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Say goodbye to the St. Francis WFM.
Whole Foods Market plans to close the smaller of its two Santa Fe stores—the one on St. Francis Drive—in early April.
Roughly 50 employees will be impacted by the closure, though the company hopes to place all of them at the larger location just around the corner on Cerrillos Road. A spokeswoman tells SFR that workers can also transfer to other stores across the country, if they choose.
The location's year-over-year sales had been falling for some time and yesterday, the publicly held company announced in an earnings phone call that it planned to close nine stores in the next quarter, even as Whole Foods continues expansion plans elsewhere.
The St. Francis store will lock its doors on April 9.
During yesterday's phone call, the Austin-based company backed off what had been an aggressive expansion plan. While Whole Foods posted record sales and was still profitable last quarter, the company's earnings fell short of expectations. Year-over-year sales are expected to drop again over the next three months.
The location on St. Francis Drive was a Wild Oats grocery store before that natural foods chain merged with Whole Foods Market in 2007. The location across from the South Capitol government complex seemed advantageous for Whole Foods' prepared-foods business, and the store was re-branded and kept open.
The closure leaves New Mexico with three Whole Foods stores, one in Santa Fe and two in Albuquerque. The company has no further expansion plans in the state.
