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.
