Whole Foods Announces Five Locations For New “Hip” Store

• July 31, 2015

by Tianna Mañón

A new Whole Foods location is planned for 965 Florida Avenue.

Whole Foods has selected five cities where it will open its new, less-expensive store, Market Watch reported late Thursday.

365 by Whole Foods, a cheaper sister store to the company’s flagship, will open locations in Bellevue, Washington; Houston, Texas; Portland, Oregon; and Santa Monica and Los Angeles, California. The five stores are expected to open in 2016, with another five slated for 2017.

According to Whole Foods co-CEO John Mackey, the stores are designed to run more cost-efficiently and are supposed to be “hip, cool and tech oriented.” The store’s target consumers are millennials, naturally, who want better, healthier foods but often lack the disposable income to afford Whole Foods’ high prices.

The cities where the new stores will be located, particularly Portland, are well known for having young people who align with the store’s goals.

365 by Whole Foods is being introduced at a time when the store is seeing its market share diminish as competitors like Trader Joe’s and even Walmart are expanding to cover more of the organic and healthy food consumer base with cheaper prices.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/whole_foods_announces_five_locations_for_new_hip_store/10198