What Happens When You Put Whole Foods In A Historic Hoboken Bank? Peek Inside

HOBOKEN, NJ — Hoboken's newest supermarket, Whole Foods, opened Thursday inside a former bank building on a major corner blocks from the train station.

The 4,841-square-foot store is the first "Daily Shop" location in New Jersey, according to the company.

It's "designed to bring fresh, high-quality ingredients to customers with a convenience that fits their fast-paced urban lifestyles," the company said.

The chain is known for its quality standards, which prohibit hydrogenated fats, high-fructose corn syrup and more than 300 flavors, colors, sweeteners and other ingredients.

Replaced 3 'Tenements' In 1920s

On Friday, Patch stopped in to survey the wares.

Among the offerings: bunches of bananas, a large meat and poultry display, and meals to go, all below the fixtures of the old bank.

What about eggs? The least expensive were a half dozen for $3.99 (see photo below), but to be fair, they're organic.

It was nearly a century ago that Hoboken Savings Bank bought the property to replace three tenements with a bank — in 1927, two years before the Great Depression.

"Hoboken Bank for Savings has bought from Miss Lizzie Van Boskerck of New York City the three four-story brick tenements with stores at 101 to 105 Washington St.," the New York Times reported in 1927, "corner of First Street, Hoboken, N. J. The plot is 62 by 100 feet."

Whole Foods was founded in Austin in 1980.

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