JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Whole Foods Market will open a new 38,432-square-foot store at 1 Riverside Ave. in downtown Jacksonville on Thursday. The store will open at 8 a.m. on opening day; regular hours will be 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.
The downtown location will carry more than 800 local items from Florida, sourced with help from Dustin Kennedy, forager for local and emerging brands at Whole Foods Market. Vertical wooden slat walls in the store’s design pay homage to the vertical lines of the Florida Times-Union building that once stood on the site, and a soft green-and-blue palette reflects the water and sky along the riverfront in the city’s historic Brooklyn neighborhood.
Store features include:
- Prepared Foods with hot bars, salad bars, rotating comfort-food and seasonal menus, pizza by the slice or pie, a Market Sandwich venue with gourmet sandwiches and sushi rolled daily by Genji.
- Produce offering certified organic, conventional and Sourced for Good items; all fresh produce and floral items meet the chain’s Pollinator Health Policy to reduce chemical pesticide use. Local produce includes potted herbs from Kitchen Gardens.
- Curated grocery with exclusive brand favorites and local suppliers such as The Hyppo Gourmet Ice Pops, Bee Friends Farm honey and snacks from The Lentil House.
- Seafood counter with fishmonger service, ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat options, and packaged smoked items; all seafood is sustainable wild-caught or responsibly farmed. Local offerings will include littleneck clams from Cedar Key Seafarms, smoked fish dips from Key West Smoked Fish Co. and a rotating selection of Florida-caught finfish and lobster.
- Full-service meat counter with animal-welfare certified selections; butchers will cut steaks and poultry to order and make fresh sausage and marinated meats in-house. Local beef will include Adams Ranch Natural Beef.
- Specialty cheese and artisan department overseen by trained cheesemongers, with local items such as hand-pulled mozzarella from Mozzarita, jams from Gables Delight and breadsticks from Jennifer’s Homemade.
- Beverage selection with more than 500 wines and 200 craft beers, including local brews such as Swamp Head Brewery’s Big Nose IPA, Intuition Ale Works’ Party Wave Hazy IPA and Bold City Brewery’s Manatee IPA.
- Bakery with daily-baked breads and favorites like the Berry Chantilly Cake and brown-butter cookies; local items will include rugelach, challah and rolls from Simply Delicious Cafe and Bakery and Key lime pie from Keys Fisheries.
- Wellness & Beauty department carrying body care, beauty and supplement products, with local offerings such as TrueFit protein powders from RSP Nutrition, soap from Lolablue and skincare and haircare from Acure.
On opening morning, customers can sample cookies from La Gringuita Gourmet Cookies and coffee from Bold Bean Coffee Roasters. The first 300 customers in line will receive a limited-edition Jacksonville tote bag and a Secret Saver coupon with savings of up to $100.