Whole Foods is not just a grocery store
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Whole Foods considering short-term space on Woodward during construction
I don't think the skeptics understand what Whole Foods offers for its customers. My personal case in point:
I live 45 minutes from a WF while there are at least 3 supermarkets within a 10 minute drive of my house. Every time I go near the WF, I stop in to get fish for dinner. I usually shop around for some other things that I can only get at Whole Foods. Last time, I got Wahoo from the Carolina Coast, natural maraschino cherries, and some other things that I don't remember. [[I've been into Manhattans lately, and the HFCS-soak, artifically colored and flavored cherries are pretty nasty.) I usually spend about $50 there. The only seafood that I can consistently get at the stores close to me that I will buy is catfish. Sometimes I'll also get talapia, but everything else is previously frozen [[I'll buy it frozen and thaw it, but I don't want the limp stuff that has been sitting around).
WF also has a huge selection of pastured, grass-fed, and organic meat, eggs, and dairy. If I didn't get that stuff from local farms via an online market [[http://locallygrown.net/) I'd get that stuff too.
There are three whole foods in the suburbs [[Tory/Birmingham, West Bloomfield, and Rochester Hills) and two in AA, for most people working in downtown, new center, or midtown, it will be much easier to go to Whole Foods there before heading home than trying to get to one of the suburban locations.
There probably is a small population of people who shop only at Whole Foods, and their purchases will be moved from some other store. But Whole Foods also draws from a much broader market of people buying things there that they cannot find elsewhere. It is a draw in a way that other grocery stores are not.
Central Detroit is in some ways a great place for foodies like me. There are a lot of good restaurants and a great [[and improving) market. I went to Honey Bee once or twice, but when I was living on Alexandrine, I was usually a not quite satisfied customer at University Foods. Having a Whole Foods 6 blocks from my apartment would have been heaven. For some people, it is honestly enough to tip the balance between living in one place or another, and one big chunk of the potential population of city center residents is Whole Food's core market.
I'd wager that over time it will help business that would seem to be competitors, because a store like Whole Foods helps to bring that type of customer into the neighborhood.