Darien is wrestling with the Whole Foods grocery store plan to open at the former Howard Johnson’s property. That would normally be enough to fuel my ire since Whole Foods has not yet decided to bless Norwalk with a store. But as I read further into the Advocate’s article I discovered, that Whole Foods plans to open a store in North Stamford and in Fairfield. Yegads, the snubbing of Norwalk is killing me.
For the uninitiated Whole Foods is a natural/organic grocery market that I would normally never shop at except that it also offers a hot/cold food trough of prepared meals. And they provide a spot to eat them, producing the effect of of a grocery/cafe. The amazing thing about Whole Foods is that they understand that prepared foods, even though organic and natural need to taste good. So unlike the bland cardboard tasting healthy stuff you can find at most typical “natural stores” the stuff produced by Whole Foods tastes delicious. If you are capable of tasting the difference between a grass fed beef steak and a grain fed beef steak, then you’ll understand my appreciation for efforts made by Whole Foods to deliver tasty stuff.
Sure they stock the usual assortment of stuff that I can’t imagine anyone buying, amonia free cotton diapers and soy brownies springs to mind, but then I’m not one of those people that makes much effort in being green, organic, or able to cook. Whole Foods does carry dinosaur shaped free range chicken things, (once they look like little brontosauruses how can you call them fingers?) from Bell farms, so they clearly are on to my kind of demographic. The urban processed chicken connoisseur time-strapped professional. Which means they offer up the world in their food trough and I can choose from a spicy Thai chicken dish, a Malaysian soup or a simple grilled wild salmon dish.
So Norwalk’s 87 thousand residents or thereabouts are not the demographic that Whole Foods thinks want an upscale specialty grocery. Whole Foods has probably concluded that Norwalkers will drive on over to the future Darien store, which is exactly what I’ll do. So the opponents who fear 6000 car trips are probably right when you factor in Wilton and New Canaan. With all the corporate office buildings we have, along with the blosoming Wilton route 7 corridor, you’d think that we’d be able to muster enough of an economic jewel to attract Whole Foods here, or Target here, or any of the more upscale mass merchants. But something is keeping the Urban Outfitters, the Crate and Barrels, P.F. Changs or Talbots away. It’s almost like they see Norwalk like New Britain or something. But even New Britain has a Target.
source: Advocate, Specter of traffic from Whole Foods looms, By Donna Porstner October 17 2007
