An appeals court has
reversed a lower court decision allowing the merger of Wild Oats and Whole Foods to go forward. Given the extent to which the merger has already been consumated and is a fait accompli on the ground it is unclear what this means for the two leading natural foods grocerers. Both grocerers had a strong presence in the Colorado market.
My main interest is in preserving the Washington Park Wild-Oats-now-Whole-Foods. Originally I was fearful that the merger would end in its closure due to the proximity of the Cherry Creek Whole Foods. Now that the physical conversion of the Wash Park location to Whole Foods is nearly complete, I fear a cancelation of the merge would introduce additional costs to physically revert back to Wild Oats, threatening its existence once again.
ReplyDeleteFirst the Piggly-Wiggly in the center of West Washington Park closed down (quiet residential road), then the Safeway on Alameda (collector) closed down, and now we're left only with Albertson's on Broadway (arterial) and the Wild-Oats-now-Whole-Foods on I-25 (intersection of a collector and a limited access highway). The Wild-Oats-now-Whole-Foods is the last semblance of a neighborhood grocer we have left, and I would be greatly disappointed if the federal government ended up killing it (intentionally or not).