Whole Foods Opens in Swollen Grocery Market

It’s been said your town has arrived when it gets a Whole Foods supermarket.

The ‘Burg’s first Whole Foods will open a new 40,100 square-foot store, located at 201 38th Avenue North near two Publix stores each within stone’s throw distance.

Features include:

- A full-service seafood counter with ready-to-cook options like seafood empanadas, crab cakes and marinated fillets. Many raw seafood options will be sourced from local and state-wide seafood purveyors like Cox Seafood, Wood’s Fisheries and Keys Fisheries.

- Numerous certified organic greens from Lady Moon Farms and Hardee Fresh.

- A curated grocery section featuring the store’s house brand, 365 and local products from Glasers Organic Farms, juice from Natalie’s Orchard, prebiotic drinks from Sunny Culture and kombucha from Mother Kombucha

- A specialty cheese department, a full-service meat counter, more than 180 craft beers including 50 from local breweries, prepared foods with pizza, charcuterie, sushi, hot food and salad bars daily and an extensive bakery department.

Regular store hours will be 8 am – 10 pm daily. Opening morning, the first 300 customers will receive a tote bag and a coupon worth $100 off their purchase.

On a nutrition note, all prepared foods will be devoid of hydrogenated fats, high fructose corn syrup and more than 300 flavors, colors, sweeteners and other ingredients commonly found in processed foods.

The store joins an already swollen grocery store market in northeast St Pete with 6 full-service grocery stores within a 1-mile radius all while large swaths of south St. Pete sit in areas of low income/low access commonly but erroneously referred to as food deserts.

These areas, per the USDA, have tripled over the past decade. Currently, there are no immediate plans in the works for grocery stores at Tangerine Plaza or Coquina Key Plaza despite large resident demand.