Local: Is there REALLY a market for a health food grocery store?
Here is still another debate about whether we should be happy that a Hy-Vee grocery store is locating in Sheridan Village. Someone compared it to getting a new McDonalds after being promised a fancy French restaurant. And someone commented that the much speculated Whole Foods store would be a better fit on the far north side.
Question: If a “whole-foods” type store were to locate in the South Side, say at the now-closed Adams Street Market site near Harrison Homes, would folks shop there?
July 5th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
First of all, a Whole Foods wouldn’t open on the South Side, and even if it did, no-one would go there. Some Peorians don’t like to drive south of War Drive, much less below the bluffs.
Whole Foods is a destination store; it would work on the far north side, but in my mind the Metro Center or Sheridan Village are more fitting places. The remodeled Westlake would work too if it wasn’t such a traffic nightmare.
Hy-Vee? It’s a nice grocery store, similar to a Schnucks or Kroger, but it’s still just another grocery store no matter how late it stays open.
Off topic sorta, how does a 24hr Hy-Vee employ 400 people?
July 5th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
It isn’t about going to a health food store, it is about going to a Whole Foods. I wouldn’t shop at a health food store in the south end. Naturally Yours in the Metro center is in a more cental location, so I would continue to shop there. I would drive to shop at a Whole Foods in the South End, or Bloomington or Springfield etc.
July 5th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
BeanCounter: And use all that nasty gasoline?
July 5th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
You know, not everyone who shops at Whole Foods is a militant environmentalist. If you have an in town source for frozen gluten free pie shells send the info my way. I have burned quite a bit of gas locally looking for them
July 5th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
So, you would rather drive to Bloomington than the South Side of Peoria?
July 5th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
I didn’t say that. The point I was trying to make was that I would drive anywhere in Central Illinois to the hypothetical Whole Foods because they have products I want to purchase. I have yet to find these products at any CI health food store. Believe me, I have been to most of them. So, I am doubtful that Acme Whole Foods Knock Off in the South End would have them either. Of course I would check it out, but chances are most of my specialty food shopping will continue to be at Naturally Yours. You seem to think that Whole Foods=any Health Food Store, but I am telling you there are differences in product lines offered. Just like McDonalds is similar to Wendy’s but they aren’t exactly the same.
July 5th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Fair enough.
My interest in linking Whole Foods/Any health food store to the South Side is the fact that during the whole Abud/Adams Street Market debate is that many of those opposed did so because they thought they knew best what poor, ignorant folks down there should be allowed to buy. Yet there’s not much support for a HEALTH FOOD store on the South Side, either, because people who MIGHT want to shop at one don’t want to go to the South Side.
July 5th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
Whole Foods is more of a shopping experience. It brings commodities that other stores would not. The population base on the North Side of Peoria could support a Whole Foods. It is a store for vegans and other upwardly mobile lifestyles. Most of the stores in the area are Meat and Potato stores.
The Schnucks with its nice deli and produce area made the other stores in the area step up their selection. The Whole Foods is full of varieties of produce and other items that we do not find in the normal groceries. In a recent visit to one there were 10 different soups available in the deli. The Deli, Seafood, and other departments are not like any of the local Groceries. The prices are not a bargain. But to get good food in this market you have to pay a good price.
The demographics of this type of store would place it in the North side of Peoria. I am sure a store of this caliber would do Market research for the right location.
July 5th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
To you aristocratic food people, is it okay with you we middle of the roaders shop at the new place?
July 5th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
Well, we can always bus in southsiders to Whole Foods, if it ever locates in the Far North. I can just imagine the delight these folks will feel waiting in line behind someone whose using their food stamps.
July 6th, 2008 at 6:06 am
“vegans and other upwardly mobile lifestyles.”
Most amusing phrase of the week.
July 6th, 2008 at 10:50 am
Whole Foods does sell meat. As for the upwardly mobile lifestyles – it certainly didn’t start that way. Wikipedia Whole Foods Market for the story – owners didn’t have a place to live so they lived at the store and bathed in the Hobart dishwasher.
When did the Adams Market bite the dust?
July 6th, 2008 at 11:31 am
My office is next to Whole Foods. My wife and sister call it “whole paycheck” because that is what you will leave behind.
It is a “Starbucks” triple latte of a an “experience”. Yes, there is more of a healthy selection there, but it is the way in which the company has marketed itself as its way and purpose of doing business and the people that shop there, that feel that they have something in common in that way with the other consumers at the store.
It is upscale and elite. It is multicultural in the best senses of the word. It is a learning experience just to go through and brows the products. I can’t say the same for Kroger.
Two years ago I suggested that Khazzam bring one into Junction City. The demographics would work well there.
July 6th, 2008 at 11:43 am
I don’t think a Whole Foods would survive anywhere in Peoria. There are a handful of people that would take advantage of it’s “healthier, organic” food, but for most people, it would be too expensive and not worth the price. Peoria isn’t a city that’s know for it’s health conscious population.
I’ve shopped at Whole Foods and Trader Joes and never been impressed. Of course, we always went for produce in the winter when you couldn’t get to a Farmer’s Market.
July 6th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
It is a store for vegans and other upwardly mobile lifestyles. What a hoot! Most of the upwardlly mobile people I know eat lobster flown in fresh from Maine and very expensive steak washed down with excellent wine, French cognac or import beer. Why? Because they can afford it.
July 6th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
I’ll bet people using Link cards would shop there.