Whole Foods Gives Update on Daily Shop
Whole Foods Market CEO Jason Buechel rang the Nasdaq opening bell on Monday, July 15, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the retailer's first New York flagship store and detail the future of its new, smaller format.
The first Whole Foods Market Daily Shop will open this fall on the Upper East Side at 1175 Third Avenue. Sometime after that, the second location will open at 301 West 50th Street, in Hell’s Kitchen, followed by an additional New York location and national rollout.
The quick-shop format was specifically designed for urban neighborhoods and will feature a variety of fresh, seasonal produce, prepared foods and essential grocery items. Both of the newly announced New York locations will also feature Juice & Java, offering coffee, tea, fresh-pressed juices, smoothies, sandwiches, soups and desserts.
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Daily Shop stores will range between 7,000 to 14,000 square feet, or about a quarter to half the footprint of an average 40,000-square-foot store. Serving more customers through this smaller format store is part of Amazon’s worldwide grocery stores’ efforts to build an enhanced shopping experience that meets different customer needs.
The 2004 opening of the Columbus Circle flagship store in Manhattan marked a major step in the Whole Foods' expansion in New York and “transformed the city's grocery offerings [as the] largest grocery store it had seen at that time,” Whole Foods said in a statement.
Since then, the grocer has grown its New York-area footprint to 17 locations and more than 5,000 local team members.
"The opening of the Whole Foods Market Columbus Circle store was, in my opinion, one of the most important openings in the history of our company," Christina Minardi, executive vice president of growth and development at Whole Foods Market & Amazon’s worldwide grocery stores, said in the statement. "It made a huge impact on our future growth, and the excitement I felt at that opening is very much what I feel today with our team members."
“Today, we're not just reflecting on our impact in New York City over the past two decades,” Buechel added. “We’re also looking forward to an exciting future of continuing growth in a city that has embraced Whole Foods Market with such enthusiasm. It made perfect sense for us to launch a new store format right here. Whole Foods Market Daily Shop will conveniently bring our high-quality natural and organic food to even more New York City customers.”
Whole Foods currently has more than 530 stores in the U.S., U.K. and Canada with more than 75 stores in development.