Whole Foods’ Emphasis on Local Coming to Connecticut

Organic retailer will open new 44,760-square-foot store on Sept. 1

8/5/2021

Whole Foods’ Emphasis on Local Coming to Connecticut

Whole Foods Market’s new Avon, Conn., store will feature 950 local products from the New England area.

Whole Foods Market continues to advocate for local products with its soon-to-be-opened 44,760-square-foot store in Avon Village at 50 Climax Road in Avon, Conn. Opening on Sept. 1, the new location will offer an assortment emphasizing items from the New England area, all hand-picked by Whole Foods North Atlantic’s local forager, Holly Long.

The new store will feature more than 950 local products from 150 New England-based suppliers, including the following:

A full-service seafood counter featuring local Blue Point oysters and Smoked Atlantic Salmon from Ducktrap River of Maine. All offerings are either sustainable wild-caught or Responsibly Farmed.
A full-service butcher to cut steaks to order or debone poultry, with local fresh pork cuts, including offerings from Overbrook Farm.
A specialty department dedicated to celebrating cheesemakers, artisan producers, accoutrements and specialty foods, with local options including Camembert from Arethusa Farm, as well as potato gnocchi from Nuovo Pasta and basil pesto from Bear Pond Farm.
Grocery products from local creators like ice cream from Arethusa Farm, honey from Hilltop Apiaries, a variety of maple syrups from Maple Craft Foods, and gourmet premium pumpkin seeds from SuperSeedz.
Nearly 400 beers, including local options such as Run Wild Non-Alcoholic IPA from Athletic Brewing Co., Church Pool Kölsch from Brewery Legitimus and Dog & Boats Double IPA from Beer’d Brewing Co.
A bakery offering custom cakes, scratch-made breads and special diet options, including treats made without gluten, plus vegan and nut-free options. The local selection includes fresh artisan hearth breads and sandwich loaves from Wave Hill Breads, fresh milled bagels from One Mighty Mill, and Doughnut Muffins from Bisousweet Confections.
A wellness and beauty section featuring local artisan soaps from Treefort Naturals, insect repellents from Nantucket Spider, and chocolate calcium supplements from New England-based Adora Supplements.

The store will also feature a pizza counter with both classic and innovative options, plus house-made strombolis and calzones. Additionally, the prepared food section will offer hot and cold food bars and ready-to-eat soups, charcuterie and rotisserie chickens, while over in the produce department, shoppers can choose from organic, conventional, local and Sourced for Good produce, as well as Eco-Certified apples and peaches grown on family farms.

The Avon store follows two other summer openings that emphasized a local product portfolio. Whole Foods opened a 41,436-square-foot store on June 25 in Portsmouth, N.H., offering more than 700 local products, and on July 7, the retailer opened a 48,000-square-foot hyper-local flagship store in Tampa, Fla., stocking more than 800 local products.

In celebration of its new location in Avon, Whole Foods will provide support to the following local organizations: Forge City Works, The Children’s Museum of Connecticut, Simsbury Meadows Performing Arts Center, The Boys & Girls Club of Hartford, The Hartford Yard Goats Foundation and FoodShare. Whole Kids Foundation will also grant $3,000 to the Talcott Mountain Academy to support a hydroponics enrichment class on growing garden vegetables.

The first national certified-organic grocer, Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods has more than 500 stores in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. The grocer is No. 26 on The PG 100 list, Progressive Grocer’s 2021 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America, while Whole Foods' parent company, Seattle-based Amazon, is No. 2 on PG’s list.