CHICAGO _ About one year ago, the doors of a Whole Foods Market swung open in Chicago's Englewood neighborhood, marking the culmination of a bold plan to open an upscale grocery store in one of the city's most challenged areas.
No "mission accomplished" banner has yet been hoisted.
Whole Foods _ anchor of the city-subsidized Englewood Square development _ has made good on promises of providing jobs, supporting local vendors and boosting healthy food options. The store has, for some, improved quality of life and perhaps even paved the way for future large-scale investment in Englewood.
But Whole Foods acknowledges there's still much work to be done, particularly in connecting with shoppers on a tight budget who may be unfamiliar with natural and organic products. And the mostly black neighborhood's well-documented struggles of poverty and crime, exacerbated by lack of economic development, remain steep challenges for business.
As the hype has died down, some questions still linger: Will it work? Will the South Side community support the store?
"That's something we're still finding out from week to week," said Michael Bashaw, Whole Foods Midwest region president. "People will make their choices and in the end, the businesses that reach out to the community and try to meet their needs are the ones that will survive."
Whole Foods doesn't disclose sales or profits for individual stores. Bashaw also wouldn't say how the Englewood store performed in comparison to other Whole Foods locations in the city, but said the store is matching expectations specific to Englewood.
"Certainly we're a company, and companies evaluate their business all the time. But we got into this (location) from a mission-based perspective and we're still looking at it that way," Bashaw said.
For the now-Amazon-owned Whole Foods, the Englewood store represents a rarity. Of the grocery chain's more than 460 locations in the U.S., four of them are situated in impoverished neighborhoods, including communities in Detroit, New Orleans and Newark, N.J.
None is more difficult than Englewood.
"Englewood is the biggest challenge we've ever undertaken as a company trying to serve a community. It's been the most challenging, and not necessarily in a bad way. But it's only one year in," said Walter Robb, former co-CEO of Whole Foods who is now chairman of Whole Cities Foundation, an affiliated nonprofit that's also active in Englewood.
Bashaw said he didn't expect Amazon's ownership of the company to have any bearing on the Englewood store.
More businesses moving in nearby could help bring more foot traffic to Englewood Square, which also includes a Starbucks and a Chipotle Mexican Grill. Negotiations are ongoing for the development of the seven city-owned acres adjacent to Englewood Square, said Deputy Mayor Andrea Zopp, who declined to provide further details.
"We have a lot of work to do (in Englewood) and we're not done yet," Zopp said. "One of the things we push back on all the time is people want these neighborhoods flipped overnight. They didn't get this way overnight. But we are committed."
