Thursday, March 24, 2005
New Takeout food resource, Whole Foods Market
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
Whole Foods, World's Leading Natural and Organic Food Supermarket, has come to our area with a bang, occupying three floors in the old Bradlees (likewise Mays and Ohrbach's) building on the southwest edge of Union Square. Opening with a benefit for the Union Square project, they will continue with another for the Greenmarket, trying to disprove the rumors that the newcomer will try to capitalize on the latter's fresh greens and fruit enthusiasts.
What is most visible is that the main marketing thrust is directed towards the quick lunch and dinner trade, takeout and eat-in variety. Upon entering, you can pick up some bagels and apples and a pack of sushi for lunch and be done, or go on to two heavily laden salad bars, with offers ranging from mesclun to orecchio pasta, or to a third, with hot Indian/Mexican dishes (shag paneer, refritos, salsa and chili), all for $6.99 a pound. In back of the salad bars are the Kitchens, long deli cases and operators with sharp knives and hot plates, ready to fill your order for complex hero sandwiches ($7) or sizzling dishes. Cold deli also abounds, by the pound, followed by Italian specialties, whether it is eggplant ptarmigan ($7) or shrimp scampi ($25) that you crave. There are loaves of long pizza, looking just like the Mediterranean variety, sold by weight, and soups (cioppino was noted). If the varieties of exotica have exhausted you, stop at the hot roasted chicken cabinet and pick out one ($3.99/lb). Low display cases offer freezer soups by the pint, cheeses, cut meats and wraps, whole meals, lasagna and salads, also of the take-home variety.
If you are ready to eat your lunch in the upstairs, Picnic Area, get in the short under 10-checkout line; if your shopping was more comprehensive, catch the regular line. Both are managed by traffic directors, and the wait is short, with 32 checkout counters. The store has 600 employees. The chain was organized in Austin TX 25 years ago by John Mackey and two partners, who believed that organic and other natural food - free from artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, sweeteners and hydrogenated fat - was ready for super-market distribution, and he's been right. In the early 1990s we shopped at and liked Whole Foods in Cambridge MA, after they took over Anthony Harnett's Bread and Circus, a huge and much acclaimed store organized on similar principles.
Now for the Picnic Area, a flight up (the narrow elevator and the escalators had recently gone down, and repair folk were on strike), with a full view of Union Square, one of the store's most attractive features. The eaters eager for the window exposure sit at five raised bars, on high stools. The area seats over 100 diners, and has already gained popularity with local moms and au-pairs with strollers (one had come from the Cornell Hospital area of the Upper West Side, presumably also to shop at Filenes's Basement, DSW shoes and Forever 21, the other tenants of the building) as well as local lunchers. You have a choice of utensils, metal or plastic. Recycling is king.
In back of the dining area is a Coffee Bar, with enough macchiato and latte varieties to please any Starbucks devotee, and a Juice Bar, packed with Power Fuel (their Muscle Up had cranberry and citrus juices reinforced by a protein shot), Smooth Getaways (mango bango and such), Very Juicy (High C, carrot and citrus) and Turbo Shots (soy and protein mixes). Side display racks are loaded with bagels, pastries, muffins, scones and packaged energy bars (they probably fit the Whole Foods concept by being purely vegan). Bottles of water, and fruit and other natural drinks were available for the lunch crowd, also racks of hiker and biker and other nature magazines (for sale).
The drinks were also in profusion on the ground floor, a store that appears to be designed for the in-and-out lunch or takeout crowd. For more basic shopping one has to descend to the largest, the basement store, its space uninterrupted by checkouts.
At the bottom of the staircase are racks of perfect fruit and vegetables, uniform in size and color, set in terraces or pyramids; pull one out and the stack collapses (a repair squad is always on hand). But there is no need to touch and squeeze, all the apples, oranges and green and red peppers are preternaturally uniform.
The fruit and vegetable racks are variously marked Organic and Conventional, and the lettuce and carrot displays are treated to a fresh shot of sprayed water (automatic) every five minutes. In the long Butcher Shop, the meats are precut but not packaged, and the fish are identified by source - salmon are farm, Irish or Alaskan. Although much of the grocery store is conventional, cans and packages, the contents fit the organization's definition of natural foods.
