It's open! It's huge and I was completely disoriented, its layout being very different from the one I was accustomed to at Union Square, where you enter on the bakery, deli and cashier level and go down one floor to the rest of the store. At Tribeca, you have one wide-open floor plan. I think I prefer it. When you enter on Greenwich, you are right in the produce department, which I think is the most natural way to start any grocery shopping trip.
You also notice things you don't notice at Union Square--like who knew WF made baby food in their deli (or is this a Tribeca thing?) or had so many eco-friendly household products?
It was beautiful! If you've never been to a store on opening day, you'll never know the absolutely perfection of every item on the shelf fully stocked and lined up to the edge. It was like a movie set.
I was surprised at how packed it was for 11 am in the morning! Tribeca housewives and their babies everywhere...not to mention the coterie of WF managers and workers, stationed at every aisle, ready to help you find this or that. Though I have to say, it's going to take them a while to figure out their own store--I was looking for tahini, and woman valiantly tried to find it for me, though she didn't seem to know what tahini was, as she was looking for it in the Asian food aisle. When asked the same question, another man, confident in the way managers are, took me directly to the spot in the deli fridge where the fresh tahini that I indicated I preferred over the shelf-stable version would have been, but alas, it wasn't there. He informed me that some of the stock was still coming in, so I bought the shelf-stable instead. He was really helpful in any case.
There are some new features in the Tribeca store. One is a sushi bar smack in the middle of the store called Genji. You can pull up to the bar and get sushi rolled for you or opt for a bento lunch. I took a look at the menu, and it's on the pricier side.
Exotic salt dispensers. How pretty is that pink salt? And that lavender salt too. Not sure how they taste, however.
There are multiple checkout areas and multiple entrances-- one on Warren and one on Greenwich.
I didn't make it to the tour, but I did score a couple samples of really tasty olive oil and these takeaways:
The Kiss My Face soap smells so great, btw. Grapefruit...
All in all, my love of WF has only grown with this latest addition. Funny thing, though--even though the Tribeca location is closer to where I live, it's a couple blocks from the Chambers St. station, so I have to drag my grandma cart further than I do when I go to Union Square. For this reason, I may sometimes go up to Union Square when I have heavy grocery shopping to do. Otherwise, Tribeca is it, baby!
I was on my way to Whole Foods today and noticed a new shop has opened in Tribeca at 166 Chambers near Greenwich St. Apparently, Amanzi Tea is part of a two-store chain (the other store is in South Carolina), and according to the employee who helped me, today was their NYC debut. They feature a full tea bar, where you can order tea lattes, bubble teas, tea cocktails, iced teas and baked goods.
You can also buy hundreds of loose-leaf teas in 1 oz bags ($3-5) and 4 oz canisters ($9-12). They have open canisters out so you can inspect the leaves and smell the teas. They sell tea pots, accessories too and gift sets too.
