New Interbay Whole Foods opens Tuesday

Geeky Swedes Ballard

Today was preview day for the new Whole Foods in Interbay.

The pumpkins are stacked out front, the shelves are stocked, even the cupcakes are frosted and ready for tomorrow’s grand opening.

Vicky Foley, the spokeswoman for Whole Foods, says that this is one of the smaller stores in the Seattle area, but it is full of local products. They have local produce, local wine, lotions by Ballard Organics and sushi made by Blue C.

The Allegro Espresso Bar will open at 7 a.m. each morning and will feature a Kombucha bar brewed by Townshend’s Tea Company in Portland.

Just down the counter and spanning most of the east wall is gelato, a pizzeria station, a burrito bar and sandwich bar followed by a bakery and plenty of gourmet cheese.

There is a separate little room at the front of the store near the espresso bar that is the “community room” that will have free wi-fi.

Forget the traditional ribbon-cutting, tomorrow there will be a “bread-breaking ceremony” at 8 a.m. to officially open the new store.

Geeky Swedes

The founders of My Ballard

129 thoughts to “New Interbay Whole Foods opens Tuesday”

  1. Sorry I for one will not be shopping here…. and here is why….

    In a controversial Wall Street Journal op-ed, Whole Foods' chief executive attacked President Obama's efforts to reform America's ailing health care system. The op-ed said that Americans have no intrinsic right to health care and should not feel entitled to equal medical attention. It also said that health care should be an individual responsibility with little or no help from the government.

  3. so whole foods sucks, my friend in the culinary program at the art institute was fired for taking a final in a baking class that he previous to offer of employment notified them of. They told him he did not have his priorities straight. Lets see here a person going to chef school and working for a company in a cooking capacity has his priorities out of wack for trying to further his culinary knowledge.

  4. Hope the employees aren't as douchey as the ones in South Lake Union.

    Yes, I brought my own bag, and yes I expect you to bag my grocceries. Don' t give me that, “I've been on my feet all day speech.” Do your job. If you don't like it, get a new job.

  5. Right……………………….

    John Mackey's great transgression was to take Mr Obama up on his challenge to offer an alternative to government run Healthcare. Apparently this is an unforgivable sin in the Leftist community. My guess is that the majority of the tards boycotting Whole Foods haven't taken the time to even read the Op Ed. I would suggest that everyone actually read the article and judge for themselves.

    PS> BallardMom – It's impossible to have a “Right”, that costs someone else their time, or money.

  7. To get back to Ballard, are we able to exit west of Whole Foods, then take a right onto whatever street that is, so we can take a left at the light on Elliott? It will be nuts if folks are trying to cross three lanes from the parking lot into the middle turn lane.

    On the other hand, stopping on the way to work will be a breeze (once the novelty wears off).

  13. Nope. Still boycotting. But maybe we'll stop by and take up valuable retail and parking space and a cart or two, and to consume lots of any proffered free samples -without actually buying anything, of course. In this town, there are plenty of other options for buying healthy, organic, sustainable groceries, and many of those options are local producers or locally based establishments.

  15. No, the transgression was to pose as a thoughtful person advocating responsible citizenship, being green, buying organic, etc, then being revealed as the conservative douche when he thought none of his customers were looking.
    This would be like the head of REI running a clearcutting operation in the Amazon rain forest.

  17. Just curious if you could share with us some specifics on what exactly bothered you in the op-ed. For example, if you think Americans DO have an intrinsic right to health care, are there limits on that right or the amount of care that must be provided? Who is responsible for delivering the care? Who is responsible for paying for the care?
    Should/do Americans also have an intrinsic right to food? To housing? To transportation?

  18. It says nothing of the sort. Maybe you should read the op-ed in its original unedited version and you will see it is not an attack on reform but different ideas of how to reform. If you disagree with the ideas, that's fine but at least someone has ideas and is presenting them in a thought provoking manner. Whole Foods is not mainstream but an alternative health food store. If you are mainstream and believe everything the government tells you then don't shop there. No one will miss you.

  20. You yawn when you've been bored to death by the same old people who drag politics into EVERYTHING. They are predictable as they come and equally dull. Maybe they are the ones who think WH is expensive, which is where most of the anger comes from.

  22. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Doesn't sound too bad, does it?

