Dive Brief:
- Whole Foods Market’s Daily Shop will open next month in Arlington, Virginia, marking the format’s first location outside New York City, according to a Wednesday announcement.
- The location will span more than 10,000 square feet, making it the largest of the small-format concept’s stores to date.
- This move reflects Whole Foods’ continued growth as it undergoes internal changes during the ongoing process of merging with Amazon’s grocery operations.
Dive Insight:
Whole Foods’ debut Daily Shop outside of Manhattan will open on Oct. 23 at 1550 Crystal Drive in Arlington’s Crystal City neighborhood. The specialty grocer originally announced plans for the location in early June.
The store will also be the first Daily Shop to offer Amazon pickup and returns.
Like the New York City Daily Shops, the Arlington location will offer fresh produce, meat and seafood as well as prepared foods, baked goods, alcohol and supplements. The store’s product assortment will also include more than 250 local items from the D.C., Maryland and Virginia area.
Whole Foods is bringing its Daily Shop format to a new city and state just one year after it debuted its first Daily Shop in New York City’s Lenox Hill area. Wednesday’s announcement noted that the specialty grocer still plans to open Daily Shops in Hoboken, New Jersey, and in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood, but did not provide a timeline.
Currently, Whole Foods has three Daily Shops open, all in Manhattan, as well as more than 530 grocery stores across the U.S., Canada and the U.K.
Whole Foods is also gearing up to more than double its U.K. store count. Amazon announced Tuesday plans to shutter 14 of its U.K. Amazon Fresh stores and convert five of those storefronts to Whole Foods locations.
The specialty grocer also announced this month that it is bringing its private label products to Asia for the first time through Amazon’s online grocery offering and a partnership with a local Singaporean natural grocer.
These national and international growth efforts are happening as Whole Foods and Amazon work to align their grocery operations. Amazon announced in June that it had named a restructured leadership team for its Worldwide Grocery division that includes top executives from Whole Foods. In late August, Amazon said it aims to bring corporate Whole Foods employees under the same benefits program and compensation structure as Amazon corporate workers by December 2026.
