A Wild Oats store in Jefferson County is the only Colorado store being affected under a Whole Foods Market Inc. plan to shutter nine stores nationwide.
The Wild Oats store at 8194 S. Kipling Parkway will close Oct. 28. The 40 or so employees will be offered positions at other Whole Foods locations, said company spokewoman Kate Lowery.
Last month, Whole Foods said it planned to close at least eight of the 74 Wild Oats stores it bought.
“The great news in Colorado is that they’re only having one store closed,” she said. “We were looking at how the store didn’t fit into our overall brand or real-estate (strategy) and (its) performance.”
The Wild Oats at South University Boulevard and East Orchard Road will remain open under the Wild Oats name until 2010, Lowery said. At that time, the store will relocate and rebrand as a Whole Foods. A new Whole Foods store is planned for the nearby Streets at Southglenn project at South University and East Arapahoe Road.
Whole Foods bought Wild Oats for $565 million in August after the Federal Trade Commission declined to block the acquisition over concerns the combination would lead to higher prices. The two chains focus on natural and organic food products.
The purchase gives Whole Foods a presence in cities such as Cincinnati and Tampa, Fla., which it wouldn’t have reached for several years.
After the deal closed, the company said it would operate all existing Whole Foods and Wild Oats stores in the Boulder area, where Wild Oats was based. But it scrapped plans for a prototype Wild Oats in the city’s Twenty Ninth Street shopping district.
Bloomberg News contributed to this report.
Kimberly S. Johnson: 303-954-1088 or kjohnson@denverpost.com
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Wild Oats stores nationwide, 13 in Colorado
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Whole Foods stores nationwide, seven in Colorado
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Wild Oats stores to be closed, one in Colorado, following its acquisition by Whole Foods
