Whole Foods Market plans to close its Englewood store after opening the grocery with great fanfare just six years ago.
The Englewood store as well as another one in the DePaul University Welcome Center in Lincoln Park are among six stores the grocery chain plans to close nationwide. The company was not specific about closing dates, saying the stores will close in the coming months.
“As we continue to position Whole Foods Market for long-term success, we regularly evaluate the performance and growth potential of each of our stores, and we have made the difficult decision to close six stores. We are supporting impacted Team Members through this transition and expect that all interested, eligible Team Members will find positions at our other locations,” a Whole Foods spokesperson said Friday.
The announcement to close one of the company’s two stores on the South Side — it has about a dozen in Chicago — comes just two days after it opened a nearly 66,000-square-foot store at 3 W. Chicago Ave. in the One Chicago high-rise. It replaces a store at 30 W. Huron St.
The company did not provide any information on how the stores closing were performing financially, although Amazon, which owns Whole Foods, on Thursday announced its first quarterly loss since 2015.
Shoppers head to Whole Foods Market in Englewood on Friday, the same day the company announced the store would be closing.
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
Shoppers at the Englewood market Friday were shocked to hear the news.
Phillip Backstrol was thrilled when the store opened six years ago. The 65-year-old prefers to shop at Whole Foods for the variety of organic vegetables.
“I thought it was great,” said Backstrol.
Now, Backstrol will need to drive downtown to find those vegetables.
Lashay Shambley works nearby at the Chase Bank at 62nd Street and Western Avenue, and now she’s not sure where she’ll go to get lunch.
“There’s nothing but Popeyes, McDonald’s and Wendy’s,” said Shambley, 21. “I kind of looked toward Whole Foods for like a healthy escape.”
Shambley’s concerns aren’t unfounded. When Whole Foods came to the neighborhood six years ago, it helped close a food desert gap by providing access to healthier, fresh foods.
Now, residents have access to an Aldi and Go Green Community Fresh market along the same block.
One resident, who didn’t want his name used, wasn’t upset Whole Foods was leaving the neighborhood.
“They said they were going to have lower prices for Englewood but they didn’t make that promise real,” the resident said. “I only come here because it’s right across the street from my house, but one apple juice is cheaper in Hyde Park than here.”
He added he’d rather spend his money at a locally owned grocery store, like the Go Green, than a conglomerate like Whole Foods.
Workers at other businesses in the 5.5 acre Englewood Square development anchored by Whole Foods —which includes a Starbucks and Chipotle —said the store definitely brought in shoppers, although they hoped to be able to weather the closure.
“Just like any place, you look around and can see another store and you want to see what they have,” said Malcom Silas, an employee at nearby DTLR fashion outlet, who said shoppers with Whole Foods bags often came to his shop a few doors down.
Silas thinks his store could lose some business, but, overall he doesn’t think it will impact the outlet’s receipts too much.
Customers walk out of Whole Foods Market in Englewood on Friday, the same day the company announced the store would be closing.
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
‘The community needs a grocery store’
Local Ald. Stephanie Coleman (16th) was not immediately available to comment.
Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20th) said she’s “sad,” but not at all surprised that the store derisively known as “Whole Paycheck” was closing its doors.
Taylor represents a South Side ward that includes Englewood with a border across the street from the Whole Foods store.
“The community needs a grocery store. Whole Foods was just expensive. And a lot of people did not shop there. So I understand it,” Taylor said.
“It’s sad. But I hope that we do one of two things: That we convince another grocer to come. Or we have our own home-grown grocer. We’ve got to do something, though. We cannot waste that TIF money. And the community needs a grocery store.”
$11 million city subsidy
With the relentless push from then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Whole Foods agreed to open the Englewood store amid concerns about whether residents of the impoverished South Side ward could afford to shop there.
The project depended on an $11 million city subsidy for site preparation that also required an expiring tax increment finance district to be extended while money was “ported over” from a neighboring TIF.
Taylor said she knew from the outset that Emanuel’s grand experiment wouldn’t work.
“I got a raise, and I can’t afford Whole Foods. It’s not cheap. I shop at Jewel when it’s on sale because that’s the type of paycheck that I had,” Taylor said.
“There’s a senior building right across the street from there. People that live in the community are either elders or new families. It just was too expensive. They needed a grocery store. But I never agreed with it being Whole Foods.”
Taylor acknowledged that the closing will only enlarge a food desert that deprives area residents of healthy and affordable shopping choices that include fruits and vegetables.
But, she said, “Ald. Coleman is a smart woman. And she’s probably gonna go out and find somebody who can take the space.”
