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New GreenWise Offers Tampa Store Clues

Palm Beach Post photo by Cydney Scott

Overall of Greenwise Market in Legacy Place taken from the market's eating area one the second floor. Palm Beach Post photo by Cydney Scott

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By MARY SHEDDEN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 28, 2007

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PALM BEACH GARDENS - Shoppers wanting to grab Oreo cookies and takeout with their organic groceries could hit the jackpot when Publix Super Markets launches its latest venture in Tampa next year.

The first of six GreenWise Markets opened Thursday in Palm Beach Gardens, introducing Publix's hybrid of the traditional supermarket, with natural and organic groceries and an extensive and upscale prepared food department.

A Tampa GreenWise Market is expected to open in late 2008.

"This is the future," company spokeswoman Maria Brous said. "It's what we're turning to to remain competitive."

Publix, with more than 900 stores in five states, is banking on existing buying power and success with its eight-year-old GreenWise product line to make the new market a success. Nearly all mainstream grocers have responded to consumer demand by introducing their own in-store natural and organic product lines.

The Palm Beach Gardens store – and subsequent GreenWise Markets – however, takes the battle for shopper dollars to a new level. GreenWise Market battles head-to-head with popular natural and organic mainstays such as Whole Foods and Wild Oats markets.

The Tampa GreenWise, for example, will be within miles of a Wild Oats Marketplace and a Fresh Market, high-end specialty storeoffering natural and organic products. The Palm Beach Gardens store is less than five minutes from a Whole Foods Market.

The 39,000 square-foot Palm Beach Gardens store carries meats with no added hormones and a produce section that has 50 percent organic products, compared with roughly 10 percent in conventional stores. It also will have hundreds of other products not available in normal Publix locations.

GreenWise is similar to Whole Foods in its prepared food and organic offerings. The key difference, Brous said, is that GreenWise still carries select conventional items. For example, consumers can buy Oreos or Lays potato chips, she said.

The fact that prepared food stations fill 4,500 square feet of the store adds to Publix's attempt to carve into restaurant revenue, too. Health food buffs and gourmands are targeted with GreenWise grab-and-go items such as Italian stuffed shrimp, low-carb mashed cauliflower and thin-crust pizzas cooked in an old-world pizza oven.

Prepared food offerings include an Asian fusion hot bar with vegetarian options, cold salad bar with 42 ingredients, a gelato and organic coffee bar, a grill and carving station.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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