Many of you have clamored for a Whole Foods in Roanoke.

While I can’t report that the organic food store is coming to Roanoke, what I do want to tell you is that the company earlier this year announced plans to open 1,000 new stores.

From Whole Foods’ earning statement:  “Over the long term, the Company considers 1,000 stores to be a reasonable indication of its market opportunity in the United States as the Whole Foods Market brand continues to strengthen, consumer demand for natural and organic products continues to increase, and the Company’s flexibility on new store size opens up additional market opportunities.”

Whole Foods currently has 317 stores, the closest to Roanoke being in Winston-Salem, N.C. and Charlottesville.

There is no indication of what kind of time frame the company has in mind, but as the trade publication Supermarket News points out, it would take 23 years for Whole Foods to reach its 1,000 store goal at its current expansion rate.

Supermarket News also reports that many of the stores in the expansion plan would be in secondary markets. Roanoke is considered to be a tertiary market.

Earlier this month I called and emailed a Whole Foods spokeswoman about the possibility of a Whole Foods opening in Roanoke. I haven’t received a response.

The company’s financials are strong. In the quarter that ended Jan. 15, Whole Foods reported a profit of $118.3 million, up 33 percent, from $88.7 million the same quarter the previous year. Comparable store sales rose 8.7 percent.

Do you think Roanoke has what it takes to lure Whole Foods?

Amelia Glaser and Mark Linson at Thursday night's meeting. Photo courtesy of Suzzane Gandy

Last week I updated you on the latest concerning the grocery store, restaurant and cafe planned for the Sixteen West development on Church Avenue in downtown Roanoke.

Today, I’m back with a few more details.

The Downtown Roanoke Neighborhood Association held it’s monthly meeting at the building Thursday night, where cheese specialist Amelia Glaser and chef Mark Linson served up lots of different cheeses, breads and cured sausage. They and developer John Garland also talked in more detail about the plans for the marketplace.

Garland, president of Spectrum Design, said he’s long envisioned a downtown marketplace that included a grocery store and pharmacy.

“It needs to be a market for what people need everyday,” he told the group.

Although no one has committed to financing and operating a pharmacy at Sixteen West, Garland said he’s reserving a space for one.

Glaser and Linton emphasized that they want the marketplace to have a European feel, with downtown residents and workers walking or biking to the marketplace several times a week for fresh food.

Glaser, whose business the Laughing Gouda provides wine and cheese catering, is opening the S&W Market, where she’ll sell her cheeses as well as local, organic meat, produce, dairy, and wine and beer. She also hopes to provide delivery for groceries and catered meals, cooked up by Linson.

Linson, a former chef at the Blue Apron in Salem, is opening the Cork and Crust restaurant next to the grocery store. It will serve tapas, cheese boards, soups, and wood-fired pizzas.

The pair is also opening Cafe 16, which will serve Floyd County’s Red Rooster coffee, as well as tea, smoothies, pastries and breakfast foods as well as to-go food, such as wraps. The cafe is expected to open first, sometime this spring.

Plans for a new store were also discussed Thursday night. That store, located in one of the five vendor stalls on the first floor, is named 16 Etc., and will sell sundries, such as paper towels. The other stalls have not been leased.

Construction on the first floor of the building has been finished for several months, but much work remains to be done to ready the cafe, restaurant and kitchen, grocery store and vendor stalls. You can see those spaces in this photo slide. (Expand the slideshow and click on “Show Info” to see captions).

Photo courtesy of Walmart

In a few months some of the Walmart store-brand foods will have an unfamiliar icon on them.

Walmart this week unveiled its green and white  “Great For You” icon, which will be printed on the products that have reduced sodium, sugar and trans fat levels.

The icon is part of the company’s healthy food initiative, which it promises to reformulate thousands of foods to reduce sugar, sodium and trans fat levels, make the healthier food choices more affordable, build new stores in so-called food deserts, and increase its donations to food banks.

The icon, seen in the picture above, will begin appearing this spring on Walmart Great Value and Marketside items, and on fresh and packaged fruits and vegetables, according to a news release from the company.

“Our ‘Great For You’ icon provides customers with an easy way to quickly identify healthier food choices,” Andrea Thomas, senior vice president of sustainability at Walmart, said in the news release. “As they continue to balance busy schedules and tight budgets, this simple tool encourages families to have a healthier diet.”

Walmart turned to the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Institute of Medicine to create nutritional guidelines for the reformulated food products.

