The Journal Star reports that The Fresh Market is going to open a store in Westlake Shopping Center in the former Circuit City space. Fresh Market is a “specialty grocery store chain” based in North Carolina, and is similar to Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s. Their prices are high, but so is the quality of their food. Many in Peoria have stated they want to have a gourmet food store like this, so I’m happy to see one is finally opening in the area.
On the other hand, they apparently require a very large sign in front of their store, and don’t want to screen their dumpsters (see Item 4, 2/23/10 City Council meeting). That’s regrettable.
How does this compare to the grocery store going up in Sheridan Village? How many new grocery stores can Peoria area shoppers support?
It is a different type of market.
Wait was fresh market informed of the opportunity to possibly open a store at Campustown?
Campustown and Westlake are owned by different people so I doubt that they were told of other openings. I would also guess that they did plenty of review of Peoria and determined what was the best location for the market they want to serve
Behind every silver lining lies a big, dark cloud, right CJ?
And Stephen, I don’t know if you are being sarcastic or serious, but I imagine Les Cohen did the heavy lifting here. Why would he tell them about Campustown?
On my! Not the despicable very large sign in front of the store again? When will these businesses learn the evil of these things? They should be more austere in these matters. I bet they will want it with that new fangled electrical stuff and probably use multiple colors too. What bastages.
I was being sarcastic. That was one of the stores that everyone thought would be great for campustown.
Trader Joe’s is not on par with Whole Foods. Think of it as more of an Aldi for middle class folks. Yes, I have shopped there. Yes, I have compared prices. They are on par with the regular grocery stores in the area; Kroger, Cub, Wal-Mart, etc.
Trader Joe’s could realistically work in Campustown.
This isnt a Whole Food either. Its a Fresh Market. My wife and I also shop at TJ when we are in the Chicago area. TJ has some things that are priced on par with a standard grocery store but they also have many items that are much higher. Im not saying that there are not middle class people in the area around campustown who would shop there but why not put a store there that the majority of residents could utilize not just ones living in a handful of cherry picked neighborhoods.
Speaking of signage…..I just noticed the giant pole sign outside the rockwood Avanti’s with the scrolling message board. Wow, that’s ugly.
Hooray for Peoria finally getting something decent in Westlake. Our family shops at the Fresh Market in Bloomington quite a bit. Its a great store with a really good bakery and meat section. Their organic produce is pricey…and lots of other stuff is, too. But you have access to food & ingredients you can’t find anywhere else. As long as HyVee and Fresh Market are in town, we’ll finally have an appealing option other than Kroger, Schnuck’s or Cub’s. Yuck.
I am glad this store is coming to Peoria. Not to date myself, but used to shop at Randall’s in Westlake. It is difficult to find certain types of fresh produce in town and will stock up at Caputo’s in Chicago area when there and bring it back home.
Kroger’s on Lake has been updating many items recently, so the competition is making some improvements already. Have wondered about Hyvee going into Sheridan Village, there are other areas of town which would benefit from a store that don’t have easy access.