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Whole Foods Market to Open New Denver Outlet

Posted on: Tuesday, 13 September 2005, 18:00 CDT

Sep. 13--Whole Foods Market will launch another front in the grocery wars with the opening of a store in Denver's redeveloped Tiffany Plaza that places a bigger emphasis on cafe-style dining and the store's ready-to-eat options.

The store incorporates aspects of the company's recently opened Austin, Texas, flagship store, including interactive food-prep areas and meal counters with cafe-style seating scattered throughout.

The company also is testing its first wine store -- Merchant of Vino -- in the new location, which opens Wednesday.

"The demand for prepared and convenience food is growing dramatically, and every store we open is responding to that more and more," marketing manager Scott Simons said.

Simons declined to say how much the company spent on the new store, its sixth in Colorado. A seventh is under construction in Lakewood's Belmar development.

Whole Foods commands just 1.26 percent of the state's grocery market, but analysts commend the company's merchandising strategy, which they said is winning customers.

"They've got some really cutting-edge ways of creating a food store as a destination that nobody has done before," said George Whalin, president of Retail Management Consultants in San Marcos, Calif. "Those food-focused areas where you can dine in or take it home are in every department, from seafood to cookies. They're dynamic and well-done."

Colorado's largest traditional grocers -- King Soopers and Safeway -- have tiptoed into prepared foods by expanding selections of ready-to-eat meals. Analysts attribute the shift to increasing customer demand for speed and convenience.

At the new Whole Foods, the company has expanded to five salad bars and various dining stations where customers can order food to go or eat at the counter or cafe-style tables.

The new food stations include an Italian trattoria, a mini seafood restaurant and a barbecue station. Additionally, there's a specialty candy counter where customers can have everything from marshmallows to fruit dipped in chocolate.

"It's branching out into a new market for us," Simons said. "We are opening restaurants. They just happen to be in the middle of the stores." While the company says it is responding to consumer demand, Whalin cites another advantage to the company's strategy.

"It absolutely encourages customers to linger more," he said. "One of the absolute facts of retail is the longer you can get a person to linger, the more they'll spend."

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Source: The Denver Post

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