TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Whole Foods Market, the world’s leading natural and organic foods supermarket and America’s first national certified organic grocer, will open its new Tallahassee store on Wednesday, Oct. 9 at 9 a.m. Whole Foods Market Tallahassee, located at 1817 Thomasville Road, is the company’s 20th store in Florida.
A free continental breakfast will be offered on opening day from 8 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. in the parking lot, and the first 500 shoppers will receive free Whole Foods Market goodie bags.
As part of the company’s ongoing commitment to the community, Whole Foods Market Tallahassee will donate 5 percent of net sales from the opening day to a local nonprofit organization. Four times a year, each Whole Foods Market store holds a 5% Day where they choose a local nonprofit or educational organization to receive 5 percent of a specific day’s net sales.
“This is just one of the many ways we plan on being involved in the Tallahassee community,” says Michael Muskat, store team leader for the Tallahassee store. “Like many others, we’ve been looking forward to being a part of this community for a long time and we can’t wait for opening day.” Details regarding the recipient organization and additional opening day festivities are being finalized and will be released soon.
Designed with southern-style and hospitality in mind, Whole Foods Market Tallahassee will capture the essence of the neighborhood it serves. From community partnerships to unique and products and features, the Tallahassee store will be one the neighborhood can call its own. These features include:
· Prepared Foods department featuring more than 100 items in the full service chef’s case, hot bar, soups and prepared salad bars
· Capitol City Smokehouse featuring entrees and sides specifically created for Tallahassee and smoked in-store
· Mobile food cart offering unique tastings
· In-house roasted deli meats
· Made-to-order sandwiches
· Panini bar
· Open hearth pizza oven serving a variety of full and personal sized pizzas, as well as individual slices
· Beer and Wine department featuring more than 400 beers (more than 70 craft beers), including “Build Your Own 6-Pack, ” and more than 750 wines
· Full-service bar featuring wine, bottled and draft beer, wine-based cocktails and a selection of food items
· More than 250 artisanal cheeses from around the world, hand-cut and wrapped daily in the store, and a Cheese Cutter’s Corner
· An American Cheese Society Certified Cheese Professional
· Meat department featuring old-fashioned, in-house-style butchers
· Dry-aged beef
· Fresh sausage made in-store
· Grass-fed beef from White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, Ga.
· White Oaks Pastures Whole Fryer Chicken
· Thompson Farms Pork from Dixie, Ga.
· Grocery, dairy and frozen aisles featuring more than 50 locally produced items
· Expansive produce department with a wide variety of locally and organically grown fruits and vegetables
· European-style Bakery department featuring Artisan breads as well as locally crafted specialties featuring gluten-free products
Local Seafood and Sustainability
In September 2010, Whole Foods Market launched a color-coded sustainability rating system developed in partnership with the Blue Ocean Institute to show the sustainability status of all non-MSC-certified wild-caught seafood the stores sell. In 2012, all stores ceased the sale of all red-ranked species, deepening their commitment to having a fully sustainable seafood department. The Tallahassee store will also highlight the local fisheries and day-boat fishermen that will be supplying the store, all aimed at bringing customers the largest variety of locally caught seafood available.
Gary’s Seafood (Madeira Beach) and Cox Seafood (Tampa), Keys Fisheries (Marathon) and D & D Seafood (Marathon – local stone crabs and lobster), four of the stores primary suppliers, employ numerous day-boat fishermen who bring Whole Foods Market the freshest fish available from nearby waters. The Tallahassee store will also be working with three other day-boat fisherman out of Panama City to provide the freshest and highest quality seafood in as little as one day.
Community Supported Agriculture – CSA
The Tallahassee store will join other Whole Foods Market locations in Florida by opening its doors to local farms with a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. The program allows local farmers to use the store as a drop-off and pick-up point for their subscribing customers, free of charge.
Animal Welfare Rating System
With the old-fashioned butcher shop style comes Team Members who are eager to educate the community on the Global Animal Partnership’s (GAP) 5-Step Animal Welfare Ratings. The rating system provides clear information that helps shoppers make informed buying decisions and offers peace of mind to them that the products at Whole Foods Market comes from animals raised with care. All beef, poultry and pork sold in the store’s fresh cases meet the GAP criteria and are certified by independent third party auditors.
Healthy Eating Specialist
With its Health Starts Here program, the store will open with a full time, in-house Healthy Eating Specialist to help educate customers on making informed decisions about healthy foods, teach cooking classes, give guided store tours and be a resource for the community.
Whole Foods Market Tallahassee will be open daily from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Follow the store at facebook.com/WholeFoodsMarketTallahassee and twitter.com/wfmtallahassee.
