• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Whole Foods Market Chain Consumes Local Whole Grocer

Posted on: Thursday, 26 January 2006, 21:00 CST

By Edward D. Murphy, Portland Press Herald, Maine

Jan. 27--The Whole Grocer became a part of Whole Foods Market Inc. on Thursday, but don't expect anything to change -- for a while.

The name of the Marginal Way natural foods store will remain the same, the location won't change -- for now -- and the product mix will either be unchanged or expanded, store officials said. The owner of the Whole Grocer, Chandrika Sanyal, will become Whole Foods Market's "team leader," and employees will stay on.

The impending sale was reported last week, and Whole Foods Market officials and Sanyal signed the documents Thursday. Terms were not disclosed.

Whole Foods Market, based in Texas, has 181 other stores in North America and the United Kingdom.

Sanyal said Whole Foods Market approached her about selling a few months ago, and she felt she had to explore the possibility. Sanyal faced the prospect of her independent store becoming sandwiched between Whole Foods and Wild Oats, an adjacent natural foods chain store.

As she talked about a possible sale, Sanyal said, she realized that Whole Foods Market shares her values on how the store should be run.

"Whole Foods and the Whole Grocer had a very similar philosophy," Sanyal said. "They also go out of their way to make sure they have local vendors and local farmers, that's one of their philosophies, so there was no negotiation on that and they liked that about us."

Rudy Rubenis, Whole Foods Market's regional vice president, said the store will be unchanged, right down to retaining the Whole Grocer name, until it moves into a new 43,000-square-foot store at Somerset Street and Franklin Arterial.

"We've been very impressed with the store and Chandrika and her staff," he said.

For Whole Foods Market, the purchase gives the company an early start in the market before the new store is built. It should be open in a little more than year.

"It's a way for us to establish a big base of operations in Portland before our permanent operation opens," Rubenis said, noting it allows Whole Foods Markets to start off with vendors lined up, marketing under way, employees already trained and regular customers already established. "It makes it easier on us instead of coming into the market cold."

The fact that the Whole Grocer is located just a few hundred feet from Wild Oats was not a factor, he said.

"This has nothing to do with anyone but Whole Grocer and Whole Foods Market," Rubenis said, adding that the company has pursued a similar strategy of buying locally owned natural food stores as a way of getting into other markets.

Rubenis said Whole Food Markets already deals with some of the Whole Grocer's local vendors and farmers, who supply some of the chain's other stores in New England.

"One of our company missions is to support local agriculture and local artisan foods," he said.

But some customers fear that may not always be the case. One said she's concerned that the store's profits will be flowing to Whole Foods Market's headquarters in Texas rather than staying in Maine.

"We need to continue to buy local and support Maine farmers and Maine businesses," said Jennifer Micoleau of Portland. "It seems like things are becoming more about national chains and less about the community. It's tragic."

Micoleau said she liked that the Whole Grocer stuck to a strict policy of selling only all natural foods. Other natural foods stores and health food sections of other groceries "are a little freer with what they sell," she said. "It's not all natural."

But the loss of a locally owned natural foods store could provide an opening for someone else, she added.

"I'm hoping that somebody takes this as an opportunity to open something new," Micoleau said.

-----

To see more of the Portland Press Herald, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.pressherald.com.

Copyright (c) 2006, Portland Press Herald, Maine

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

WFMI, OATS,

Source: Portland Press Herald

More News in this Category