Wild Oats

[turil.livejournal.com]

Whole Foods just took over the Wild Oats chain of health food stores. They say they will be closing the stores that are underperforming or that are very close to other Whole Foods stores. I have no idea if the Wild Oats back on Rt 16 (just behind Tufts, and just over the border into Medford) is an underperfoming one or may be deemed too close to the Fresh Pond store, but if it does close, that may be an interesting location to put a Trader Joes or maybe a big food coop...

It's currently not that easy to get to from Davis, since there are no public buses that run from Davis to Tufts, but it's within walking distance of Teele Square (about a mile), and is far closer to Davis than any other decent sized whole foods grocery stores.

Anyway, I just thought I'd mention it, since it might effect some Davis folks.

Comments

[digitalangel-.livejournal.com]

You can actually take the 94 from Davis and get off at the intersection of 16 and Boston Ave. This puts you very close to the Wild Oats.

This is interesting - I'm very curious about what might happen to that store. It's nice having it so nearby.

[turil.livejournal.com]

I didn't know about that bus. I'm not much of a bus afficianado, since I can pretty much always get anywhere faster by walking or biking compared to taking the bus. But I know others like the bus. So it's good to know that there is a bus line that goes near there.

[ron_newman]

the 80 bus from Ball Square and Powderhouse Circle also goes there

[x-bluerose-x.livejournal.com]

It affects me too out in West Medford. Given the HUGE selection of vegan products that they have it's the only place I shop for food.

I hope that if they change, they won't change that. :(

Ooooooh.

[anotherjen.livejournal.com]

The thought of being able to walk to a Trader Joe's has me quivering.

[st-emma.livejournal.com]

I really hope they don't close it. It's one of the few places I can regularly find organic produce. (Whole Foods at Fresh Pond just doesn't cut it for me anymore, I'm afraid.)

[ron_newman]

Pemberton Farms, at Mass. Ave. and Day Street, sells some organic produce.

[turil.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, is Pemberton expensive! But yeah, it is pretty convenient to Davis, and fun to go to, since there are all those lovely plants to smell...

[rosiewoodboat.livejournal.com]

The quality of the produce at Pemberton is at best middling...

[sly-salkie.livejournal.com]

I agree... The lettuce wilts if you look at it wrong, and the bananas go from green to greyish-brown without any yellow phase. Maybe it's just a winter thing.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Harvest Coop in Central carries organic produce, and is conveniently just next to the T in Central.

[chumbolly.livejournal.com]

Though if ever there was an underperforming store, that Wild Oats is it. I always get a little sad going there, watching them have to throw away the old, unsold produce. Though I'd bet if it was a Whole Foods, traffic would pick up markedly, and the Fresh Pond Whole Foods is overwhelmed as it is, so having another location so close isn't necessarily a bad thing.

As an aside, I think the Wild Oats location is much too big for a TJs.

[ron_newman]

do you think just the unfamiliar chain name keeps people away? It's probably hard to do effective advertising when you have so few stores in the market.

[chumbolly.livejournal.com]

I think it a few things--one being they don't have much visibility, but I also think that location is bad. In theory, it seems good being right on 16, but Wild Oats and it's predecessor in that location have always struggled. Since the store doesn't do much business, its stock doesn't get much turnover, so I almost never buy fish, meet, or produce there. Which means less business, and on and on....

[ron_newman]

what was there before Wild Oats?

[penny-chase.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure it was a Wild Harvest and became Wild Oats when Star gave up the stand-alone Wild Harvest stores.

[ariwriter.livejournal.com]

A google search uncovered a Purity supermarket at the location in 1995.

[ron_newman]

Thanks. I vaguely remember the Purity Supreme chain. I think they merged with Stop & Shop at some point. Their Central Square store was so badly kept up that people called it "Poverty Supreme".

[ron_newman]

One problem with the location is that the railroad bridge entirely blocks your view of it from one side. You could walk by the intersection of Route 16 and Boston Ave. for years without knowing this store is a block away.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

I never got the impression that they underperformed. Any store that sells produce is going to have a plenty going bad -- it's a loss leader. Perhaps the problem is the way the place is managed, that they don't get rid of effectively enough.

I love Trader Joe's, but I'd much rather keep an all-purpose organic-type place around. TJ's is much cheaper for what they have, but there is too much they don't have for me to use them as my primary grocery. (The space wouldn't be too big for them, either.)

[ron_newman]

when Whole Foods (was it still Bread & Circus then?) opened their new store on River Street in Cambridge, everyone expected them to close the old one on Prospect Street, just a mile away. But they decided to keep both open.

[turil.livejournal.com]

I think they mostly wanted to compete with the coop, which is in a far better location than either of the two Whole Foods. Oh, and yes, they were Whole Foods by the time the River Street store showed up - I think they bought out B&C way back in 1994 or so.

[irinarasp.livejournal.com]

I moved to Boston in 99 and the store behind Symphony Hall was still a Bread and Circus then.

[ron_newman]

some number of years elapsed between Whole Foods buying B&C and them actually changing the store names.

[turil.livejournal.com]

The name might have not been changed yet, but the store changed well before then. The Symphony store was the one I went to when Whole Foods took them over. I'm guessing that they didn't bother to change the name because Bread & Circus was so popular, while Whole Foods didn't have any name recognition in the Boston area yet.

It's a lot like Star market here in Somerville. It took forever to change the name of the one in Porter to Shaws, and the one on Beacon Street is still Star, I think (or only recenty changed, if it's not still Star).

[agoddess.livejournal.com]

94 and 80 drop you off at the intersection of Boston Ave and 16, IIRC.

[ronhaha108.livejournal.com]

Oh, I hope they don't kill that store, it'll be great to become a whole foods, while driving my wife always says she wants to go to whole foods as soon as it becomes out of the way, now, whenever we are near whole foods or trader joes, I always make the point of asking her just so I don't have to turn around :D

[antimony.livejournal.com]

I rarely shop at it, despite it being the only walking-distance grocery to me, because they never seem to have what I'm looking for, and the prices are higher than Whole Foods. I hope it doesn't close -- rather, I hope it becomes better under the new owner. The whole foods in Wellesley is smaller in square footage by a lot and has a better selection.

[marphod.livejournal.com]

Wait, there are no buses from Davis to Tufts?

Well, someone better tell the bus drivers for the 96 and 94 bus routes. They've been going between Davis and Tufts forever.

[josephineave.livejournal.com]

And the driver of the pesky Tufts 'Joey' bus that anyone can ride for free.

[ron_newman]

but that doesn't go anywhere near Wild Oats, does it?

[josephineave.livejournal.com]

True...only to Carmichael Hall at the top of the hill.

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

I lived right next to that store for years and wouldn't be sad to see it go. Overpriced and more than half of their stuff made me ill.

As an aside, there is a bus that runs from Davis to the corner of Boston and North and if you cut through the apartments across the bridge, it's right there. It's like a 3 minute walk from the bus stop. The bus also runs through Powder House Square.

[nomacmac.livejournal.com]

I'll be very sad when it closes. They have a much better selection of 'food allergy friendly' food than Whole Foods. And as a bonus, you don't have to drive through Alewife and deal with the Whole Foods parking lot.

[tt02144.livejournal.com]

I don't know the bus numbers (I'm from the generation where we gave the buses names, not numbers - so much 'prettier' and less confusing to name it by its' destination than by a random number!). Anyway, there is a Medford Sq - Harvard Sq bus which has run for years. It takes 2 different routes as it passes Tufts. One down to George Street, the other, I believe stays on Boston Ave.