Mini-Whole Foods Planned for San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO — The smallest Whole Foods store in the company’s development pipeline — only 16,790 square feet — will apparently replace one of the two remaining Bell Markets stores in this city. Whole Foods Market, Austin, Texas, was previously reported to be considering the site, which is located in the Noe Valley district. Whole Foods’ website currently lists a planned store that’s the same size as the existing Bell Market in the neighborhood. Neither Whole Foods nor Ralphs, the Kroger division that operates Bell Markets, would confirm the plans. Whole Foods has said it was planning to open more smaller stores, and it is developing a grab-and-go prepared-foods small-format store in Boulder, Colo. Meanwhile, Tesco is planning to replace the other Bell Market store on Silver Avenue and Goettinngen here with its Fresh & Easy concept, according to information on its website. Officials at Ralphs, Los Angeles, told SN the two stores, along with a Cala Foods location it still operates, were part of a group of 15 stores the company put up for sale two years ago, 12 of which were acquired by Harley Delano and converted to Delano IGA stores.

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