    I believe that the Life part should include at least a basic right to healthcare. I wouldn't even be as worried about providing health care to all if it weren't for the fact that it's just too damn expensive for people to stay alive in this country, let alone be healthy. Why is it that the rest of the developed world has figured out how to get all their citizens decent access to health care without breaking the bank, yet the richest country on the planet is slipping behind the second world when it comes to health and still paying twice what anyone else pays?

  23. For those like SPG that haven't bothered to read John Mackey's Op Ed here is the link.

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB200014240529702…

    I suspect the real transgression that John Mackey made was his opening comment about Socialism which is the basis for all things associated with the Democrat party. Those who don't think suckling at the teat of government is the way of the world are excommunicated from the party.

  24. Maybe I should read Mackey's mind too. He was given a copy of the editorial before it ran and approved it with all the changes the WSJ may have made (I'm not so convinced that the “original” version is that). Mackey isn't an idiot and he knew what he was getting into. They didn't ask him to chime in against the Obama plan because of his great idea about eating better, but because he represented the idea that even people from a liberal seeming company like Whole Foods can be against the administration plan. He knew he was being used as a wedge, he just didn't think that enough of his customers would get this upset about it.

  25. Mackey: “With a projected $1.8 trillion deficit for 2009, several trillions more in deficits projected over the next decade, and with both Medicare and Social Security entitlement spending about to ratchet up several notches over the next 15 years as Baby Boomers become eligible for both, we are rapidly running out of other people’s money. These deficits are simply not sustainable. They are either going to result in unprecedented new taxes and inflation, or they will bankrupt us.”

    This is the usual conservative tripe that never seems to come up when they want to start a war or bail out Wall Street. There wasn't any problem with deficits when W cut taxes on the wealthiest 1% and ramped up spending more than any previous president, so out of the gate Mackey paints himself as a conservative hack.

  26. Mackey: “While we clearly need health-care reform, the last thing our country needs is a massive new health-care entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits “

    Again, the deficit is only bad because this time some poor people might get some benefit.

  27. Mackey: “Remove the legal obstacles that slow the creation of high-deductible health insurance plans and health savings accounts (HSAs).”

    Because what the poor people and working class have a lot of is money to put away into a health savings account. HSAs are fine for CEOs but don't do anything to address the problems of health care costs, insurance company malfeasance, or lack of insurance.

  28. Mackey: “Repeal all state laws which prevent insurance companies from competing across state lines”

    If you think it's a pain to figure out what health insurance you can get now, just wait! As a special bonus for signing up you can get the comfort that you can't sue your Delaware Incorporated Tax Haven Insurance Company that just screwed you out of all your premiums! But don't bother going to the Attorney General since they're now out of their purview.

  30. mackey: “Enact tort reform to end the ruinous lawsuits that force doctors to pay insurance costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.”

    Another conservative talking point that has been proven over and over in the states that have enacted it that the doctor's premiums haven't changed and that the patients who were maimed for life are now bankrupt and depend on the state because they couldn't get any restitution for the doctor's negligence.

  31. Mackey: “Enact Medicare reform.”

    Yes, by all means let's gut a program that works just to show that we ain't a bunch of danged socialists!

  32. Mackey: “Finally, revise tax forms to make it easier for individuals to make a voluntary, tax-deductible donation to help the millions of people who have no insurance”

    Kumbaya! The answer to it all, or is this to keep his Whole Foods hippy cred?

  33. Mackey: “Health care is a service that we all need, but just like food and shelter it is best provided through voluntary and mutually beneficial market exchanges”

    Ooh, a libertarian! How about we make the military a for profit organization? What could go wrong?

  34. Mackey: “All countries with socialized medicine ration health care by forcing their citizens to wait in lines to receive scarce treatments.”

    And we ration healthcare by making it so expensive that only the rich can afford it! And as a bonus, the poor die off quicker!

  35. When Bush cut taxes, tax collections skyrocketed like they always do when taxes are cut. That's really an inconvenient truth isn't it?

  36. Did you have the same battle with snide pointless comments?
    You did?
    You lost?
    Being serious for a moment, can you add something to the conversation other than personal insults please?

