Whole Foods Market Opens First Store in Greenville, S.C.

Greenville, S.C. — April 26, 2006. Whole Foods Market® (NASDAQ: WFMI) today breaks bread with the community and officially opens the company’s first store in Greenville, S.C.

The store officially opens with a Grand Opening Bread Breaking ceremony at 9 a.m. with Greenville Mayor Knox White scheduled to attend. The ceremony kicks off a weekend of events including cooking demonstrations, activities for families and children, and abundant food samples set for April 28, 29 and 30 in the store. Details will be posted at www.wholefoodsmarket.com in the store locations section of the site.

Creating approximately 150 new jobs, the new store welcomes customers and occupies approximately 47,000 square feet of retail space at 1140 Woodruff Road. The new store is the centerpiece of Shops at the Point, which features easy access from all areas of Greenville, Spartanburg, Mauldin and other surrounding communities.
Store Specifics
The Greenville Whole Foods Market will include several innovations:

* Extensive produce department featuring more than 600 varieties of fruits and vegetables
* 50+ Item Hot bar
* 60 Item Salad bar
* Seafood salad bar
* Seafood soup bar
* 50-foot natural meat counter with steak house quality Dry Aged Beef Case
* 43-foot fresh seafood counter stocked with fresh catch five days a week
* In-house fresh made gelato bar
* Coffee bar
* Barbecue and smoked meat station
* Olive oil and vinegar tasting station
* Fresh flowers
* In-store cooking demonstration areas
* Made to order pasta bar
* 182 seat indoor/outdoor café
* Roasted nut station, featuring fresh ground nut butters
* Whole Kids Organic, a product line for children

Whole Foods Market features a fresh and enticing selection of natural and organic products. Greenville residents will discover Whole Foods Market is kind of an old-fashioned green grocer, an organic farmer’s market, a pastry shop, a custom butcher and seafood shop, a rotisserie grill, a healthful take-out deli, nutrition and bodycare center, a full-service market and a community center all rolled into one. Combine the great-tasting food with outstanding customer service and the result is a pleasantly atypical grocery shopping experience.

A true food aficionado’s paradise with the convenience of one-stop shopping, Whole Foods Market offers culinary treasures from the finest authentic artisans and renowned purveyors of produce, meat, seafood, cheese, coffee, and baked goods. All products are free of preservatives, hydrogenated oils, and artificial additives, sweeteners, colorings and flavors. All natural beef, pork, poultry, house-made sausages, exotic meats, and showcase dry-aged beef room will be featured at a meat service counter specializing in the old fashioned art of custom butchering. The Greenville Whole Foods Market features an extensive wine collection staffed with knowledgeable team members. Other specialty offerings include a cheese display featuring hundreds of varieties as well as unique artisanal cheeses, antipasti and olive bar.

An extensive prepared foods area offers wide variety of meal solutions, from whole meals with entrées to side dishes that will complete a home-cooked dinner. A hot bar, salad bar and cold case rounds out the complete selection of meal solutions. For lunch or dinner on the run, a 182 seat café area with ample indoor and outdoor seating is available at the front of the store. Whole Foods Market’s renowned bakery offers prepared and custom pastries and breads.

Additionally, Whole Body™ at Whole Foods Market features the largest selection of high quality natural and organic body care items and cosmetics in the Greenville area, as well as nutritional supplements and vitamins. All products are made with the highest quality natural ingredients and are free of harsh chemicals and unnecessary fillers. There’s even a line of organic clothing and shoes.

"Greenville residents and visitors are in for a treat when they experience this new store, which includes many customer amenities inspired by our new landmark store in Whole Foods Market’s hometown, Austin, Texas" said Scott Allshouse, regional president for Whole Foods Market. "The Whole Foods Market experience provides guests with something for all five senses"
History Preserved

Visitors to the new Whole Foods Market store may recognize 50,000 pieces of preserved South Carolina history at the city’s newest grocer. In support of historic preservation, the construction of Whole Foods Market’s first Greenville location included thousands of bricks preserved from former textile mills around the area. Approximately 50,000 reused bricks — originally fired during the 1890s to 1920s — were moved for use by Whole Foods Market.

"Conserving the former textile mill bricks adds a piece of Greenville history to the new Whole Foods Market store" said Allshouse. "Our design teams are happy that ’something old is new again’ from this conservation effort, which is an extension of Whole Foods Market’s longstanding Green Mission initiatives"

A complete description of the Whole Foods Market Green Mission program is available at www.wholefoods.com/issues/commitmentgreen.html

"Whole Foods Market is the keystone tenant that sets the tone for the development efforts in the Shops at the Point" said Brody Glenn, project manager for Centennial American Properties, developer of the Shops at the Point project and Whole Foods Market’s partner for the brick conservation.

"Whole Foods Market strives to be an active member of the community wherever we go" said Jennifer Sparks, Marketing and Communications Team Leader for the Greenville Whole Foods Market. "One Whole Foods Market tradition is to host quarterly Five Percent Days, where we donate five percent of a day’s sales to a local nonprofit group to fulfill our service mission of ’Whole Foods, Whole People, Whole Planet™.’" Individuals or organizations are invited to submit nominations through the store’s customer service area or store website. Whole Foods Market’s presence in South Carolina already includes a store that opened in the Charleston suburb Mt. Pleasant in May 2004.
Store Team Leaders

Matt Smith was named Store Team Leader for the new Greenville location. The main leadership team for the store also includes Assistant Store Team Leaders Matthew Blalock and Jason Stonicher; Bakery Team Leader Betty Lou Hernlen; Front End Team Leader Celeste Isinghood; Grocery Team Leader Tony Culverhouse; Meat Team Leader Travis Parker; Prepared Foods Team Leader Duke Angeles; Produce Team Leader Mary Glaze; Seafood Team Leader Jeff Rogers; Specialty Team Leader Damon Isinghood; Whole Body Team Leader David Dell and Marketing and Communications Team Leader Jennifer Sparks.

Contact Information

Amy Schaefer

Whole Foods Market®

Contact via E-mail