East Coast's First Whole Foods 365 Opens In Fort Greene

FORT GREENE, NY — The first East Coast location of Whole Food's affordable off-shoot, Whole Foods 365, opened Wednesday in Fort Greene with shoppers lining up outside in the brutal cold to be the first ones inside.

Whole Foods 365, at 292 Ashland Place, has a smaller footprint than regular Whole Foods locations but sells similar organic produce, meats, cheeses and more at cheaper prices.

The first-floor of the supermarket has a location of the bakery Orwashers, juice bar Juice Press and the city's first location of the plant-based burger joint Next Level Burger. The space also has the POURiT Authority where shoppers can fill their own pints of beer to drink inside or a growler to take home.

The new Fort Greene location opened at 9 a.m. on Wednesday with the store giving out gift cards from $5 to $365 to the first 100 customers, coffee, snacks and more, according to Whole Foods. The chain will also donate five percent of their net sales for the opening day to the Fort Greene Park Conservancy.

Despite Wednesday's bitter cold, residents were lined up outside before the spot opened its doors to be the first shoppers inside.

The store will be opened from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day, with the first-floor opening at 7 a.m. for breakfast and coffee, according to the store.

The Fort Greene market is the seventh Whole Foods 365 in the country and took over ground-floor retail space at the luxury 300 Ashland project, next to an Apple store. Aside from the store, the development will also have a 20,000-square-foot public plaza, four Brooklyn Academy of Music movie screens, a Brooklyn Public Library branch and space for 651 ARTS and the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts.

Image: Nicholas Rizzi/Patch