Sprouts Expansion on Target in Q3

Sprouts Farmers Market CEO Jack Sinclair

The continued penetration of Sprouts Farmers Market in the Tampa, Florida, area has the natural and organic grocer on track to achieve its 2020 growth targets.

Sprouts opened its newest store on Aug. 12, northeast of Tampa, the first of three planned locations following the company's entry into the market in 2017. There was a light crowd on hand for the opening of the 30,000-square-foot store, as was to be expected at 7 a.m. on a Wednesday, but traffic will surely build as word spreads among residents of the densely populated area about Sprouts' brand of food retailing.

The latest opening has Sprouts on track to open a total of 20 stores this year. It opened 10 new stores during the first half of the year and ended the second quarter on June 28 with 350 locations. Since then, Sprouts has opened stores in Baltimore, Tyler, Texas and Seminole, FL. It has also revealed upcoming openings in the following locations:

Aug. 26, Eastvale, California
Sept. 2, Santa Barbara, California
Sept. 30, Dresher, Pa.
Oct. 14, Houston
Oct. 28, Tampa

When stores in those communities open, shoppers can expect a presentation of merchandise similar to what shoppers experienced at the newest location in Tampa. That's because Sprouts is looking to shrink the size of its prototype closer to the 20,000-square-foot range from the current size of roughly 30,000 square feet. Most of the stores opening this year tend to be larger than the company would like going forward because they were already in the development pipeline when the decision was made to think smaller.

For a look at what to expect from Sprouts at its upcoming 2020 openings, see below ...

Sprouts completed the chainwide rollout of grocery pickup in the second quarter.

Fresh and organic produce is the focal point of the Sprouts store experience.

Bold call outs for "organic" produce let shoppers know fresh is the key aspect of Sprouts value proposition.

Bulk foods are another key area of emphasis. Roughly 200 bins that held bulk product prior to COVID-19 now display individual packages.

Fresh presentation is a hallmark of Sprouts store experience, although the time-consuming process of hand-stacking individual items adds labor cost.

Individual potatoes are also hand stacked.

Prepared foods and a fresh deli greet customers upon entering the store.

Sprouts provides a compelling assortment of prepared items available in a full-service experience.

Sprouts lets shoppers know it is serious about protein with an on-site butcher and attractive presentation of seafood.

Phoenix-based Sprouts employs more than 30,000 associates and operates 350 stores in 23 states. The company is No. 22 on Progressive Grocer’s 2019 Super 50 list of the top grocers in the United States.