Whole Foods, World's Leading Natural and Organic Food Supermarket, has come to our area with a bang, occupying three floors in the old Bradlees (likewise Mays and Ohrbach's) building on the southwest edge of Union Square. Opening with a benefit for the Union Square project, they will continue with another for the Greenmarket, trying to disprove the rumors that the newcomer will try to capitalize on the latter's fresh greens and fruit enthusiasts.
What is most visible is that the main marketing thrust is directed towards the quick lunch and dinner trade, takeout and eat-in variety. Upon entering, you can pick up some bagels and apples and a pack of sushi for lunch and be done, or go on to two heavily laden salad bars, with offers ranging from mesclun to orecchio pasta, or to a third, with hot Indian/Mexican dishes (shag paneer, refritos, salsa and chili), all for $6.99 a pound. In back of the salad bars are the Kitchens, long deli cases and operators with sharp knives and hot plates, ready to fill your order for complex hero sandwiches ($7) or sizzling dishes. Cold deli also abounds, by the pound, followed by Italian specialties, whether it is eggplant ptarmigan ($7) or shrimp scampi ($25) that you crave. There are loaves of long pizza, looking just like the Mediterranean variety, sold by weight, and soups (cioppino was noted). If the varieties of exotica have exhausted you, stop at the hot roasted chicken cabinet and pick out one ($3.99/lb). Low display cases offer freezer soups by the pint, cheeses, cut meats and wraps, whole meals, lasagna and salads, also of the take-home variety.
If you are ready to eat your lunch in the upstairs, Picnic Area, get in the short under 10-checkout line; if your shopping was more comprehensive, catch the regular line. Both are managed by traffic directors, and the wait is short, with 32 checkout counters. The store has 600 employees. The chain was organized in Austin TX 25 years ago by John Mackey and two partners, who believed that organic and other natural food - free from artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, sweeteners and hydrogenated fat - was ready for super-market distribution, and he's been right. In the early 1990s we shopped at and liked Whole Foods in Cambridge MA, after they took over Anthony Harnett's Bread and Circus, a huge and much acclaimed store organized on similar principles.
Now for the Picnic Area, a flight up (the narrow elevator and the escalators had recently gone down, and repair folk were on strike), with a full view of Union Square, one of the store's most attractive features. The eaters eager for the window exposure sit at five raised bars, on high stools. The area seats over 100 diners, and has already gained popularity with local moms and au-pairs with strollers (one had come from the Cornell Hospital area of the Upper West Side, presumably also to shop at Filenes's Basement, DSW shoes and Forever 21, the other tenants of the building) as well as local lunchers. You have a choice of utensils, metal or plastic. Recycling is king.
In back of the dining area is a Coffee Bar, with enough macchiato and latte varieties to please any Starbucks devotee, and a Juice Bar, packed with Power Fuel (their Muscle Up had cranberry and citrus juices reinforced by a protein shot), Smooth Getaways (mango bango and such), Very Juicy (High C, carrot and citrus) and Turbo Shots (soy and protein mixes). Side display racks are loaded with bagels, pastries, muffins, scones and packaged energy bars (they probably fit the Whole Foods concept by being purely vegan). Bottles of water, and fruit and other natural drinks were available for the lunch crowd, also racks of hiker and biker and other nature magazines (for sale).
The drinks were also in profusion on the ground floor, a store that appears to be designed for the in-and-out lunch or takeout crowd. For more basic shopping one has to descend to the largest, the basement store, its space uninterrupted by checkouts.
At the bottom of the staircase are racks of perfect fruit and vegetables, uniform in size and color, set in terraces or pyramids; pull one out and the stack collapses (a repair squad is always on hand). But there is no need to touch and squeeze, all the apples, oranges and green and red peppers are preternaturally uniform.
The fruit and vegetable racks are variously marked Organic and Conventional, and the lettuce and carrot displays are treated to a fresh shot of sprayed water (automatic) every five minutes. In the long Butcher Shop, the meats are precut but not packaged, and the fish are identified by source - salmon are farm, Irish or Alaskan. Although much of the grocery store is conventional, cans and packages, the contents fit the organization's definition of natural foods.
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 12:04 PM 
