Hate to Shop for Food?

Whole Foods Market (Austin, Texas) has announced plans for a new landmark store and world headquarters in the downtown area of its headquarters city.

Construction crews are at work on the project site, located on Lamar Boulevard and Sixth Street, directly across the street from the food retailer's current location. The landmark 80,000-square-foot store will take up the entire block between Fifth and Sixth Streets and Bowie Street and Lamar Blvd.

To be completed in early 2005, it will be Whole Foods Market's largest store and will exhibit several new features, such as a community and education center suitable for meetings and cooking demonstrations, a 25,000-square-foot public roof garden and plaza area for eating and entertainment and three levels of underground parking with escalators equipped to carry grocery carts from the parking garage to the store.

“Our store concept across America has evolved so much since our humble beginnings here over 23 years ago,” said co-founder and ceo John Mackey. “With the breadth of food retailing knowledge and culinary experience we have today, we are no longer content just to be the best natural foods store but instead aspire to be the finest food retailer in every community we serve.

“There is a paradox in American society,” Mackey added, “that people love food and they love to shop, and yet the hate to shop for food. This new store in Austin will aim to change that and will take the chore out of shopping and turn it in to a fun, pleasurable experience. It will be interactive, educational and full of surprises.”

The new building also will include Whole Foods Market's new world headquarters, a six-story, 200,000-square-foot office tower above the market that eventually will provide office space for as many as 700, bringing together the national offices and the Southwest regional offices.