Whole Foods opens 'food amusement park' grocery store in Austin, Texas

• For foodies, going to Whole Foods' new flagship store is like a trip to Disney World.
• The store offers a dizzying array of smells, tastes and entertainment - from a chocolate fountain spinning round and round, turning plain strawberries and marshmallows into pure decadence, to chefs serving fresh pasta, seafood and salads. Fishmongers shout out to customers. The aroma of fresh roasted nuts lingers in the air. Lines of people wait for homemade gelato.
• It's a "food amusement park," Bruce Silverman, a Whole Foods vice president, said during a store tour. "You wouldn't believe how many people I've heard walking around this store, just saying 'Oh my God ... This place should be against the law.'"
• The store's opening this spring coincided with the chain's 25th anniversary and symbolizes how far the natural and organic grocer has come.
• Since CEO John Mackey founded the chain in 1980, Whole Foods has grown to 169 stores and dozens more are in development. This year, the chain made Fortune magazine's ranking of the 500 largest publicly traded U.S. companies for the first time, coming in at No. 479.
• Last year's sales grew 23 percent to $3.86 billion. In 2000, the store recorded $1.8 billion in sales. Profits totaled $129.5 million in 2004, up from $98.9 million 2003 and $79.6 million in 2002.
• Whole Foods' growth has come as traditional grocery stores have felt the pinch because of more competition from Wal-Mart, Target and other retailers, said Jon Springer, associate editor of Supermarket News.
• One of the reasons Whole Foods is doing well is because it has no real competition in its niche market, said Bill Bishop, a retail marketing consultant.
• "They are the place to go if you are interested in healthy food, interested in high quality food and not worried about what you pay," Bishop said. Plus, "I think they have very skillfully identified and filled a niche that's an upscale and urban retailing niche. That's allowed them to grow very quickly."
• While food for the health-conscious consumer has always been at Whole Foods' core, the company wanted to expand its customer base by making the shopping experience more fun and by offering more high-end prepared foods.
• "We want it to be that you love where you shop and that you look forward to the wonderful experience," said Walter Robb, Whole Foods co-president and chief operating officer.
• Whole Foods opened a store on Union Square in New York in March - the third Whole Foods in Manhattan - that offers a grilling station and an expanded international food selection. A store opening in Baton Rouge, La., in July will include an expansive seafood counter.
• At the 80,000-square-foot store in downtown Austin, customers can sit at counters throughout the store and enjoy food prepared in front of them. The menu at the Fifth Street Seafood section has included Spanish paella and Mediterranean seared sea scallops. The North Side Trattoria has featured portabella ravioli with truffle oil and andouille sausage in Creole cream sauce. At each counter, shoppers can drink a glass of wine.
• The store has a gelato stand, a sushi bar and a raw food bar, where foods are never cooked above 118 degrees to preserve their vitamins and freshness. A walk-in cooler contains more than 800 kinds of beer and more than 1,800 types of wines line shelves and racks. A hot nut bar, stocked with fresh nuts from an in-house roaster, offers such varieties as honey cappuccino cinnamon cashews, chipotle garlic almonds and rosemary garlic pumpkin seeds.
• The bakery offers a variety of sweets, such as banana cream tarts, chocolate mouse cups, cannolis and natural doughnuts. Candy Island, which features the chocolate fountain, is a counter near the bakery that is filled with fudge, cookies, truffles, chocolate, caramels and lollipops.
• And the food is fresh and natural - no artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, sweeteners or hydrogenated fats here.
• The store doesn't stop with just food. Natural shampoos, deodorants, lotions and cosmetics are available, as well as facials, chair massages and clothing, towels and linens made from organic cotton.
• But not all customers like the store's largess, and miss the quaintness of a small health store.
• "For me, it was really, really overwhelming," Christina Redman, a 34-year-old coffee shop worker, said of her shopping experience. "To me, grocery shopping shouldn't be filled with that much anxiety."
• And, shopping at Whole Foods regularly is too expensive, she said. The store sells 24-ounce jars of pasta sauce that can go for $9.49 or butter for $5.99. One large bottle of organic maple syrup costs $19.99.
• Not everything is priced at the higher end, though. A 7-ounce bag of lettuce is $2.99. Under the Whole Foods label, 365 Everyday Value, milk costs about $3.99 a gallon and a jar of pasta sauce goes for $1.99.
• Kristen Miliken, 28, and Will Harper, 27, were eating breakfast pizza, eggs and hash browns outside the store on a recent Saturday and noted they've only shopped in the prepared food sections of the store.
• Miliken does most of her grocery shopping at a store near her house, but plans to switch to Whole Foods.
• "It's so much more appealing. It's so much better," Miliken said. "It's a better experience and they've got really cool stuff."
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• http://www.wholefoods.com