BUSINESS

Bridgewater Whole Foods opens doors for sneak peek

Cheryl Makin
Courier News and Home News Tribune
Whole Foods Market Bridgewater offered MyCentralJersey.com a sneak peek of the new store at Chimney Rock Crossing Shopping Center Monday, two days before its planned grand opening.

BRIDGEWATER – With a worker bee buzz common to any store opening in four days following a postponement due to the Wednesday storm, Whole Foods Market offered MyCentralJersey.com a sneak peek at its latest venture. 

Whole Foods Market Bridgewater opens 9 a.m. Friday, March 23, at Chimney Rock Shopping Center at Route 22. Regular store hours are 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, 364 days a year — it will be closed only on Christmas Day. (The store's scheduled March 21 opening was delayed because of the winter-weather forecast.)

Opening day festivities will include giveaways, sales, product samples, coffee, pastries and more, said Tina Clabbers-Feigley, northeast public relations coordinator. This week also is Whole Foods Beauty Week so all beauty items, including cosmetics, in the Whole Body section have an additional 25 percent off.

"It's really so exciting," Clabbers-Feigley said. "We work so hard. This is like planning a party and all your guests finally show up after everything is all set." 

READ:Chimney Rock's Saks OFF 5th, Nordstrom Rack ready for Thursday's opening

READ:Whole Foods to open in Bridgewater on March 21

Whole Foods Market Bridgewater will also host a "5% Community Giving Day" in conjunction with Wednesday's opening. Five percent of net sales from opening day will be donated to the Somerset County Park Foundation to fund community wellness programs and improve local trails, particularly at the Environmental Education Center in Basking Ridge.

Whole Foods Market created 5% Days to give back to local communities by providing support to nonprofit organizations whose innovative programs directly benefit surrounding communities and make the world a better place, Clabbers-Feigley said.

What's unique to Bridgewater

The natural and organic foods retailer has many features unique to its first Somerset County store and the nineteenth in the state. Another store opened in Metuchen last October. The site features 170 team members, including 155 local new hires. 

"We sell conventional and organic products throughout the store," Clabbers-Feigley said. "You can do organic if you want to, you don't have to. But everything in the entire store is free of artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners, preservatives — that's a given for Whole Foods. We also try to limit pesticides and we are really careful where our food comes from. We know we can trace back where everything comes from and that is very important for us. There is no high fructose corn syrup or hydrogenated fats in the store and all of these things are really set up this way so customers can have that checked off for them."

Clabbers-Feigley added that shelves and cases also are labeled with Gluten-Free, Vegan, Local, and Paleo signage to make it easier on customers with particular needs, preferences and diets. 

"Following a special diet is hard enough so we try to mark it wherever possible to make it a little bit easier," she said.

Whole Foods Market Bridgewater offered MyCentralJersey.com a sneak peek of the new store at Chimney Rock Crossing Shopping Center Monday, two days before its planned grand opening.

As customers enter the store, Plant & Plate is immediately to the left. As each Whole Foods Market always has special features unique to the store, Plant & Plate was created for this community's vibe.

The lifestyle area is a "home store inspired by nature," Clabbers-Feigley said. The Plant and Plate space includes kitchen items, housewares, homemade pottery, including that of Bridgewater resident Keiko Inouye, and body and beauty care items such as essential oils. Featured products include Hedley & Bennett aprons and local favorites such as Beaucycled jewelry and floral crafts from Hoboken and Brooklyn-based Apotheke candles. 

"This is the first time we have done this type of venue for Whole Foods," Clabbers-Feigley said. "We try with every store we open to adapt it to the community and give people what they want."`

Adjunct to Plant & Plate, the floral department greets guests as they come through a second set of doors, heading to the produce department. To the left of the entrance is an exclusive and first-time venture for Whole Foods Market — a mushroom farm made possible by Smallhold, an organic mushroom farm based in Brooklyn. 

"The mushrooms actually grow under those lights in the store and are harvested here," Clabbers-Feigley said. "People can buy them right from here — it really doesn't get more local than grown in store."

Besides the usual fare of natural and organic fruits and vegetables, the produce section offers selections of pre-cut produce, such as zucchini noodles, mirepoix and onions, to help save time. 

Towards the back of produce is the specialty department — cheese, chocolate, charcuterie, coffee and tea. Local varieties include a number of Jersey-made artisanal products such as Elements Truffles from Jersey City and fresh pasta by Severino, a Westmont-based company. The antipasto bar also can be found near the cheese. The stations are manned by experts in their particular fields.

"They can answer any questions and are extremely knowledgeable," she said. 

Lining the back of the store is the dairy section offering both dairy and dairy-free items as well as numerous varieties of milk, milk alternatives and eggs, all of which are cage-free. 

The bulk section can be found in the center of the store. This area offers consumers the ability to save on many products including dry pasta, seeds, granolas, nuts, dried fruits, candy and more. There also is a "Grind Your Own Nut Butter" station where customers can choose from four different types of nut butters to make. 

"You don't need the paper packaging and you scoop into a bag just the amount that you need," Clabbers-Feigley said. 

Whole Foods Market Bridgewater offered MyCentralJersey.com a sneak peek of the new store at Chimney Rock Crossing Shopping Center Monday, two days before its planned grand opening.

