Whole Foods To Buy 4 Former Chicago Dominick's Stores
By Chuck Sudo in Food on Jan 31, 2014 9:30PM
Whole Foods is now stepping into the void left when Safeway closed all the Chicago area Dominick's stores last month. The upscale grocer announced they purchased four shuttered locations in the West Loop, Edgewater, Lincoln Park and Streeterville Friday. Whole Foods is also buying a former Dominick's location in Willowbrook. This comes on the heels of independent grocer Joe Caputo & Sons' purchase of four locations in the northwest suburbs.
Don't hold your breath for a fast transition between Dominick's and Whole Foods. A Whole Foods spokesman told DNAInfo Chicago it will take up to a year to convert the old Dominick's into Whole Foods. By contrast, most of the new Mariano's Fresh Market locations that will occupy former Dominick's will take 45 days to transition and open. Another reason for Whole Foods' patient approach is the size of the stores. They'll have to convert a 42,602-square-foot store at 1 N. Halsted St. a 50,664-square-foot store at 225 E. Grand Ave. and a 61,500-square-foot store at 6009 N. Broadway Ave. The fourth store at 959 W. Fullerton Ave. is a two-story, 29,600-square-foot space.
The Mariano's Fresh Markets concept from Bob Mariano, president and CEO of Milwaukee-based Roundy's, was originally a plan he developed when he was CEO of Dominick's and what the chain was supposed to morph into before Safeway bought the company.