The Whole Foods supermarket that has been under construction for over a year now has finally set an opening date for its newest store. Whole Foods is set to open April 18th in Kailua and will be looking for 140 employees to staff the store.
The 32,000-square-foot store that is located between Longs Drugs and Mike McKenna’s Windward Ford dealership is Whole Foods’ third Hawaii location, joining its stores at Kahala Mall and Maui Mall in Kahului.
“We truly believe that Whole Foods Market’s mission and lifestyle aligns with those of the Kailua community,” said Tim Talkington, Kailua store team leader, in a news release. The Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods is a natural and organic food supermarket with more than 310 stores in North America and the United Kingdom.
“Many (of the new employees at the Kailua store) are residents of the Windward community and looking forward to being able to work closer to home,” Talkington said.
Kaneohe Ranch Co., which owns the land and building, invested $12 million to consolidate what used to be a collection of smaller buildings measuring 70,000 square feet at the site to 40,000 square feet in the new building. It also increased parking spaces to 209 stalls from 167.
So what of the current, and very popular, current natural food store in Kailua; Down to Earth? Will the Whole Foods supermarket run it out of business, or will they be able to coexist? Only time will tell.
Kailua Town is becoming bigger and bigger, to the chagrin of many. Target is looking to open its store later this year as well in the old Don Quijote location.
Leave a Reply