According to this New York Times story, Walmart has said it will also allow other brands to use the “Great For You” icon at no cost, so long as the products meet Walmart’s nutritional guidelines.

Other stores have adopted similar techniques to identify the nutritional value of food. This story, written by my colleague Sarah Bruyn Jones last year, is about a system called NuVal, which assigns a score to each product’s nutritional value. The score is displayed on the shelf next to the price. Grocery store Food City adopted the system, and Kroger was testing it as of last June.

Do labels such as these help you shop?

Plans for Roanoke’s first downtown grocery store at Sixteen West are humming along, as are plans for a cafe and a wood-fired pizza restaurant.

The Sixteen West development on Church Avenue (most recently the Downtown Sports Club) is already home to Carilion’s RAC Xpress, Core Chiropractic and Wellness Center, and eight one- and two-bedroom apartments.

The grocery store, cafe and restaurant are expected to open this spring, said Amelia Glaser. She and her business partner, Mark Linson, are opening the businesses.

Glaser, of Salem, described the grocery store as a specialty cheese shop that will also carry fresh, local produce and dry bulk items as well as staples such as bread and Homestead Creamery milk. The grocery store will have a salad bar and offer meals to go, Glaser said. The store is named S&W Market after the S&W Cafeteria that used to be in the Church Avenue building.

Glaser is a self-described cheese specialist who’s worked at Fresh Market and Ukrops. She said she’s always wanted to bring a specialty cheese shop to downtown Roanoke, and the grocery store provided an opportunity to do that.

Cafe 16, will serve Floyd County’s Red Rooster coffee, as well as tea, smoothies, pastries and breakfast foods, Glaser said. To-go items, such as wraps, will also be available.

The restaurant, Cork and Crust, will feature tapas and wood-fired pizzas, as well as wine and craft beers.

We previously reported that Comfort Cuisine, a Roanoke catering company, was opening the grocery store. Phone numbers for the business and business owner are disconnected. Several of the businesses listed as pick up points on Comfort Cuisine’s website told me they haven’t seen the owners in months. If I find out more I’ll post an update.

Update 2:45 p.m.: John Garland, who developed Sixteen West, told me in an email today that Comfort Cuisine is no longer in business.

Store-brand or name-brand? (AP Photo/Rob Carr)

Look at the products in your pantry and refrigerator. Are they store-brand or name-brand labels?

Store-brand products began filling our shelves as many of us cut down on grocery bills. And we found that in many cases Kroger’s canned tomatoes weren’t much different than Hunt’s.

Fast forward a few years and it seems that Americans have grown fond of store-brand products. The Wall Street Journal had this story yesterday about how many shoppers are now loyal to store-brands, even when they cost more than name-brand products.

The article also states that the prices of store-brand products is overall still less than name-brands, but the cost of store-brand products is rising more quickly.

Do you shop based on price or brand name? Are there some products that you refuse to buy generic? Which store-brand products do you particularly like?

Kroger will close one of its two Martinsville grocery stores, according to a statement from the company.

The store on Greensboro Road will close March 22.

“This store has not been profitable for several years,” company spokesman Carl York said in a statement. “Kroger kept the store open in the hope that its financial performance would improve, but it actually declined.”

The store employs 56 people, 29 of them part time. Some employees may be eligible to transfer to other stores, York said.

The grocer’s second store, at Liberty Fair Mall, is doing well and will remain open, York said.

Here is the full news release from Kroger:

KROGER TO CLOSE STORE IN MARTINSVILLE

Employees Can Move to Other Stores

     ROANOKE, VA. (January 23, 2012)—Kroger will close its store on Greensboro Road in Martinsville on March 22.

     A total of 56 employees, including 29 part time workers, will be impacted by the closing.  Under Kroger’s contract with Local 400 of the United Food and Commercial Workers, employees may move to other stores in Virginia, depending on their seniority. 

     “It saddens us to make this difficult decision,” said Carl York, spokesman.  “Our employees at this store are dedicated and have worked hard. This is a ‘bottom line’ decision, based on the economic conditions in the area.

     “This store has not been profitable for several years,” said York. “Kroger kept the store open in the hope that its financial performance would improve, but it actually declined.”

     Kroger’s second store in Martinsville is a few miles away in Liberty Fair Mall at 240 Commonwealth Blvd.  “This store is conveniently located with easy access from most any neighborhood in the community,” said York.  “We invite shoppers to take advantage of the value of being loyal Kroger customers through our low prices and great customer service.

     “The Commonwealth Blvd. store is doing fine,” he said, “and nothing would please us more than to experience an increase in sales that would result in creating more jobs there.”

