Seen & Heard: Disarray at Whole Foods

••• An update on 67 Vestry, which just changed hands: The broker emailed out an announcement that says it’ll be “delivered vacant besides four rent stabilized units.”

••• “I was in Whole Foods yesterday afternoon and noticed that a number of shelves were either missing products, not restocked, empty, and a mess. It reminded me of this post. An employee I spoke with agreed, and I was also told that their warehouse is understocked, too. The fresh produce part of the store looks well stocked, but forget the rest. I took a few photos that are below. And this is just one aisle.” If anyone at Whole Foods reads this, please also have someone clean all the scoops in the bulk aisle; the golden raisin one is like a science experiment.

••• The other day, C. asked whether I knew of a coin-counting machine in the area, now that TD Bank got rid of its machines. (Accuracy issues.) Food Emporium used to have one, but Best Market does not. According to Coinstar’s website, the nearest one is at the Food Emporium on Union Square. Related: I still half-think someone should open a food hall–like establishment for services—shoe repair, tailoring, etc. And there could be a Coinstar machine. UPDATE: “If you ask your bank for a coin bag, they will accept unrolled coins and send them out to be counted and then credit your account,” commented G. “It beats rolling and they also don’t take a cut like Coinstar or other counting machines.” Who knew?!

••• As James predicted, there’s activity once again at 456 Greenwich, site of a future hotel. (Thanks to R. for the photo.)

••• The retail condo at 105 Chambers (150-170 Church) has been put on the market; that’s in the Cary Building, where Tribeca Health & Fitness, Dona Bella Pizza, et al, are. The listing refers to “the current and future tenant mix,” so perhaps something is coming to one of the vacant/available spaces.

 

17 Comments

  1. It might be useful to reprint this post from the 2016 WF thread:

    “Michael from Whole Foods Market Northeast here. On behalf of our TriBeCa team, I wanted to respond to let you know that we’ve seen this post and read many of your comments. Please know that your feedback is of incredible value to our team here in New York City and we’re proactively working with the team in TriBeCa to addressed your concerns and ensure that the community feels our commitment to providing the best customer service, stock levels and product quality each and every time you visit our stores.

    In the event you’d like to share additional feedback directly with our President and Regional Leadership team, please feel free to e-mail our offices at ne.rp@wholefoods.com. Additionally, should any issue pop up while in our stores, always feel free to ask for a member of our store leadership team.

    We greatly appreciate your business and continued support of Whole Foods Market. We love serving TriBeCa!

    All the best,
    Michael Sinatra
    Public Relations Director, Whole Foods Market Northeast
    michael.sinatra@wholefoods.com

    • Michael Sinatra’s email bounced back to me. The other link however might be good since it hasn’t bounced back yet. I will post if I get a reply.

  2. If you ask your bank for a coin bag, they will accept unrolled coins and send them out to be counted and then credit your account. It beats rolling and they also don’t take a cut like Coinstar or other counting machines.

  3. When you say “ask your bank” do you mean ANY bank?
    Get this- at my bank- Chase on Warren- I observed someone go to the teller and try to exchange $5 in coins for a $5 bill.
    They refused to do it saying “you have to roll it up”
    I was frankly disgusted. $5 is not $100 nor $500.
    What on earth has happened to “customer service”?

    • Bank of America on Greenwich and Murray and the First Republic on Park Place both have given me the bags and accepted the unrolled coins. (I always have pleasant, competent interactions when I use a First Republic branch.)

  4. Wholefoods looks like that every Sunday am.. I go shopping every Sunday and the shelves are empty.. They don’t reorder stuff that goes out of stock..I asked for a month to restock an item and still waiting..Also, what is up with selling Dylan’s candy..Since when does Dylan’s have no preservatives.. The red for dye alone can kill you..

    • I totally agree with your comment about Dylan candy. What is that? Soon they are going to start selling items like at target.

  5. If you put all the money from your change on a gift card, Coinstar doesn’t take a cut.

  6. Looking forward to the new hotel on Greenwich. There is going to be a high end Bourbon/whiskey bar and a very high end Japanese wagyu steak house (famous in Osaka I am told), and lots of cool amenities. They are gearing the hotel towards the young upper end, which is good for the neighborhood. Hope the construction moves along quickly.

  7. Our TriBeCa Whole Foods quality control is very disappointing.
    I constantly am finding moldy,spoiled or dried out fruit once I bring it home and I do look at it in the store! They are constantly running out of items and do not replace them in a timely manner.
    I have also found expired products at least 20 times in the past 2 years.
    Check the breads, baking items, cheeses, jams, lemon juice, fruit juices and many more ugh!
    I think that the management is awful!
    Almost every employee that I have encountered in this store is so nice, helpful and knowledgable.
    I wonder if I am the only person that has had theses problems.

    • I just came back from WF. Just awful. I spoke to a section manager and he agreed, hard not to. I saw avocados in the cerial aisle, perishables all over the place since there is no one to to put them back. Granted it’s Dec 26th but it’s been like this for weeks and each week gets a little worse. More like Food Emporium used to be.
      I will write to the above PR director if still employed there.

  8. Amazon taking over WF is not positive. If you care about retail businesses, don’t buy on amazon which is destroying retail in general with predatory pricing.

  9. Agreed about it not being a good plan for the consumer for Amazon having taken over WF. I mean my goodness – they are selling Domino’s Sugar! Which I have nothing against Domino’s Sugar but it was surprising. As an old timer I have always felt that the beginning of the end for TriBeCa was when 99-101 Warren Street was built and those three big box stores moved in….probably not rational but oh well. Things change.

  10. Just finished shopping at the WF at Union Square. The same empty shelves and rude service. Perhaps it is just after the holidays and stock needs to be replenished, but I’m not hopeful.

  11. re: unrolled coins

    I tried the “ask your” bank approach at TD Bank (Greenwich & Chambers) and the response, after laughing, was that they’d give me the coin rolls as a courtesy (!) and I could could come back and deposit the rolled coins at my conveince.

  12. I too experienced the empty shelves at Whole Foods throughout December and early January, though it does seem like things are better stocked lately. Came across this article that details why this has been a problem at Whole Foods stores across the country and employees are saying it began before the Amazon acquisition and is related to a new buying system. http://www.businessinsider.com/whole-foods-employees-reveal-why-stores-are-facing-a-crisis-of-food-shortages-2018-1

    On a side note, I am not one to only shop organic but like many of the commenters was shocked to see the Dylan’s candy as well!

  13. Whole Foods is on its way to becoming like C-Town, just a more expensive one.

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