Towards the center front of the store is the Whole Body section covering basically everything that is not food — cosmetics, body care, candles, soaps, supplements, protein powders, vitamins, hair care, feminine care, baby care and more — even socks and underwear. 

"There are 100 different ingredients that are banned from our body care products," Clabbers-Feigley said. "We are really careful about that as well — similar standards to our food. Everything must meet our quality standards."

Also in the middle of the store is the frozen section which offers a selection of frozen items and bulk buys. A Juice + Kombucha bar, featuring Brooklyn-based Pilot brand kombucha and Ripe juices from New Haven, Connecticut, can be found in this area.

"Kombucha is so popular right now," Clabbers-Feigley said. "That is a new thing special to this store."

Eat in, take out

The 49,000 square foot store features the Bridgewater Coffee & Kitchen. The all-day restaurant and coffee bar features options for breakfast, lunch and dinner including local Pain D’Avignon pastries and fresh soups, salads, bowls and sandwiches. Breakfast is available all day, Clabbers-Feigley said. Coffee offerings include lattes, cappuccinos, espressos and regular cups — all with the Bulletproof brand, liked by those who follow a Ketogenic diet.

Besides the cafe offerings, there are in-store dining favorites such as made-to-order burgers, self-serve pizza and sushi rolled in-house daily, in addition to hot food and salad bars.

Whole Foods Market Bridgewater offered MyCentralJersey.com a sneak peek of the new store at Chimney Rock Crossing Shopping Center Monday, two days before its planned grand opening.

Hoping to draw in the community to feel comfortable and "hang out," the store features a community space with an indoor lounge and cafe seating, shuffleboard tables, and an outdoor space with a fire pit and seating area designed to serve as community gathering spots for any time of day.

"This is definitely one of those special features for this store that we are really excited about," Clabbers-Feigley said.

Next to the Bridgewater Coffee & Kitchen is Juice Press, a Manhattan-based organic, kosher, vegan juice bar that offers fresh pressed juices, soups and snacks. This is the third-party vendor's second venture with Whole Foods and the first in Jersey. It has 76 others sites.

Whole Foods Market Bridgewater offered MyCentralJersey.com a sneak peek of the new store at Chimney Rock Crossing Shopping Center Monday, two days before its planned grand opening.

In the bakery section, fresh baked breads, pastries, cookies and more — including gluten-free — are readily available. In addition to a selection of from-scratch baked goods, this store offers exclusive "take and bake" croissants, cookies, breads and pies. Local options include treats from New Jersey vendors Keeping You Sweet gluten-free bakery in Hawthorne and Mo’Pweeze vegan bakery in Denville.

Every Whole Foods now has the popular Japanese mochi (pounded sticky rice with ice cream filling) and will be getting French macaroons rolled out in this region as well, Clabbers-Feigley said. 

Besides the 365 Everyday Value store brand products in the grocery aisles, Whole Foods Market Bridgewater will have special diet offerings and dozens of local, Jersey-made artisanal brands such as Undercover Chocolate from East Hanover, Glenda’s Kitchen cookies from Atlantic Highlands and Juice Basin juices from Asbury Park.

Noting that Whole Foods Market meat and poultry is raised with no antibiotics or added hormones, Clabbers-Feigley said that it all is rated on the Global Animal Partnership’s five-step animal welfare scale. 

"Five is the highest, but even a one means that there is no cage crowding or crates — it all has to do how the animal is raised," she said. "Even a one you can feel confident about, but you can take it all the way up to a five. I recently learned that that the transition from where the animal grows up to where they are slaughtered is the most traumatic time for the animal and when hey are transported they get really tense. That actually affects the taste of the meat. A five means it was raised and processed at the same place, never transported." 

Whole Foods Market Bridgewater offered MyCentralJersey.com a sneak peek of the new store at Chimney Rock Crossing Shopping Center Monday, two days before its planned grand opening.

This site has an in-house dry-aging case and an area to watch the butchers work. Beef, lamb and pork are coming from the tri-state area, including products from Snoep Winkel Farm in Sussex County.

"Also, all of our butchers are highly skilled, they can custom grind or custom cut anything you want," she said. "They can help with marinade and advise on all kinds of recipes."  

Similar to the meat, seafood is rated by trusted third-party organizations as green, yellow or red designations to ensure it is sustainably caught or responsibly farmed, Clabbers-Feigley said. Whole foods does not allow any red-rated seafood — improperly farmed or over-fished — to be sold in its stores. Customer orders can be deboned or fileted for free by the fishmongers. The Chimney Rock Crossing Whole Foods features local fish from Lakewood-based Trinity Seafood.

Throughout the store, there was also signage about Amazon. Because of the recent partnership with Amazon, Whole Foods has been able to lower prices on many items including produce and eggs. Special services for Amazon Prime members, such as delivery, eventually will be rolled out to every Whole Foods Market as well, Clabbers-Feigley said.    

Customers can follow @wholefoodsbridgewater on Instagram for news about Whole Foods Market Bridgewater and opening day activities. For information about the Somerset County Park Foundation, go to https://www.somersetcountyparks.org/SCPF/index.html. For information on the programs and activities of the Somerset County Park Commission, go to www.somersetcountyparks.org or call 908-722-1200.

Staff Writer Cheryl Makin: 732-565-7256; cmakin@gannettnj.com