Photo Tour of Whole Foods Market's New Flagship store in the Mid-Atlantic | Tysons Corner in McLean, Virginia
Whole Foods Market recently opened its new Mid-Atlantic flagship store in Tysons Corner located at McLean, Virginia, just outside of Washington, DC. Naturally, I needed to see the retailer’s ‘fanciest store yet’ as reported by The Washingtonian, and lucky for me, it’s super close by.
The new store is located at 1635 Boro Place, McLean, Virginia in The Boro, a new residential + commercial development by The Meridian Group and Kettler Inc. is designed for work, play and mingle and includes luxury residences, destination retail, and distinguished office spaces. With 70,000 square-foot, multi-level flagship store is a community gathering destination featuring a trendy food hall, cocktail bar, game area, outdoor patio and a self-service wine bar.
Wow; what a gorgeous store! Given that so much of my shopper research and public relations work focuses on Whole Foods Market, I’m very familiar with the different types of store formats across North America. The latest stores opened by Whole Foods Market have (and there have been several in the past few months,) are so much more than just a nice grocery store; they really are meant to be community gathering spaces. It’s the kind of place you could spend several hours at for not only grocery shopping, but also dining and socializing. I think this store is now one of my favorite locations (from a design, amenity & shopper journey perspective,) along with Midtown Atlanta, Georgia, Post Oak in Houston, Texas and the Gilman store in Berkeley, California.
Below is a photo tour of my first visit to the new Tysons store.
This store is HUGE and everything is just gorgeous. I conduct a lot of shopper-research based USA Market Tours for exporters from other countries and also Supermarket Tours for local embassies in Washington, DC who have visiting delegations of farmers or food industry businesspeople eager to learn more about grocery retail in the USA. I’ll now have a sparkly, new place to bring them that’s super convenient.
I spotted several kid-friendly areas around the store, including this super cute Whole Kids Club area offering free snacks for kids shopping in the store.
I love the design of this store; so bright and cheery.
I visited this store the week of November 10th, 2019, so holiday entertaining (Thanksgiving turkey promo) signage was in full effect.
Since I work a lot with the meat category, I was especially excited to see the meat department. Everything looked perfect! Note the new black window cling along the top of the meat case featuring my client, Global Animal Partnership’s new animal welfare certified label.
Spotted several of my clients’ products, including Atkins Ranch grass fed lamb, whose lamb loin chops were currently on sale for Amazon Prime Members.
Lots of turkeys already available, ahead of ‘turkey day,’ Thanksgiving. Nice to see the new Global Animal Partnership animal welfare certified label!
For all my honey industry folks, have a look at the honey range available here. For American standards, this is a wide selection of Manuka honey (see top shelf.)
Beautiful packaging!
Welcome to cheese Heaven, featuring some of the best cheese from around the world.
Upstairs is High Point, a 100-seat indoor/outdoor pub and game room offering several self-serve food options. This is the main gathering place. I visited the store during late morning, but come lunch time, this place was packed!
I spotted a mom’s group here fueling up on coffee and probably then later, wine. It’s the perfect spot to meet with friends. When the weather is warmer, the outdoor patio area has lots of seating, including children’s tables.
The food hall includes Officina, Genji Izakaya, Curiosity Doughnuts and Rappahannock Oyster Co.
Have you visited this new Whole Foods Market store, or perhaps one of the other new stores opened during 2019? What were your impressions? Leave a comment below to share your thoughts; I’m curious to know what you think.
According to WBJ Research, Whole Foods Market is the ninth-largest grocer in the greater Washington DC area, with 4.46% market share in 2018. The Tysons store is the grocery retailer’s 10th location in Northern Virginia.
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