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Southgate Market, the ginormous shopping mall being built in the South Loop, will have a few stores open for shoppers in a few short weeks, just in time for the holidays. However, the mall's centerpiece retailer -- you know which one -- won't be one of them.
In today's Bright One, a Whole Foods spokesperson said that the 55,000-square-foot store won't be open until May, as they work out the kinks and figure out what South Loop residents eat. "We build the stores around the trends we see," Kate Klotz said. Y'know, because their eating habits are so different from folks in Lincoln Park and Lakeview.
Now, we aren't one to pile on (right), but all Whole Foods really needed to do was hang out in the South Loop for a day, scout the competition, determine that there is none, and open the damn store. That's the only trend you need to know. There was a lot of discussion about this very subject last year right on this site. All South Loop residents want is some variety in their shopping. They want a Whole Foods.
If you want to add a little local flavor to the store, fine. Hire someone from city or county government to greet customers with one open hand and procure shopping carts with four good wheels -- for a small "consulting" fee -- with the other. While you're doing that and raking in the money, the city will work on building that giant broom to shoo away any remaining signs of old Chicago.
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WHAT????? Open that damn store already!!!! I live between the disgustingly dirty Jewel on Roos' and the understaffed Dominics on Clinton... Not exactly grocery and healthy produce Heaven!
Sounds like Whole Foods is having bad internal management problems to me. It's a corporate BS excuse. The place has been under construction for over a year, and must have been in planning stages for years before that. That's not enough time to figure out what kinds of food people in the South Loop want?
And I agree that the Jewel on Roosevelt and Wabash is lousy. I'll probably still go there to get simple staple foods, though. Through the winter, I get most of my heavy, non-spoilable stuff through Peapod anyway as I don't have a car.
As a side note, the Jewel by my office on State and Ohio is the worst Jewel I've ever been in— understaffed, understocked and tiny. Their produce section is terrible. I know it's not meant to be a full-scale store, but it's really bad even for what it is.
I can just imagine them actually trying to locate suppliers of organic pork rinds, gluten-free deep dish pizza and vegetarian bratwurst!
Benjy you forgot about the south loop staples, Pork chop sandwiches and polish sausage.
On a side note will the paper bags at the whole foods on roosevelt have a grease stains on the bottom of them? or perhaps come preloaded with a bag of fries with a ketchup packet in each one.
"Y'know, because their eating habits are so different from folks in Lincoln Park and Lakeview." That is crap...just because we don't live on the north side doesn't mean we have bad taste in food..... I really wanted the Whole Foods to open up-- they have more of a variety of healthy items. This sucks.....
Covering all bases here:
Benjy: if pork rinds can be considered an Atkins-friendly food, you can certainly make them from free range pigs.
NSH: The paper bags will have grease stains on them, just not from trans fats.
Kat: Relax. If you're a Whole Foods junkie, it'll be open soon enough. It wasn't slated to open until 2007, anyway. Personally, I'm stoked that DSW is opening next month. Uncle Chuck needs some new boots for winter.