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New Whole Foods Store Design Is on the Money

Art Deco accents enliven grocer’s latest NYC location, in Financial District
Whole Foods Market Financial District NYC Main Image
Whole Foods’ designers needed to visualize the grocery space within a landmark building in New York City's Financial District.

Whole Foods Market’s latest store in New York City – its 17th in the Big Apple and 534th chainwide – opened Jan. 11 in the Financial District, in the fittingly named One Wall Street building at 66 Broadway. The historic site, which opened in 1931 to house the Irving Trust Co., underwent a recent multimillion-dollar renovation that added apartments above retail space on the bottom level. The original building’s Art Deco design elements live on as accents throughout store, such as the elevator doors adorning the self-checkout area to the left of the entrance, or the inclusion of a vintage mailbox by the escalators. 

[Read more: "Whole Foods Market Sets Opening Date for 1st Montana Store"]

Whole Foods’ designers needed to visualize the grocery space within the landmark structure, resulting in roomy aisles and sections that marry industrial touches like exposed pipes in the ceiling with warm neutral colors on the walls. Many of the departments have the feel of little neighborhood shops where customers can browse and get advice from associates.

Across from the entrance-level self-checkouts is a coffee bar, where, for the first time, the grocer is testing a local brand, Brooklyn-based Partners Coffee, while toward the back is the hot-bar area allowing customers interested in grab-and-go fare to get in and out quickly. 

The downstairs level includes an impressively stocked Whole Body department, a colorful produce section featuring many locally grown items, as do many other areas of the store; a bakery section with an in-house scratch bread program and products targeting special dietary needs like gluten-free; a cheese counter with about 350 varieties, including an exclusive vegan blue cheese, overseen by a certified cheese professional; a beer section with more than 200 brands, among them nonalcoholic options; a meat department where customers can watch the butchers at work, and custom cuts can be ordered; and a convenient dining section with its own exit.

Following are some images of the Whole Foods store at One Wall Street:

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The first certified-organic national grocer, Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods has more than 500 stores in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Seattle-based Amazon, which is No. 2 on The PG 100,  Progressive Grocer’s 2022 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.

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