklahoma honey (which we tried and is delish). She also enjoyed grinding her own peanut butter.

We're going to become crackheads of this place.

[Larry OKC]

Someone who gladly spends a ton of money on random stuff, every business owners dream customer...LOL

not a slam, I have done the same before.

[MikeOKC]

Someone who gladly spends a ton of money on random stuff, every business owners dream customer...LOL

not a slam, I have done the same before.

The traffic in and out of this new place is just unbelievable. They have got to be ecstatic over their first couple of days business.

[MrBigglesworth]

So what is the deal with the "dont shop Sunflower" protesters out by the street?

[okcisok]

Pretty sure it must be a labor union thing.

[Larry OKC]

Think the "protest" was about buying local (like Oklahoma owned & operated Buy 4 Less)...does Oklahoma have any union grocery stores??

[windowphobe]

...does Oklahoma have any union grocery stores??

Far as I know, Homeland workers are still represented by UFCW Local 1000.

[mcca7596]

Think the "protest" was about buying local (like Oklahoma owned & operated Buy 4 Less)...does Oklahoma have any union grocery stores??

The irony is that Whole Foods and maybe even Sunflower Market will have more local products than Buy 4 Less or Homeland, which get most of theirs from Associated Grocers (I believe out of Kansas City).

[Dustin]

Went again today... Holy crap was it busy. If it stays this busy, they might need to open another store... *fingers crossed*

[NWOKCGuy]

We went yesterday at 2PM and the place was packed - circled the lot 3x trying to find a park spot, ended up having to park on a neighborhood street. I knew this place was going to do well, but I have to imagine they are surprised at how well it is doing. I heard some of the employees talking about restocking the shelves and one of them said 'no one will care as long as we do $100k today." I didn't hear the whole conversation - but could they really be doing $100k/daily? That seems high.

On a side note, after I left I stopped by Half Price. I was a little disappointed that none of the SFM business is carrying over to HPB. Place was dead.

[soonerguru]

You know, my comment about spending money was that we weren't paying attention. I've since gone back and purchased what I believed to be a large volume of high quality food and I couldn't believe how reasonably priced everything was.

[bluedogok]

It will die down some after the newness wears off, it did here but we also already had Whole Foods (although not on this end of town), Central Market and Sun Harvest, Sprouts opened up a couple of months later. Sunflower still has a good amount of business but not like it was in the first few months.

[ljbab728]

I stopped in there this morning just to get 8 ears of corn for a dollar. I thought even if the corn wasn't wonderful that was a great deal. It was so busy I didn't take time to even look at anything else. I'll go back to browse when it slows down.
While I was there getting the corn I saw something that astounded me. They have the corn in a very large bin towards the rear of the store. There was a woman who was also getting corn who was standing there completely shucking the corn before putting it in her bag and throwing all of the husks back on top of the pile of corn. Is it just me or is that a strange thing to do? I just stared at her but she didn't seem to notice. I'm sure other people may have done the same thing, but I waited until I got my corn home before shucking it instead of covering up the unpurchased corn which makes people have to dig under the husks to find corn.

[Dustin]

Strange and rude. Not only is she leaving a mess for the next customer and the store, she is covering up the product. If I worked there, I would have lit into that woman. There needs to be a trash can nearby.

BTW, the corn is amazing! We grilled some before the OU/Tulsa game. Delicious!

[bluedogok]

Was it for sale by weight? If so was trying to reduce the weight so she could pays less but I think most of the time they are sold by number of ears, which makes her look even more stupid.

[ljbab728]

Was it for sale by weight? If so was trying to reduce the weight so she could pays less but I think most of the time they are sold by number of ears, which makes her look even more stupid.

No, it wasn't by weight. It was 8 ears for a dollar. They didn't weigh it at the check stand. They were so busy that the person at the check stand didn't even take time to count the number of ears I had. She just asked me if it was 8 and charged me a dollar plus tax.

[Larry OKC]

That is odd, only thing I can think of is she thought it was by weight. People do weird things. Interesting to note, they had store personnel pre-shucking the corn while I was in there. Not completely of course but enough to display the corn itself.

[ljbab728]

That is odd, only thing I can think of is she thought it was by weight. People do weird things. Interesting to note, they had store personnel pre-shucking the corn while I was in there. Not completely of course but enough to display the corn itself.

She may have thought it was by weight but it didn't strike me as being the reason and she definitely was not a store employee. The only thing I could think of was that she wanted to look at the kernals before she bought it or she just wanted the store to clean up the mess instead of her when she got home. It would still be a crass way to act and showed no consideration for either the store or other customers. I wonder if she peels her bananas at the store before she checks out.

[rjstone208]

Been several times since its opened and love it. Whole Foods lite but much cheaper. Was talking to one of the managers and he said they have signed a lease for a location in Edmond and are looking for a location in Norman. Didn't say where in Edmond, didn't ask. Also said they do more in three days than in a week at their Santa Fe store.

[Doug Loudenback]

Just got back from my 2nd visit at 3:00 Saturday. Completely packed. Spent quite a bit more money this time ($211.65 with tax) but we got a whole lot more items, too. This was my wife's 1st trip. Woulda been $19.98 less but I decided that a pair of generously sized lobster tails was too good not to have. If you make your own bleu cheese dressing, 0.625 lb (10 oz) bleu cheese crumbles was $4.99. At Homeland, 1/2 that amount (5 oz) is over $5.

[MikeOKC]

I don't know if I mentioned this in this thread or not, but I just went over to a neighbors place and while I was there, looked again at the parking lot. It's complete madness and he says it hasn't hardly let up since they opened. He's got a great view from his side of Founders Tower. They should really do well.

I was by there the other day and was talking to the UFCW people who were there. One of them was angry that they aren't a union shop. The irony is that I have heard from a couple of people who say this new place is paying far more money than Homeland whose workers are represented by UFCW. Go figure.

[bluedogok]

Unions really don't care about how much the rank and file get paid, all they care about are union dues from those people. I knew someone who worked at Homeland 20 years ago, her union dues were three times greater than her uncle who worked for AT&T who was a CWA member, she also got paid a third of what he did. When I worked at Skaggs in high school on average we got paid more than the union members at Humpty Dumpty across the street. For the most part unions are nothing more than another corporation who acts as a middleman and makes their money off the same workers they claim to protect. They had their time and place and could still if they changed their methods but they hold onto the old union mentality which just doesn't work for most nowadays. The sad thing is there are still people who believe that the leadership really cares about them, they care about the rank and file about as much as their corporate bosses do.