Jamaica Plain Whole Foods opens two days early, making Halloween debut

October 31, 2011|By Matt Rocheleau, Town Correspondent, Globe Staff

A photo of the new Whole Foods in Jamaica Plain taken during a media tour the… ((Matt Rocheleau for Boston.com) )

(Matt Rocheleau for Boston.com)

A photo of the new Whole Foods in Jamaica Plain taken during a media tour the company offered on Saturday as finishing touches were put on the supermarket.

This story was updated Monday, Oct. 31, at 9 p.m. to add reports from this evening's protests:

By Matt Rocheleau, Town Correspondent

After nine months of renovations and intense neighborhood debate, Whole Foods Market opened its Hyde Square store this morning, two days ahead of schedule and hours before around two dozen protesters rallied outside the supermarket this evening.

The store, which the grocer announced last week was set to open Wednesday, spans more than 13,700 square feet and has hired 104 full- and part-time workers.
“We are so pleased to open our doors in Hyde Square. We have created a beautiful store that will be a great match for the Jamaica Plain community,” store team leader, Mike Walker said in a statement. “It is particularly exciting for us to have the chance now to really show our neighbors what Whole Foods Market offers as responsible, active community partners.”

Whole Foods' arrival and its predecessor's closure, first announced in January, have topics of continued, intense debate in the neighborhood.

The chief grass-roots group opposing Whole Foods' arrival to the neighborhood, the Whose Foods coalition, announced last week that it planned to protest tonight outside the store. Members from the group, many in Halloween costumes, stood outside the store along Centre Street waving signs, dancing, singing, chanting, handing out candy to trick-or-treaters passing by and collecting more signatures for a petition supporting their cause.

The group said members are "in disbelief that Whole Foods Markets intends to open its store in Hyde Square ... without having committed to negotiating a Community Benefits Agreement (alternatively called a Good Neighbor Agreement)," with the neighborhood's council and community organizations.

"The struggle is far from over," said Whose Foods member 25-year-old Reed Miller wearing a large "corporate vampire" puppet costume and a label that said the CEO of Whole Foods' name, John Mackey. "We have been doing outreach to community organizations in the neighborhood and feeling out where they stand with the community benefits agreement and what components they would like to see in a community benefits agreement."

The group says it is demanding five things "in the form of a written, binding agreement: 1) Funding for affordable housing efforts, 2) Funding for Hyde Square and JP area youth programs, 3) Local independent business assistance, 4) A living wage for all JP store employees, and 5) A published traffic impact study."