  37. I wouldn't go so far to call my lack of patronage a boycott, but I don't think I'll be going there any time soon. I don't really see the appeal. It's expensive. It isn't that good in past experience. It's not convenient compared to the Ballard Market. And the owner is a d bag who would use his alleged liberal cred to try to divide and distract the movement towards health care reform.

  38. Hey! Don't confuse me with Ballardstayhomemom! I spend way too much of my energy working for one thing (it'd be nice if I could be a stay at home mom but we can't afford it). And I don't think boycotting really does any good. That said, everyone has a right to their opinion and if someone doesn't want to shop at Whole Foods that just means it will be less crowded when I go.

  39. They do have a bigger selection than Ballard Market, but yeah, it is farther away and not as convenient. I agree that the owner is a d-bag, but if I didn't patronize all companies owned by jerks I'd have to find a way to live off my tiny little city lot and not buy much of anything. Plus, I wouldn't be able to pay my taxes because the group that mismanages my tax money can be real d-bags too ;)

  40. Because everyone was refinancing their homes, getting great returns on ponzi schemes, building missiles for Iraq, etc. Then it all fell apart and the only economic growth of the Bush years was shown to be the fraud that it is, another inconvenient truth.
    When Clinton raised taxes the economy boomed.

  41. “Should/do Americans also have an intrinsic right to food? To housing? To transportation?”

    Yes in fact they should. I am my brother's keeper. We are a wealthy nation and have more than enough resources to feed cloth and house every american and help in doing the same for most of the world.

    However stupid americans prefer to buy overpriced pretty food and let people go hungry. They prefer a WII or a giant house over offering a hearing aid to the elderly. Karma will getcha.

    Yeah! we are number 13 and dropping like a anvil in quality of life world wide a d proud if it.

  42. No we will be laughing at fools who shop there when everything they sell can be purchased elsewhere for half the price.

    There really is a sucker born every minute.

  43. When your buddy Barry raises taxes we'll see what happens. I can tell you it's going to mean inflation, economic decline, and more Carter style malaise. You'll probably lose your job at McDonald's to top at all off.

  44. It’s not politics. It's basic human decency and common sense. Something lacking in way too many which is exactly why we are where we are today.

  47. “It's expensive”

    To who, you?

    “his alleged liberal cred “

    Maybe the boycotters are morons, I've known Mackey's politics for years.

  48. TT the truth is that tax cuts and other GOP ideas tanked the economy. It started about 3 0 years ago and has been hurtling toward depression ever since. Is that what it will take for you to stop a system that is a failure?

    This economic downturn did not start under The Idiot W. geeeez.

  49. We ususally shop PCC Fremont or Greenlake as well as Ballard Market (or other Town-n-Country Markets) I would prefer a new Ballard PCC but will probably check out the new Whole Foods just for fun.

  50. if the working class would do away w/what they deem needs but are really wants, they could put away for high deductibles. i see possibilities all the time, but the w/c have drawn a fuzzy line between the two. priorities folks!

  52. The tax thing unfortunately goes in cycles. The GOP whines about the taxes and get elected. They cut the taxes their rich friends pay and give out a couple hundred to the rest of us. They slash the services that we all use like the FDA, OSHA, and anything that might get in the way of their wealthy business buddies squeezing out more profit. Then they increase spending to further pay off their wealthy friends with nice bloated military contracts and other pork projects. After a while people start to realize that they are still paying about the same in taxes, but getting less for it, and even wind up spending more in the end after they get poisoned food, injured at work, etc.
    The Dems get elected and start to turn things around and act responsibly which means yes, raising taxes to pay for all the damage the GOP wrought without paying for it. The fixes the Dems make increase the economy and we all get fat and happy and then the siren song of tax cuts starts to play again and we repeat the cycle.

  55. I guess if I wasn't clever enough to have something to say I'd resort to insults too. I'm sorry that's the only thing you can say to support your viewpoint.

  56. The overpriced is overpriced regardless of whether or not you can afford it. Wealthy people do not buy overpriced goods. Wannabes do however.

  60. See you there too!

    Some folks will be too busy being angry I guess to enjoy…..

    FYI Maria, if you want to see overpriced, check out Ballard Market.

  62. I know! Who the hell are these workers to think they deserve any kind of “free time” back to the factory with you! (and bring your children too, we can use them to get inside and clean the hard to reach parts of the machines)

  65. Humor is different for you than me. I just saw at as a pointless attack on a valid point that sfg had no real response to.

