Whole Foods opening third largest store in Chicago's Lincoln Park in May
The third-largest Whole Foods store in the world opens May 20 in Lincoln Park, introducing Chicagoans to a riverwalk, seven neighborhood-themed eateries, mix-and-match cookie and trail-mix stations, and express checkout lanes with a screen directing shoppers to the next open cashier.
"We asked, 'What do we want this store to be? We decided we wanted it to reflect all of Chicago in one place,'" said Rich Howley, store team leader, during a store tour for the Sun-Times.
(Jean Lachat/Sun-Times)
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Huge Whole Foods store
The new 75,000-square-foot, at Sheffield and Kingsbury, is two blocks south and more than double the size of the neighborhood's existing Whole Foods store at 1000 W. North Ave. that it will replace.
It includes a 420-car indoor parking lot (free with store purchase), a twice-as-big wine department, a cosmetics makeup counter and bath-salt bar, and bigger selections of goods for babies and children, including a line of frozen children's food.
The largest Whole Foods stores are at the retailer's headquarters in Austin, Texas, at 80,000 square feet, and in London at 99,000 square feet.
True to Whole Foods' reputation for food as theater, shoppers enter a colorfully laid-out produce section ringed by old-style Chicago street lights, a faux water tower, loft-like high ceilings and floor-to-ceiling natural lighting. The seven eateries sport their own themes and decor: Wicker Park Subs, Pilsen Taqueria, Taylor Street Pizza, Asian Express, the retro Riverview Diner, Da Vine wine and cheese bar and the Chicago Smokehouse and Rotisserie.
The store has Wi-Fi, seating for 200 in the mezzanine, a lounge area, outdoor tables overlooking the river, and a stage for music and presentations at the entryway coffee and beer bar. If every seat were occupied, the eating and lounge areas would hold 400.
The new store will employ 330, including 230 employees who transferred and 100 new hires. Whole Foods got 600 applications for the 100 jobs without advertising, and found that employees who had lost their jobs at local bakeries and fine-dining restaurants were among the most qualified, Howley said.
The existing 16-year-old Whole Foods store -- the company's first in the Midwest and one of its top two Midwestern sales generators -- will close at 4 p.m. on May 17. That space will reportedly be occupied by a Pottery Barn concept by Williams Sonoma. A Pottery Barn spokeswoman could not confirm the report.
The new Whole Foods will feature 50 locally made products exclusive to the store such as varieties of Carol's Cookies, Club Lucky pasta sauce, La Creperie crepes, Futters Nut Butters and Pasticceria Natalina Silician baked goods.
Whole Foods received nearly $1 million in sales tax breaks to build the exterior shell of the store, which includes the retailer's largest outdoor sign measuring 87 feet long and wrapping around the street-level entrance.
Marketing guru Paco Underhill, author of "Why We Buy for the 21st Century," said Whole Foods is one of several specialty retailers "trying hard to be a religion."
"It's reaching out for customer loyalty and finding a way to connect with people beyond the pocketbook," Underhill said.
Underhill said Whole Foods' successful strategies include theatrical lighting, creating a sense of neighborhood, highlighting the retailer's own private label goods, and selling an environmentally friendly lifestyle and a sense of responsibility to one's family.