     Kroger enjoys close ties to the Martinsville area, having opened its first store in l959. Kroger invests in the area through its annual sponsorship of two races at the Martinsville Speedway, the Kroger 250 Truck Race in the spring and the Kroger 200 Truck Race in the fall.

     In addition, Kroger supports the Martinsville community through a variety of charitable organizations, including Feeding America—Southwest Virginia Food Bank, the United Way, Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, Children’s Miracle Network, Special Olympics, Girls Scouts, Juvenile Diabetes, American Heart Association, Muscular Dystrophy and the American Cancer Society.

Kroger operates 124 stores in its Mid-Atlantic Region, based in Roanoke. The Mid-Atlantic Region serves Virginia, North Carolina, West Virginia and the eastern portions of Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio. For more information, visit www.kroger.com.

Food Lion will close a store in Roanoke and Fairlawn within a month.

Below is the story. Why do you think these stores were underperforming? Where do you prefer to do your grocery shopping, and why?

From staff and wire reports

Food Lion stores in Roanoke and Fairlawn will close as part of a move by the grocer’s parent company to shutter underperforming locations.

The stores at 4350 Franklin Road S.W. in Roanoke, near the new Kohl’s, and at 7327 Peppers Ferry Road in Fairlawn will close within the next 30 days, according to Delhaize, the Belgian supermarket chain that operates the Food Lion brand.

Delhaize said it is closing 113 Food Lion locations, seven Bloom stores and six Bottom Dollar Food stores. A distribution center in Tennessee also will close.

The company also will convert 64 Bloom and Bottom Dollar Food stores in Virginia Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia to Food Lion locations.

Delhaize said the closures will cut almost 5,000 jobs in the Unites States.

Roanoke Natural Foods Co-op shoppers who bring in their reusable bags have kept about 60,000 plastic and paper bags out of landfills the past year and raised $5,000 for local charities, according to a news release from the store.

Customers receive a poker chip every time they use their own bags. As they leave the store, they can drop their chip in one of a few bins near the exit that are designated for a local charity. The charity receives a nickel for each chip.

The top charities this year were Feeding America Southwest Virginia, which will receive $184, the Trust House homeless shelter which received $182, and the Virginia Partnership for Animal Welfare and Support, which received $143.

John Bryant, director of marketing at the co-op, said the campaign has encouraged more shoppers to bring reusable bags.

Have you gotten into the habit of bringing your bags with you when you shop?

The largest Kroger fuel center in Kroger’s Mid-Atlantic six-state district will open next week at the Bonsack Kroger.

Work to expand the existing fuel center began this summer. When the fuel center opens next week it will have 18 lanes, said Carl York, a spokesman for the Mid-Atlantic office in Roanoke.

The Bonsack Kroger was chosen for the fuel center expansion because it is the newest Kroger store in the area and the demand for gas there necessitated more pumps, York said.

Kroger’s fuel centers are becoming a more common sight at the company’s 2,439 grocery stores.

Kroger reported that as of August, it operated 1,046 fuel centers. That’s 196 more than it had in 2009.

York said high gas prices are driving new customers to Kroger, which among other discount gas promotions offers a 10-cent per gallon discount for every $100 spent at the grocery store.

The newest fuel center to open in the region is in Blacksburg at the Kroger on S. Main Street. A fuel center is in the works at the Kroger on University City Boulevard. York wouldn’t disclose whether the company has plans to add fuel centers at other stores in the area.

Image courtesty of Facebook

Fresh Market‘s hand-ground peanut butter, seasonal coffee, and other specialty  products are paying off for the Greensboro, N.C. company.

The high-end grocer, which operates 107 stores in 21 states – including one in Roanoke, said yesterday that its second quarter earnings rose 52 percent to $10.5 million from $6.9 million the same time period last year.

Sales increased 13.6 percent to $259.5 million. Same-store sales increased 4.6%, compared with the same time period in 2010.

The earnings show that Fresh Market is faring much better than other grocery stores.  Fresh Market’s profit margin (profit divided by revenue) is 4 percent, almost three times the industry average of 1.5 percent.

And, the company is growing. It opened five news stores during the second quarter in Boca Raton, Fla., Evansville, Ind., Pawleys Island, S.C., Montvale, N.J., and Vienna, Va.

Fresh Market’s stock closed Wednesday at $38.61, up $7.75 from its lowest trading point in the past year. The grocer went public last year.

What do you think makes Fresh Market so profitable?