CLOSED: Whole Foods Association

The previous reviewer did not quite understand that Wichita's Whole Foods Association pre-dates the "national company" - which is actually "Whole Foods Market" (a completely different company.) by close to 15-20 years. The owner just recently sold Whole Foods Association to Barb & John Hoffman, owners of GreenAcres Market & Deli out at Bradley Fair, 21st and Rock Road (NE Wichita.). So, this location and the other Whole Food Associations (Normandy Square, Clear Lakes, NewMarket and two in Oklahoma) are all in the process of changing the name from Whole Foods Association to Green Acres.

To make matters a bit more confusing, the national company, Whole Foods Market, is now entering the Wichita market and the new location out on E. Kellogg (US Highway 54) east of Webb Street is expected to be opened by Fall of 2014, if I understand this correctly. Because of the Whole Foods Association's legal standing, the Whole Foods Market was going to open their new store with the name "Bread and Circus" (and how that had anything to do with natural foods, I'll never know!). But after the Hoffmans agreed to buy Whole Foods Association and change the names of the WFA stores to Green Acres, then Whole Foods Market was notified that they would be allowed to use their Whole Foods Market name for the new store.
http://www.kansas.com/2014/05/06/3441622/whole-foods-market-will-be-called.html

Whole Foods is a national chain, but they have a home town feel to them that I can't ignore. There's not too many places in town that offer such a wide variety of health products as they do. I love this place!