Many O'Fallon residents have expressed an interest in seeing a Whole Foods or Trader Joe's closer to home, but they may have to wait awhile.
As O'Fallon Patch reported in June, a customer relations employee from Trader Joe's said there is no immediate plan to expand to St. Charles County.
Some readers commented on the O'Fallon Patch Facebook page, and mentioned they would like to see a Whole Foods grocery store instead.
O'Fallon Patch asked Facebook fans in August: What would you rather see close to home? Trader Joe's or Whole Foods?
Kari Prinke said: "Whole Foods is awesome & SO needed in OFallon!!"
Jackson Thompson said: "Whole Foods, but either is better than nothing."
Maggie Legler: "Whole foods!!! There is a trader Joes in Chesterfield which is not that far away."
Michelle Humphreys Thomason said: "Whole Foods. Larger selection."
Erin Fay Schatteman: "Either but prefer WF. The thing I love about WF is that there is not one product carried in the store that has artificial favors or colors in it. Here is a list of ingredients they don't allow in their products. I love not having to check the ingredients on everything there! They also offer the widest selection of organic produce."
But it doesn't look like the grocery store will be heading close to home anytime soon.
Whole Foods announced the opening of 10 new stores on its Facebook page on Wednesday evening.
Here are the new store locations that have just been released:
- Altamonte Springs & Clearwater, FL
- Hyannis, MA
- Morristown, NJ
- Philadelphia & South Hills, PA
- Dallas, TX
- Seattle, WA
- New York City, NY (Upper East Side & Harlem)
- North Carolina
The Whole Foods locations closest to O'Fallon are in Chesterfield and Brentwood.
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On the other hand, trying to shoehorn a specialty grocer into the City of Winghaven©, MO would be next to impossible. Again, Mr. Frain has it right. The demographics are wrong, the lot sizes in targeted locations are too small, and competition from local groceries (and even the evilness that IS Wal*Mart) would make such a niche market impractical and unprofitable. O'Fallon just isn't upscale enough to support boutique stores. Our collars are too blue, our necks are too red, and we don't have enough green in our pockets. Wal*Mart is what we can get. Unfortunately.
I understand that grocery stores run on thin margins. I still believe that the north side of town could support a market of some sort. But what do I know? If I was a whiz at this sort of thing, I'd be rich. Feh...