#Frisco, Colorado.
The store didn’t plan for 25 degrees and snow on opening day.
But that didn’t stop the crowds in Frisco as excited Whole Foods Market customers filled their carts and sampled juice, cheese, meat, soup, chocolate and other foods Tuesday, April 29.
“If this is any indicator of how busy we’re going to be,” said Justin Jeffries, 29, while he stretched pizza dough, “this store’s going to be a wild success.”
Jeffries, a specialist from Denver, said he was one of many coordinators brought in from around the country and housed at the Frisco Holiday Inn to help the store in its first few weeks.
“It was shoulder-to-shoulder throughout the entire store,” said Tawnya Diefenbach, a massage therapist. “Now it seems to be shoppable a little bit.”
Diefenbach, offered massages for $1 a minute next to the store’s gondola, which she said was a refuge for those experiencing sensory overload.
“Some employees had it on lock down,” she said. “It was like their quiet space.”
Vendor Kate Schade traveled from Idaho for her second Whole Foods Market opening day.
“The opening’s are so much fun,” she said, as she offered samples of her Kate’s snack bars.
Another vendor, Kirsten Christ, regional sales manager for Chocolove in Boulder, said she sold four cases of chocolate in two hours.
The meat and seafood section was especially lively, with employees and distributors calling out to customers as if at an outdoor market.
“We’re bringing the heat,” said one employee from behind the counter. “We’re changing lives.”
Others were hooting, hollering and ringing a bell, normally used to celebrate when an employee cuts a portion at exactly the weight the customer ordered. Tuesday they rang the bell whenever they felt like it, every few minutes.
“It’s nice to have a Whole Foods here,” said customer Kate Neuschaefer, of Frisco. “This has been a long time in coming.”
Courtesy of the Summit Daily News.
