TUESDAY, JANUARY 10,2017 EDMONTON JOURNAL A7

Whole Foods idea lacked'research'WHOLE FOODS FROM .iTI

She never believed the provincehad enough local suppliers to sup-port Whole Foods.

"Edmonton is a small city, andour organic stores have been suf-fering for years," she said. "I feelthis is atarget casefor'Hey, maybeyou should do your research.' "

Whole Foods, a natural and or-ganic grocery chain based in Aus-tin, Texas, confirmed in an emailMonday it isn't going ahead withthe two Alberta locations, althoughthe email didn't saywhy.

The company announced inSeptember 2015 it would open a3,9O0-square-metre store at SouthPark Centre, 38O3 Calgary TrailSouth, in a former Canadian Tirelocation that it heavily remodelled.

That store was set to start wel-coming shoppers last fall.

Whole Foods remains commit-ted to expanding in Canada, withtwo stores in Toronto and NorthVancouver slated to open this year,the email said.

Kevin Grier, a retail analystbasedin Guelph, Ont., said the poor Al-berta economylikelyplayed a rolein Whole Foods' decision.

"Anupscale store like that needsa critical mass of affiuent, confidentshoppers and the fact they are can-celling or postponing stores tellsme it's indicative of the marketthere."

He added Canadians' love ofgrocery flyers and bargains - andthe fact Statistics Canada reportedaverage groceryprices fell in2Ol6

- would also discourage the Amer-ican company.

But Deveaux doesn't think theecon6my was a big factor in keep-ing the company away, saying Al-berta remains a Canadian retailhot spot.

Superstore and other big super-markets have increased their or-ganic offerings in Edmonton whilesmaller specialty outlets such as

the downtown Earth's GeneralStore are struggling, she said.

"There really isn't anything youneed from Whole Foods you can'tget from the other three or four

I suppliers," she said.

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This building at 3803 Calgary Trail was the proposed site for Whole Foods, but the U.S. natural and organic grocery

chain confirmed Monday that it isn't going ahead with this store and anotherin GulgtII.:l{I4{ woNG/FrLEs

"You have this strange situationof another American retailer whothinks they can come in on namealone."

She wouldn't be surprised if a

different grocery chain takes overthe emptyWhole Foods space, pos-sibly helping create a specialty foodcluster in the area.

TWo years agq Whole Foods CEOJohn Mackey said the chain would

An up sc ale store tike that needsa critical moss of affluent,c onfident shopp er s and thefacttheg are cancelling orp o stp oning stor e s tells me it's

, indicatiue of the morket there.

eventually grow to 4O Canadian lo-cations, without giving a sPecifictimeline.

It has 12 Canadian stores, alongwith 246 in the United States andnine in the United Kingdom.With file s from The Canadi an Pres s

gkent@postmedia.comtwitter.com/GKenlEJ

Whole Foodsstores nixedin Edmontonand Calgary

GORDON KENT

The decisionbyWhole Foods Mar-ket to cancel Planned Edmontonand Calgary stores shows the U.S'

company didn't do its homework,a University of Alberta retail ana-lyst says. "Theycame in and Ithinkthey quickly realized that PeoPlewho sell at farmers'markets can'tnecessarily sell at commercial lo-cations,' Emily Deveaux, executivedirector ofthe U ofAs school ofretailing, said MondaY.

She said it can take two Years toensure food and containers soldat big outlets meet shelf life andquality standards. It would be ex-

pensive to imPort Products fromlhe United States, especiallY withthe low Canadian dollar, she said.

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