The old Ralph's parking lot has been slightly reconfigured and cleaned up |
Will you shop at a Whole Foods without a butcher or fish counter? Will you miss the giant wheels of cheese and the organic yoga clothes? That's what you'll need to weigh when deciding how much you'll embrace the first-ever 365 by Whole Foods, which opens on Glendale Blvd. Wednesday at 9 a.m. The focus is on grab and go items or prepared to order items like pizzas and hot dogs (including a roast carrot dog!), with a healthy dose of technology to speed things up.
The store has an open feel with many of the items in low glass cases |
What you won't find:
Beauty products (there are some supplements however)
Butchers and fishmongers
A cheese counter
A bakery counter
Any vestiges of old-school crunchy health-food store aesthetics
A juice bar? I don't think there's a juice bar
This is a teabot. It's a bot, that makes tea. |
A coffee bar that also serves beer.
A teabot
Most of the familiar packaged foods from Whole Foods
A decent selection of spirits and wine and a solid beer selection
A stripped-down industrial look that's more reminiscent of Fresh 'n Easy
A lot of touchscreens, including one in the wine area that offers tasting notes
Lots of food you won't have to actually cook
I got a sneak peek tonight, and though many of the items are stocked, most of the prepared foods won't be out until Wednesday. The LCD price displays weren't activated yet, so I couldn't get an idea of the pricing. Here are some early pics.
Stable produce is stacked in boxes out in the main store, while more delicate items and salads will be behind the glassed-in, air-conditioned area at the rear |
The bulk selection is more modest than at Whole Foods |
The Allegro coffee bar also serves beer and wine |
Order pizzas, bahn mi dogs and sandwiches at this kiosk, and they'll deliver to one of the tables in the eating area |
As in some European markets, you weigh your produce before checking out |
There are several self-serve checkout kiosks to speed your exit |
Vegan cafe By Chloe opens next week next to 365 |
No butcher or fish counter?! Their research must have convinced the company that no one in the area actually cooks--or that the locals spend countless hours commuting from their jobs in Rancho Cucamonga. The emphasis on ready-to-eat food sounds like a better fit for Burbank or Sherman Oaks--or Palmdale. A real WF or an up-market super would have been a better addition.
ReplyDeleteInteresting idea. I'm curious how this downsizing will appeal to people who are used to the whole Whole Foods experience.
ReplyDeleteAnd, sorry, but here comes the grammar police...
Express Pay, should say "5-ish items for FEWER"!
Whole Foods/365 is supposed to be an upscale grocery. They rake in millions (billions?) Can they not hire a proof reader for their signage?
"5-ish items FOR fewer"..."for"!...Can't you hire a proofreader for your proofreading... grammar police...ha! More like grammar mall cop.
ReplyDeleteI want my Ralph's back.
ReplyDeleteit looks like they hired 20 mediocre corporate graphic designers that didn't get to communicate with each other. ewwww
ReplyDelete"…people happily used “less” to mean “fewer” for some 900 years before anybody minded."
ReplyDeletehttp://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2010/12/less-fewer.html
So just settle down with your carved-in-stone grammar rules.
Vons gets my business!
ReplyDeleteThe neighborhood will not like getting slapped with crap!
ReplyDeleteThis is NOT W/F. It's a travesty! I want my Ralphs back !!!
ReplyDeleteA touch screen at the grocery store that I have to log in to? Please, no.
ReplyDeleteDid they test this stuff with actual customers first?
Just doesn't appeal to me, but we'll see!
I'm so disappointed that there is no butcher or fresh fish. What are they really bringing to the table that we don't already get from Trader Joe's? And no bakery. Jeez. Doesn't seem well tHought out. We already have an amazing wine and beer shop just up the street in SilverLake Wine.
ReplyDeleteWe live around the corner and regularly frequent Trader Joes, Gelsons, Ralphs, Whole Foods and Costco. For seafood I often go to Fish King in Glendale (not far from our regular Whole Foods and our new Ralphs (ugh).) I was holding out optimism that we might narrow our regular weekend shopping from four to three stores, I certainly won't be increasing that number to five regular stops. We need stores that can handle ALL of our weekly shopping requirements, not just a few. We'll try it out but after reading this I'm feeling very pessimistic.
ReplyDeleteAt least we won't have to depend on CVS for our emergency milk and eggs anymore.
This is really sad. Its like they paid a bunch of fresh out of design school hobos to come up with as 3rd world ghettp of a look as possible for the frontage They did a pretty amazing job at that. Looks like a closed Safeway that was an indoor swap meet for twenty years that they slapped up with paint and used gel mylars to cover up the cracked windows. Extra points for the painted on signage. Did they truck in some homeless to hang in the parking lot and spread a bunch of trash around too for extra skank? I guess we will find out tomorrow at 9 AM.
ReplyDelete