Houston Historic Retail has been informed that the Midtown Whole Foods Market will close by the end of next week. The store, which opened in late 2019, occupies the ground floor of the Pearl Marketplace Apartment tower. The rumor of closure was first spread online and brought to the attention of HHR by a reader. The closing was confirmed by visiting the store and speaking to an employee who confirmed they would close by the end of next week. Supposedly, the store is set to start a deep clearance sale, as it was fully stocked during my visit. The Midtown store is not alone in closing; another location in Toledo, OH, also opened in 2019, is closing on a similar schedule. The Whole Foods location is one of two remaining grocers in Midtown since the 2020 shutdown of Fiesta.
Just go to the Montrose HEB on Dunleavy. It’s only 5 minutes from this Whole Foods and is cheaper too.
This is why you shop at small stores in your neighborhood.
lmfao you realize Amazon bought Whole Foods in 2017, right?
I lived right above that Whole Foods in Pearl Marketplace for two years, starting in March 2020, just before the Covid shutdown. It was a splendid place to live. We had a private elevator to Whole Foods and, especially during Covid, it made life so much easier. They are going to have to lower rents there without that Whole Foods.
The grocery store desert in the Midtown-downtown-EaDo-Second Ward area just got bigger and drier. Thousands of apartment and townhome dwellers are desperate for HEB to come to the east side of town.
Midtown Fiesta closed because it was a problem store. When the Store Manager was at City Hall begging for something to be done about the problematic tent city under 59 nobody seemed to care. He explained that his store had really high shrink and was constantly having to call HPD. I heard Rice was going to extend their lease until the building is demolished to appease people in the area but Fiesta declined.
I am SO upset. This is the only Whole Foods that still felt like Whole Foods. 😭
What stores compete with Whole Foods in Midtown?
Hate to say it but I have been expecting more cost-cutting store-closing and further dilution of the brand since John Mackey retired from CEO duties about a year ago.
The Midtown Randall’s is pretty much the only option left in Midtown. Mike has featured the store on the blog before: https://houstonhistoricretail.com/2021/08/11/midtown-randalls-its-the-closest-thing-youll-get-to-a-safeway-down-here/
At least in other cities, Safeway does as good of a job as anyone with urban stores. Tom Thumb has some new urban stores in DFW and by all reports, those stores have been well-received so that also speaks to Safeway’s ability to run urban stores. It is not a surprise to see Randall’s be the last survivor in Midtown, but the Fiesta Mart closed seemingly because the landlord wanted to redevelop the land into that technology hub affiliated with the development in the old Midtown Sears rather than because Fiesta wanted to close that location. If that part of Midtown is deemed a food desert, the city and the developers, Rice University mainly, may only have themselves to blame for it.
Obviously, the proposed Albertsons merger with Kroger could affect the Midtown Randall’s and so could any potential sale of Albertsons to someone aside from Kroger if the merger is rejected. We’ll have to see about that, but we’re seeing the importance of Randall’s in this market.
Sad