Brady Whitton pushed his 1-year-old daughter, Zoe, down the baby-products aisle of the newly opened Whole Foods Market and decided to try the chlorine-free diapers during last week’s shopping trip to the natural- and organic-product store. The father-daughter pair drives from Amite every Friday to shop at the Baton Rouge location.
“I was a vegetarian in college,” said Whitton, a Methodist minister. “I’m not anymore, but I’ve always been interested in putting healthy things in my body.”
Since opening July 20 in Towne Center at Cedar Lodge on Corporate Boulevard, Whole Foods Market has attracted a variety of customers, from the health-conscious to curious college students. Small, casual restaurants inside the store offer quick, organic meals.
Jay Dalton, store team leader, said Whole Foods is part of the latest trend in retail — lifestyle centers.
“Lifestyle centers — a mixture of residential, office and retail — are becoming increasingly popular around the country because they allow people to live and work in close proximity,” said Steve Keller, president of Creekstone Custom Homes, the Houston-based company that built Baton Rouge’s first lifestyle center, in a press release.
Creekstone bought the 48 acres of land in Baton Rouge, a former horse farm, in 2001. Keller worked with the nearby residential community and met with five neighborhood associations before breaking ground on the project to make sure the development would be aesthetically pleasing to adjacent residential areas.
Dalton said the lifestyle center reaches a certain consumer demographic.
Whole Foods’ primary customers are “a little more affluent, well-educated and looking for something different,” Dalton said.
Dalton said the market’s produce can cost more than a grocery store because organic produce, which is pesticide-free and naturally grown, is more expensive to grow.
“Farmers must meet certain [Federal Drug Administration] requirements and have to receive organic certifications,” Dalton said.
While Whole Foods caters to the demographic willing to buy produce at a higher price, Paula Biggs, the marketing director for Creekstone, said each store in the center has a different customer demographic, though residents in the area are the biggest clients so far.
“We really aren’t trying to reach a target demographic,” Biggs said. “All stores have a variety of merchandise.”
Doug and Kathy Stafford, Baton Rouge residents, used to drive to a New Orleans Whole Foods store for their produce.
“I’m into health, even though it’s a little pricey,” Kathy Stafford said. “I had heard comments that Baton Rouge couldn’t support this type of store, but I’ve seen every age group here.”
Amy Guidry, general studies sophomore who recently became a vegetarian, said she does not see many college students in Whole Foods. She said she only shops there for special occasions, and she and her roommate were shopping specifically for a dinner they were planning.
“I actually think [prices for organic products] would be this much anywhere,” Guidry said as she shopped. “We just come with a plan about what we need and allow ourselves a few impulse buys.”
Contact Leslie Ziober at [email protected]