Emanuel did not respond to a text message seeking comment. He is currently serving as U.S. ambassador to Japan.
His former Planning and Development Commissioner David Reifman refused to comment.
Shoppers lined up and celebrated the Whole Foods when it opened in Englewood Square in September 2016.
Sun-Times Media
Cecile DeMello, executive director at Teamwork Englewood, said many community groups supported the opening of the Whole Foods store.
“It showed real promise, and I think it continues to show real promise of how retailers could meet community needs and work with the community to help design something that was unique and important to things like a food desert and stuff like that,” DeMello said.
“The Englewood community is a community that continues to need investment and there is momentum in this community to continue to rebuild and corporate partners are one part of that journey. Government is another part of that journey. And resident-led initiatives are still another part of that journey as well. And that doesn’t change because one corporate partner is no longer here.”
Deal requires grocer on site through 2027
Before the city land that includes Whole Foods was sold to developer Leon Walker for $1, the City Council approved a redevelopment agreement that requires a grocery store to be located on that parcel through 2027.
That means Walker will have to find a grocery store replacement to occupy the site, sources said.
“We’re all working together to find the next operator,” Walker said in an interview. No timeline has been set.
“There’s been discussions and concerns for some time about Whole Foods being able to be successful in this location, but right now the key is were working together with the city and the aldermen and the community to find the best replacement operation to take advantage of this opportunity.”
Community input is “always an important factor,” Walker said. “But as you can see there are financial realities, there are macro events there are shifting. Corporate priorities all kinds of things have to be factored into the decision processing, of course.”
He argued that the project has already been a huge boon for redeveloping the area and showing its potential.
“This whole project has been about inspiring hope and it has done that,” he said. “ ... We’re finally bringing the density that an operator needs to be ultimately successful. It took too long to get the density, but now this administration understands that urgency and is making the investments so that we can get the bellies and the feet and the people there to help support and make the retailers successful.”
Even before a replacement is found, city planners pushed back against the notion that the closing of Whole Foods would leave behind a food desert, listing the Aldi’s and Go Green Fresh market, which the Inner-City Muslim Action Network opened on vacant land purchased from the city for $50,000.
“This is not a food desert. It reduces options for residents, which is a blow. But, it’s not like there’s no options out there. Two stores are within walking distance of this site,” said a source familiar with the area.
The blow from the Whole Foods closing will be further softened by the project known as, “Englewood Connect” otherwise known as Phase Two of the Englewood Square shopping center. It’s part of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s signature Invest South/West initiative, which Walker also praised.
City planning documents describe the $10.3 million project as an “eco-food hub” that will “establish culinary-related uses that empower employees and feed local residents.”
“The project will adaptively re-use the landmark Green Street fire station as the commercial kitchen, establish a business incubator to train start-up businesses, create a community ‘living room’ for local events and re-purpose vacant land with hoop houses that provide year-round farming operations,” according to a description posted on the Planning and Development website.
“A public plaza will serve as its focal point. Later phases will include a flexible market space and an event center.”
City assistance for the Phase 2 project — in the form of a TIF subsidy and land — is expected to go before the Community Development Commission as early as May 10.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel celebrated the Whole Foods when it opened in Englewood Square in September 2016.
Sun-Times Media
Excitement of 2016
Regardless of the future potential, the closing is a far cry from the excitement that was seen when the high-end retailer opened its doors in 2016.
People waited in long lines to get into the 18,000-square-foot store when it opened in September that year with a celebration featuring healthy food, music and revelry.
Emanuel and Whole Foods co-CEO Walter Robb were joined on a stage by a host of politicians, including U.S. Rep, Bobby Rush, D-Ill., and leaders of community organizations that worked closely with the project, from Teamwork Englewood to R.A.G.E.
In addition to the $11 million in TIF funding, Englewood Square relied on $15 million in New Markets Tax Credit Program subsidies, bringing home to Englewood the national economic stimulus program President Bill Clinton launched in 1999.
Then, $500,000 came via crowdfunding, the first time that’s been used to finance new commercial construction in Chicago. And both developer and general contractor Ujamaa Construction are African American-owned; as is Power Construction, a contractor that did the Whole Foods build-out.
The store also carried a number or products from local businesses on its shelves.
While the store did not provide an update on how many employees worked in Englewood, it had said in the past that many of its 100 workers lived in the area. Workers declined to comment Friday, although they were surprised by the announcement, too —at least one employee just started a new job at the store the same day.
Shoppers lined up outside Whole Foods when it opened in Englewood Square in September 2016.
Sun-Times Media
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