Whole Foods Market Opens Another Tri-State Location

The new Whole Foods Market in Massapequa, N.Y., opened on Oct. 6.

Whole Foods Market continues its strategy of focusing on hyper-local store design and merchandising with the Oct. 6 opening of a new store in Massapequa, N.Y., on New York's Long Island. The natural food retailer now has almost 50 locations in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

Located in the Sunrise Promenade development at 5214 Sunrise Highway, the 38,500-square-foot Massapequa store places an emphasis on local products from the Tri-State Area. The products are all handpicked by the "local forager" for Whole Foods’s Northeast region, Chris Manca. Some of the departments touting these local offerings include:

The produce department, with items more than 20 local farms, including apples from Hudson River Fruit, Korean pears from Evergreen Orchard Farm and packaged salad greens from Satur Farms on Long Island.
The specialty department, including such items as olive oil-infused chocolates from Kosterina and local cheeses from Brooklyn’s Crown Finish Caves.
A full-service seafood counter, featuring local jumbo lump crab cakes from Star of the Sea Seafood.
A full-service butcher department, including ground beef from Pineland Farms, as well as grass-fed beef from New Jersey’s Simply Grazin’ farm, pork from New York’s Briar Woods Farms and sausage from Brooklyn Cured.
The liquor department, with local beer options from Barrier Brewing Co., Montauk Brewing Co. and Garvies Point Craft Brewery.
The bakery, touting vegan and gluten-free baked goods from By the Way Bakery, allergen-free cookies from Pride Enjoy, and vegan mini muffins from Abe’s.
A wellness and beauty section, including body care essentials from Lux Naturals, ginger and turmeric shots from Monfefo, and hand-poured candles from Satya + Sage.

The new Long Island store also features a full-service coffee bar with on-tap nitro cold brew and rotating tea flavors, and the retailer’s well-known prepared food section with a deli counter. Additionally, Whole Foods Massapequa offers curbside pickup and delivery.

To celebrate its new community, Whole Foods will support Island Harvest’s End Childhood Hunger initiative to provide underprivileged students in Long Island schools backpacks filled with fresh food items. The retailer will also provide $5,000 to Nassau Food Rescue, supporting hyper-local food banks in the Massapequa community.

In other news, the company's co-founder, John Mackey, recently revealed that he will be retiring from his CEO role effective Sept. 1, 2022. Taking his place as CEO will be current COO Jason Buechel. Mackey co-founded the natural food retailer 43 years ago in Austin, Texas, and has been credited with revolutionizing the grocery industry with its mission-based food retail business model. The grocer, which last year had annual sales of more than $16 billion, aims to win by focusing on hyper-local store design and merchandising, doubling down on its bottom-up leadership style, and continuing to expand its more-than-500-store footprint.

Whole Foods has stores in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. The Austin, Texas-based grocer is No. 26 on The PG 100 list, Progressive Grocer’s 2021 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America. Its parent company, Seattle-based Amazon, is No. 2 on PG's list.