Brownstoner reported yesterday that Whole Foods is set to announce some changes to their plan to open a Whole Foods on Third Avenue and Third Street in the Park Slope/Gowanus area. Some Park Slopers have been waiting with bated breath for the opening of that long-ago announced Whole Foods. Even members of the Food Coop conjectured that they’d lose members to that store once it opened (just as Food Coop members have taken the fair way to Fairway).
So what gives? Sure the site has major toxicity problems. But in the glory days of a few years ago that was no problem. Now with troubled financial times here and in the horizon (and a 31% net income loss for the natural foods behemoth) Whole Foods is finally coming clean about their intentions. Here’s the word from our friends at Brownstoner:
We asked for details
from Whole Foods, who emailed us this response from spokesman Fred
Shank: “We are currently working on revising our plans for our Brooklyn
store and hope to be able to announce updated details in the near
future. We remain extremely excited about bringing the first Whole
Foods Market to Brooklyn.” (The Brooklyn Paper was told the same thing, while Gowanus Lounge recently reported
the first activity on the site in many moons.) Could the cost of the
clean-up be more than the market can bear in this economic environment?
It’s time to give a rest to the myth that the Park Slope Food Coop is losing members to Fairway. When Fairway opened in June “06, the Coop had 12,829 members. One year later the membership was up to 12, 854. It could be argued that the Coop’s growth was slowed by Fairway, but then in June “08 the Coop was up to 13,804 members. Will Trader Joe or Whole Foods affect the Coop? Of course they will, as Urban Organic and Fresh Direct must have already, but somehow the Coop just keeps on growing.
lemme guess – they are moving it to downtown BK… ya think?