    FYI, I didn't ask to have it removed.

  66. I can afford it, thank you very much, but I still don't see the value in it. I do go to a few stores where I know it's expensive but I like what I'm getting so I pay the premium. I've just never been impressed with WF enough to pay the premium.

  69. Oh my gosh, I've had nearly the exact same experience. I can't stand the employees at the South Lake Union store. I actually thought it was my imagination, so I'm relieved to see someone else has had bad experiences with them. The employees at the Ravenna store are so much less snotty.

  70. Hey if you're worried that the poor people have it so good mooching off of your hard work, why don't you just quit your job and sponge up some of those awesome *more* benefits.

  73. Late to the tea bagged party but here goes: This crash resulting from the raping of america by the greedy financial industry is the PROOF that Reaganomics does not work. We are suffering now because of no oversight. And the same people that derailed the united states now want to deregulate the next greediest gang of MF's, the insurance industry. You chumps buying into this will be tossed from your high horses one day. When you're laid off and try to find insurance on your own and are turned down due to pre-existing conditions. Or saddled with one of those great high deductible policies. And you can't find a job that will pay part of your coverage. And then you will blame it on the democrats.

    Traffic on 15th at this location will be horrendous. Unless there is a light going in soon it will be chaos with many accidents. Too many incidents with just Peets and subway. With the added volume of the WF traffic it will be mayhem. Maybe they will put in a 'right turn only' arrow sign that everyone will ignore like the one at the Safeway-market street. On the upside for the outlanders, with Peets and WF it feels like Cali for you. Now I am going to take all the valuables out of my pockets and try to walk to the bar for a relaxing drink without getting robbed.

  74. For those that believe in Obamanomics get ready for the new CPI (Cave Price Index), and the new currency consisting of beaver pelts. Let's all tax ourselves into prosperity and print all the money we need.

    WooHoo!!

    I'll see all you folks that like yummy food at Whole Foods tomorrow.

  78. “You chumps buying into this will be tossed from your high horses one day. “

    Well, until then, I'll enjoy the ride.

    How is it down there, walking with the plebs?

  80. Mine looks great…took a beating on the S&P last year but made most of the losses back the last 6 months. So probably no European vacation this year with the kids, but we're thinking about 2 weeks in Whistler for Christmas…the horse will be stabled so I can take the Touareg up there.

    Cute dog btw…

  81. “This would be like the head of REI running a clearcutting operation in the Amazon rain forest.”

    Ummmm….you do know you're comments while meant as a joke are not too far from reality?

    Sally Jewell, the current CEO of REI, used to be an engineer for Mobil Oil in Oklahoma. Mobil isn't a company known for being great friends of the environment. She then went on to work in commercial banking for nearly 20 years, most of it focused in the energy and commercial real estate markets. Again, not the background of an environmentalist. Not exactly the background most self-righteous, bumper sticker politics, tree huggers would think of for the CEO of REI. All that said, anyone who has spent any amount of time with Sally (and I've spent quite a bit of time with her) will know she's a very down to earth person (how many 6 figure CEO's do you know who drive a VW Beatle?) who is passionate about the outdoors.

    Reality is there are a lot of people who seem to have very divergent points of view including the CEOs of REI and Whole Paycheck. Not everyone feels compelled to fill the left or right cookie cutters molds that simpletons look for. Some of us actually like to think for ourselves. Beyond an oil engineer/banker turned REI CEO I also know an Army Green Beret who served in the Peace Corps and has a MFA, a cop who sings opera and volunteers at a homeless shelter, and a gay man who is an ardent supporter of Dick Cheney (this one still baffles me!)

  82. That's right: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. You'll note “equality” is NOT one of the founding concepts of our nation. If you want that you'll need to move to France whose motto is “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité” (Liberty, Equality, Brotherhood).

    As a nation we do not believe in taking care of the less fortunate and brining everyone up to a certain level of living. This is kind of funny considering how many of the Republicans who are opposed to such notions somehow consider themselves to be Christians! I've always liked the saying “How can you worship a homeless man on Sunday and then ignore one on Monday”

  85. I find it funny and wrong that there is a big sign at hole foods reading “buy local”. Shouldn't the sign be shaped like Texas, not Washington? No thanks, I will be avoiding the stupid crowds, bad politics, and high prices. Ballard Market here I come.

