The Gold Coast Standard and Darien Real Estate

Wholy Cow! Darien Whole Foods Is Here….

I’ve only been to a  Whole Foods market once before.There is one in Greenwich,Ct and the experience was less than enjoyable. The parking lot was impossible to navigate, the aisles were narrow and crowded and  the prices too high.

Well, that was then and this is now.I can honestly say I have never seen a supermarket like thisnew Whole Foods that opened in Darien last week. It  doesn’t do it justice to describe it as a supermarket or just to tell you that they carry every type of fruit and vegetable you’ve ever seen.

First of all ,the presentation of all the merchandise is downright arresting.If Whole Foods cant get your kids to eat vegetables I don’t know who can!Fruits and veggies are piled in perfect, and colorful pyramids and everything looks like it was picked this morning.You can get your produce,  whole, pre cut , bagged,frozen or prepared.Same with fruit. Much of the produce is locally grown.In this case much of it is from CT and it says so on the package. If it’s not organic or all natural you will not find it at Whole Foods.There are aisles of products you have never heard of before and things like grains and nuts can be bought in bulk.

There is a fresh seafood department, a butcher shop, cheese store,gelato and espresso bar,charcuterie, a bakeryto die for and some of the freshest and healthiest looking salad bars Ive ever seen. Want Indian food? No problem check out the Whole Foods Ethnic salad bar.Tired of those canned black olives.Get to Whole foods OLIVE BAR! There are all natural cosmetics, soap you can cut from blocks and vitamins galore.No need to feel too pooped to pop when Whole Foods is around.

Whole Foods seems to be civic minded too. They completely re-engineered the Darien exit ramp from I95 leading to the store and they plan to hold local, charitable fundraisers in  the town .

While I’m thrilled to have the store here in Darien,Ct. it does worry me a bit. I guess the  Whole Foods  in Darien can be considered the equivalent of Home Depot of food.The  town of Darien has been struggling for the past 10 years or more with how to offer its upscale residents the goods and services associated with national chains while still retaining its small town charm and protecting its smaller retailers.We have several local markets and delis in town which will probably be impacted by the opening of the mega store.

 But,even Whole Foods can’t offer everything I am looking for in a market (Diet Coke) so I plan to continue to patronize the other stores in town as well. Good city planning is not easy and some fallout will be inevitable. In the past, the town of Darien has survived the addition of a Costco and Wal Mart in neighboring Norwalk. Let’s all hope everyone  continues to peacefully co exists now that Whole Foods has arrived.

Dont take my word for  all of this it.Check out this You Tube video of another Whole Foods.It’s not  the one here in Darien but you’ll get the idea. tubehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rK9SLD8Uric[/youtube]tube]

So what’s all this got to do with Real Estate in Darien? Nothing really, except that homewoners here now have the luxury of choosing among some the best national chains and local food retailers around. How can you go wrong living in Darien CT?

This entry was posted on Monday, May 24th, 2010 at 5:27 pm and is filed under Buyers, Community Info, Neighborhoods. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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