Whole Foods opening Dec. 10th in Mandarin

[MattnJax]

http://news.jacksonville.com/justin/2008/11/25/whole-foods-opening-dec-10-in-mandarin/


The store, located in the Mandarin Landing Shopping Center on San Jose Boulevard just one block north of I-295, will generate more than 215 new jobs in the community, according to a company news release.

Has anyone ever shopped at a Whole Foods Market? How was the food/experience?

[copperfiend]

I went to one in Orlando. Very cool place. The building in Mandarin looks great.

[jaxtrader]

I used to frequent the WF at Union Square in manhattan, as well as one off Logan Circle in DC. Both were excellent, although the Union Sq location (which is a three-storey flagship) is much more impressive and much more efficient. They have something like twenty cashiers in operation, more at peak, with handlers to direct the queues. I 'm really looking forward to checking this one out, although its a little distant for me to be a regular.

[Joe]

I remember hearing that it wasn't supposed to open until mid-2009. Glad to see they are ahead of the original schedule.

Whole Foods is a weird place though. The decor is top notch, and they certainly carry items that a non-hippie grocery store won't have. However, the place is very expensive. It's clearly geared towards price-insensitive people.

It's kind of like the high-end department store of grocery chains. Needless markup based on an emotional sense of luxury and importance.

The Native Sun people must be scared to death. That Mandarin location is going to go out of business soon after Whole Foods opens.

[JaxByDefault]

Ah, Whole Paycheck. How I've missed thee. And how rarely I will ever visit since you are so very far out in the suburbs.

[MattnJax]

I went to one in Orlando. Very cool place. The building in Mandarin looks great.

Yeah one day when I'm in the area I'll check it out. See how different from a regular grocery store they are. Mandarin is just so far away though.

[billy]

Bring money.
Lots of money.

[TPC]

I've been to one in Atlanta and Baltimore. Awesome place, but a bit pricey. The one in Mandarin is to much of a drive for regular trips, but if I'm in the area I will probably stop by once they open.

The ones I've been to had great beer selections!

They also had a great buffet, they also offer cooking classes, etc..

[jaxtrader]

Come to think of it, while I understand that downtown cannot support a whole foods, one would hope that being such a bunch of hippies WF would practice what they preach and put their first Jax locale in a walkable urban neighborhood (e.g. San Marco), and not way out in Mandarin.

[ProjectMaximus]

However, the place is very expensive. It's clearly geared towards price-insensitive people.

It's kind of like the high-end department store of grocery chains. Needless markup based on an emotional sense of luxury and importance.

The Native Sun people must be scared to death. That Mandarin location is going to go out of business soon after Whole Foods opens.

Truer words could not be spoken.

I shop there probably once a month out of convenience...but it really is tough on a student's budget. Going there is a luxury...indeed most of the other shoppers are price-insensitive.

[TheProfessor]

Whole foods is good to go to every so often for the specialty items you can't find anywhere else.  They have a good spice selection, gelato, and great premade food bars.  It is a shame it is not in San Marco where the Publix was going to go.  I am sure they will open up other stores in the area if this one is successful.

[uptowngirl]

Come to think of it, while I understand that downtown cannot support a whole foods, one would hope that being such a bunch of hippies WF would practice what they preach and put their first Jax locale in a walkable urban neighborhood (e.g. San Marco), and not way out in Mandarin.

Just like our Urban Outfitters out in the burbs at St. Johns TC... how scary are these places?

[copperfiend]

I think they put profit over principle. I cannot blame them.

[jacksonvilleconfidential]

Im so excited, I stopped by to look at the progress on Sunday and its looking great! Unfortunately the weather was real bad and I didnt get a change to take any pics.

[thekillingwax]

Went to the tour yesterday and previously my girlfriend had been talking about how great the others were back in Califorina but I just kinda thought to myself that it was a bunch of hullabaloo- boy was I wrong. The place looks pretty amazing. It's only 50,000sqft but they've utilized it very well. The tour was great, they gave you a bag full of goodies on the way in and kept giving out free stuff until the end.

The prices that I could see honestly didn't seem all that bad. They said for the first month there will be a huge amount of deep discounts and bogo's, looked like it from the sales tags I could see. What excited me the most was the huge dry-aged beef rack. I seriously could've just set up camp in there. The pre-prepared entree bar looked interesting as well, there were over 20 dishes from all the big food genres (indian, italian, latin, vegan and others) and I honestly don't think it's too bad for $8/lb and if the samples they gave us were any indication, it's going to be delicious. They also had a couple of huge salad bars and soups all over the store.

I honestly figured the hype was kinda dumb but now that I've been in there and seen and tasted what they had to offer, I'm actually pretty excited. They're doing free breakfast and giving away 500 goodie bags opening morning. We may go but I already know it's going to be nuts out there all day.

Only thing I absolutely do no like is how all traffic into that center is funneled through that service road. I can see it being a nasty congestion point.