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Whole Foods #5 Hits Tribeca
With Minimal Frenzy

Wholefoodstribeca
Is the thrill gone?
Whole Foods opened its fifth NYC Store in Tribeca yesterday, adding another cavernous location to what now seems like a commonplace chain in Manhattan, at least downtown.
In typical fashion, they have added new elements to their mix including small, but heavily publicized shucking station and shawarma counters.
At, a certain point we have to wonder if Whole Foods has made the best location choices. They really have downtown well covered, perhaps overly so. We have never seen the huge Bowery store crowded despite shopping there frequently. Undoubtedly, Tribeca residents will be pleased to have any full service market nearby, but we wonder if there are enough of them to justify such an enourmous store. It may not actually be bigger than the Bowery branch (The chain's largest) but it feels like you could fit about three of the original Chelsea location inside this one. Frankly, the Chelsea store, once so luxurious and spacious, feels a little dinky now in comparison to the others. In fact, at 55,000 square feet WF Tribeca is slightly smaller than the busy Columbus Circle store. Most of its offerings are on the main level with café seating and only a coffee/crêpe/gelato/dessert bar upstairs. It's the layout that feels confusing. A huge sushi bar sits in the center of the store, and for some reason, the Whole Body personal care section lurks between produce, seafood and prepared foods. The logic of that arrangement escapes us.
At about 3 in the afternoon on Opening Day, the store felt like it might on any ordinary day. Even the free samples were not in unusually great abundance, which is always a disappointment. We don't mind admitting that a quick session of guilt-free grazing has led us into Whole Foods on more than one occasion.

Are there improvements? Definitely, especially when it comes to the check out. This store features not only their usual single line register arrangement, but also an entirely separate bank of traditional conveyer belt stations. Clearly, Whole Foods is willing to go to great expense to avoid the sort of lines that still snake through the Chelsea and Columbus Circle stores at busy hours. Trader Joe's take note.
The other welcome addition is the bank of bulk food dipensers which offers not only the usual nuts and granolas, but also gourmet salts and sugars (turbinado or demerara for you today?), which conveniently allows us to sample them without having to shell out the bucks for a package that might be much bigger than we would ever use. This looks like a program that could (and should) easily be rolled out to other local branches as well.
It's obvious by now, however that Whole Foods needs to look beyond lower Manhattan for locations. Happily, their next NY stores will open in Gowanus, Brooklyn (a whopping 68,000 square feet, but troubled construction) and at 97th and Columbus (57,500 square feet, roughly equal to Columbus Circle). Their only East Side store is all the way down on Houston Street, so the Upper East Side is clearly ripe for a branch, but as the chain only likes to open in either new or newly renovated buildings, suitable locations are likely to be in short supply there.
It's hard for us to criticize Whole Foods too heavily since they are still miles ahead of any other market chain in the city, Fairway and a few upgraded Food Emporiums notwithstanding.
Now, if we could just get about twelve more Trader Joe's around her out grocery shopping would a snap.
Of course if Wegman's starts sniffing around...
Whole Foods Tribeca 270 Greenwich Street at Warren Street, Tribeca

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