Whole Foods considers Detroit

Charles Burges Business Information June 22, 2011 0

Regional officials from Whole Foods Market, an organic and natural foods grocery chain, held another community meeting in Detroit on Friday and made it clear the upscale chain is seriously exploring whether to open a store in this city that lacks national grocers.

“I have dreamt about the day we have these discussions of opening a Detroit store,” said Red Elk Banks, director of operations for Whole Foods in Michigan and Indiana, as he spoke to about 50 city residents at the Friends of Detroit community center on East Forest. “And honestly, hopefully, we have these discussions until we get a store” in Detroit.

No decision has been made, he and other Whole Food officials stressed, but they have been holding conversations.

Even if a determination has been made, the publicly traded company could not reveal it until its quarterly financial results are released. The next date for that is July 27.

But Banks said a decision may not be made by then.

When asked about the potential size of a store in Detroit, Banks said discussions often ranged from 18,000 to 25,000 square feet.

“You are not going to see a Taj Mahal, a store of 60,000 to 80,000 square feet,” he said. “Yes, we are having lots of discussions about what would be the right size.”

The company already has five stores in four Metro Detroit communities — all more affluent areas such as West Bloomfield.

The Austin, Texas-based company emphasized the merits and philosophy of the chain to the Detroit residents.

The company said its stores create jobs with benefits, make great efforts to reach out to local food suppliers, including urban gardens, and would even consider some way to create transportation so Detroiters could get to the store.

Not all prices of Whole Foods products are out of range of many Detroiters, Banks said.

Many attendees were like Barbara Martin, a retired librarian who said she was “very impressed” by Whole Foods’ efforts.

“I go to Honey Bee Market in southwest Detroit, and it’s amazing,” Martin said. “It’s in the Latino neighborhood, so there is much to offer that community, but it’s clean and staff is courteous. I think you can offer more of that in Detroit.”

A Whole Foods in Detroit would be a “game-changer,” said Ed Nakfoor, a Birmingham-based retail consultant.

“I think Detroit is ready for it, and I really think it can succeed,” Nakfoor said.

“The buzz about Detroit among businesses and retail is that it is very grass-roots and very community-oriented, and Whole Foods fits perfectly with that model. I also think they can be competitive price-wise. My money is on a Midtown location.”

Midtown, located just north of the downtown, has the city’s highest rate of resident income per acre at $231,961, according to a 2010 Social Compact study funded by the Detroit Economic Growth Corp. Social Compact is a Washington, D.C., nonprofit that gathers data to help spark urban development.

The study shows Midtown also has the highest average household income of new homebuyers at $113,788, followed by the Central Business District at $111,509 and Indian Village with an average new homeowner income of $111,200.

Earlier this week at the Jefferies 2011 Global Consumer Conference in Nantucket, Mass., Whole Foods co-CEO Walter Robb said the company expects to one day have 1,000 stores in the United States, up from around 300 now.

Robb said the upheaval in the commercial property market has created opportunities for companies looking to expand, and Whole Foods has identified locations where it “can put some bets down and take advantage of that,” Robb said, according to Reuters.

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