Whole Foods Is Rolling Out Smaller Convenience Stores Around NYC

In the latest move in the nation’s grocery wars, Whole Foods — owned by online behemoth, Amazon— is going small.

The first location of Whole Foods Market Daily Shop, a convenience-store-sized Whole Foods, is coming later this year to 1175 Third Avenue at East 69th Street on the Upper East Side, according to a press release. More locations will follow in New York City.

Whole Foods has nearly 20 stores around the city. The markets will be around 7,000 to 14,000 square feet, unlike its usual 40,000 square-foot, full-on grocery store. The shops will focus on takeout meals and prepared foods; seasonal produce, meat, and seafood; breads, booze, and supplements.

The move comes as Walmart is “trouncing Amazon” in the grocery wars, while Wegmans, which opened its 87,000-square-foot Astor Place location in Manhattan in October, has plans to expand its reach in the city. Other grocers, like Lidl and H Mart, are also expanding their New York City locations.

Whole Foods

In 2019, Whole Foods piloted a 2,500-square-foot “bodega-like shop.” The shops featured mostly self-checkout kiosks, with a focus on local products, with produce from Gotham Greens, breads from Balthazar, and doughnuts from Dunwell and Dough. Consumer response to that successful pilot prompted a wider rollout of this concept, Supermarket News reported.

In 2017, Amazon bought Austin-based Whole Foods, aggressively expanding the brand nationwide. Today, there are over 500 stores in North America and the UK. It was founded as a certified organic grocer in Austin, Texas, in 1980.