  86. WHAT? Even if you don't like the meat dept. at the Ballard Market (which I have always been happy with) there are any number of great meat shops locally that don't require shopping at hole foods. Have you been to A&J on Queen Anne? If you are willing to drive to Interbay to get ripped off by a bunch of right wing hacks, you should be able to drive to QA to support a local business.

  87. Depends when you got out of the market and when you got back in. But of course, you knew that, right?

    Now the Roths I'll admit took a beating and haven't come back.

  88. “Ballard Market here I come”

    You mean stupid crowds and high prices plus an awful meat and fish section run by malcontents who don't work after 5 pm? As for bad politics, those usually are brought in with that stick people put up their back sides.

  89. There are wannabes at all income levels. They probably all think they're “poor” relative to someone else, but I can assure you there are MANY people out there making ten or a hundred times more than you or I, who do indeed buy overpriced goods.

  90. I guess my point, unintentionally accurate, is that at least the CEO of REI isn't using her position as head of an outdoorsy company to publicly lobby for oil drilling in the state park. Mackey knew that he was in a unique position to make the case that even liberal hippy new age people were against the administration's health care reform. If Mackey was the CEO of Safeway or Walmart nobody would care and the WSJ wouldn't have run his comments. It was a very intentional move to use his position and I feel no sympathy for him suffering some backlash over it.

  91. Yep, I'll give you that one. But you did hear about the riots outside Paris a couple years ago? Those were over the rampant, overt discrimination of the non white French citizens. We're definitely not the only country failing to live up to our ideals.

  95. Exactly SPG. Whole Foods is for fools and as we know a fool and his money are soon parted. The owner figured this out. Same goes for PCC and Ballard Market of course. PCC is downright laughable.

  97. I was over there at the time. It wasn't discrimination against non-white French citizens. It was very specifically about discrimination against young Arab men. There is a difference and much of it relates to France's colonial history in places like Algeria.

    My point is that unlike France, equality has NEVER been one of our ideals. America is about putting the individual first and society second. That's why we don't have a right to healthcare, don't have a right to take a single day off from work even if you're sick with a highly contagious disease, have only minimal job protection, and no right to housing. Those rights – which people in most other countries enjoy – are aimed at creating a certain level of equality. We don't believe in that. In the US we believe that some people should be given 6 weeks of paid vacation plus paid holidays plus weekends off while others should only get 2 days a week off. We believe some people should get fantastic healthcare while others should get none. We believe you should only have a roof over your head if you can afford to pay for it.

    On the upside, our individual first belief makes it MUCH easier for people to start small businesses, expand/contract their business, encourages the risk taking that results in great inventions, and has lead to the US having some of the best universities in the world.

    For most of the people in this country the system is working. People claim it isn't but if that's true then where is the outrage? Reality is for all their whining most people in this country are content with what they have and don't want to see the system change.

  98. Interesting perspective.
    re: The system working/not working and the outrage, the reality is that the system does work just fine when you're on top and have the time/money/ability to rail against it. Once you have a medical issue and your insurance company drops you because you wrote the year of your birth in two digits instead of four, you won't have the resources to rail against the system. There's plenty of outrage out there, but since most of those people who have reason to rail against the system don't own major news networks, you aren't going to hear much about it.
    I think the other foundational belief that gets in the way of improvement is “American Exceptionalism”. If you believe so much that we are the best, then why try to improve on that? Everything's perfect, don't change it or we'll become like socialist Europe (and live longer, healthier, happier lives).

  99. Ah freddie. Not the smarty pants you espouse to be if you only made back losses over the last 6 months. I made great money on the upswing, didn't just get back losses. I can thank the greedy MF's your ilk protect and bailout for crashing the country. And of course you drive a german SUV.

  100. Yep, American Exceptionalism is a beast. For some reason it just kills people in this country to have to admit that another country might actually do something better than us!

