If downtown San Francisco is dying for lack of foot traffic, if retailers are all bolting from San Francisco over shoplifting fears, if a “reign of criminals” is “destroying our city,” someone forgot to tell San Francisco. In yet another story where San Francisco merely shrugs at the unflattering national narratives and adds more sparkling new additions, Whole Foods announced Thursday they are opening the new Mid-Market Whole Foods on March 10 at 1185 Market Street. Yes, that is right across the street from the Tenderloin Linkage Center that is generating negative media coverage.
The news comes on the heels of IKEA beginning construction on their new mall and plaza just three blocks up on Market Street, another sign that retailers and developers are confident in downtown San Francisco’s post-COVID recovery. A separate Whole Foods opened at the Stonestown Galleria in December 2021.
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The very large, 64,737-square-foot upscale grocery store will feature “more than 3,500 local products, including an array of California wines and craft beers,” according to a press release. About that booze — per the release, they will carry “an extensive selection of 714 wines, including a wide selection from nearby wine-growing locales.” They’re also promising “More than 300 craft beers and 150 spirit offerings.”
This Whole Foods will additionally be stocked with a seafood counter, a butcher's department, a bakery, and a "ready-to-eat Poke bar." Like the forthcoming IKEA, it’s sort of a retail plaza, and a separate brewery and food hall are also in the works.
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You’ll notice all of these Instagram posts are from something called "trinitysfapartments," the Insta handle for Trinity Place, which is a rather gigantic housing development perhaps best known for its twisty chrome Venus de Milo statue. The Whole Foods and other retailers will occupy the lower floors of Trinity Place.
This Whole Foods has been in the works since 2018, and as SF Weekly noted at the time (in a piece that has some amazing vintage photos), the same location was once San Francisco’s swankiest supermarket and plaza Crystal Palace Public Market. Found SF has even more great historical photos, and points out that “Its 65 shops included four dairy stands — selling 36,000 eggs daily — four poultry stands, six butcher shops, three fish markets, and seven fruit and vegetable stands. It featured a pet shop, a five and dime, two tobacco shops, and a phonograph record store.”
The Whole Foods at 1185 Market Street opens on March 10 at 9 a.m. Line forms there, foodies.