    BTW, I wonder how many people who complain about socialist Europe realize that some parts of Europe are more capitalist/free market than the US. For example, in some Nordic countries many of the fire departments are operated by private companies instead of the government. In France doctors are more likely to work in private practice than in the US. Many government subsidized airlines out perform private US brands. But heaven forbid we try to learn from anyone else! ;)

  103. Should everyone be entitled to a free computer and internet access so they can join in on this stupid conversation. Should smokers and obese people have free health care. I don't really want to pay for anyone's preventable lung cancer treatment.

  104. “Yes in fact they should”

    Really? Where in the constitution does it say that?

    “However stupid americans prefer to buy overpriced pretty food and let people go hungry. “

    Last time I offered a bum a sandwich instead of the dollar he wanted he went bizerk.

  106. Fail? OMG! LOL!
    The reality is that there was essentially zero regulation of the derivatives market and other complex financial instruments. Add to that Gramm's deregulation of the financial services industries that allowed banks to be insurance companies which essentially turned them into veritable casinos, and it was a recipe for economic disaster.
    There may be more regulations (pay attention to that last s, since it makes all the difference) but without any real oversight and regulation there will be many more actors figuring ways around the regulations to make risky and often fraudulent financial transactions.
    Reagan cut back on the oversight of business.
    Clinton allowed it to go further, especially with a republican congress.
    Bush went all in and even slashed the budget and enforcement abilities of the SEC.

  112. What do you think people who bag groceries should be paid, $100k a year?

    WF pays better than other retailers their size and provides better benefits. Not enough for you? Study harder in school. Sadly Maria, you don't seem to understand that we are not all equal, now matter how much of a utopian, fantasy world you want to live in.

  113. Maybe you should be shopping at hole foods. There are plenty of people with good grades and degrees working retail right now. If you want to talk about utopian fantasy worlds, look at what your yuppie wal-mart's ceo has to say about health care. If everybody shopped at his stores there would be less need for health care because everyone would be perfect little paragons of wealth and health. Probably true, but that isn't reality.
    Please by all means shop at hole foods and enjoy. If you can make it jive with your politics and bank account you should. Meanwhile I will continue to support local businesses and languish in my own little retail hell.

  115. I actually own horses so I'm not sure what that makes me – the rich elite or a redneck. We didn't lose much in the economic crash cause we did that weird thing that some of my relatives think is downright stupid – that would be “invest conservatively”. What a strange concept.

  116. Actually, a few years ago I heard from some friends who worked for Whole Foods in CA that the benefits were awful. They might be better now – I don't know. One of my friends just got a job and is very happy about it.

  117. Just so you know, Ballard Market is not local. It is a Town & Country Market store – they are a national chain. I haven't looked at their CEO's political affiliations.

  119. Town and Country is based on Bainbridge Island and they only have a few stores locally between here and the Poulsbo area. They are not a national chain, I just got that from reading the side of the bag. But regardless support them or Met. market, or Ken's market, it doesn't matter. I just feel that supporting local is better. But if you prefer big box retail… by all means.

  120. Just realized that this is a Ballard forum and the damn store isn't even in Ballard. So this truly was just a huge waste of time… more than usual. If you want to drive that far to buy overpriced groceries, nothing I'm going to say here will change your mind. So I'm going to waste my time elsewhere.

  121. The reason to keep things local is that your money goes further in the big picture. When the profits are sent off to Bentonville Arkansas, that profit is more likely to be spent there. When the profits go to Crown Hill, Bainbridge Island, or even Poulsbo, that profit will go to other businesses in the community and eventually it will come back to benefit you by strengthening the local economy as well as offsetting the taxes you'd otherwise have to pay.

  123. My bad – I thought they were the same company as Town & Country Market but apparently they are not – one is & and the other is and.

  124. I did, Blight. See below. It reads:

    “Nope. Still boycotting. But maybe we'll stop by and take up valuable retail and parking space and a cart or two, and to consume lots of any proffered free samples -without actually buying anything, of course. In this town, there are plenty of other options for buying healthy, organic, sustainable groceries, and many of those options are local producers or locally based establishments.”

    Besides, the play on your name was quite clever, given the calibre of your own comment.

  125. What a surprise!!! Someone with a “clever” acronym of two to the chest one to the head (TTTCOTTH) is a right-wing talking point regurgitator. Who would have guessed?

  126. You are fueling the 'backfire effect' when you start with facts and just makes them more zealous. Google it if you don't know about it. Hilarious and explains so much.

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