The Future of Henry's, Part II

I just got off the phone with Randall Oliver, Smart & Final's corporate communications guy. He tells me that the plan is to run the Henry's stores pretty much as they've been run before--same name, same format. He had nothing to say at this point about merchandising strategies or upgrades, but that they are not planning on converting any of the stores to Smart & Finals.

Mostly, he says he's basing this on the fact that the company had previously bought another chain of stores, Cash & Carry, in Portland (since renamed Smart Foodservice Cash & Carry) and Smart & Final hasn't changed those to fit the S&F mold. "I'm sure the story will be very similar with Henry's," he said. "They're profitable, well-run stores. We've always been in various niches in the food category so this will be just another niche."

He also couldn't comment on the Wild Oats products, saying that "a lot of decisions haven't been made as to how things will be structured." But he did note that a lot of the vendors who serviced the Wild Oats brand will probably be interested in continuing to serve Henry's.

So, I suppose all we can do is just wait and see how this all plays out.


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The Future of Henry's

With the acquisition of Wild Oats by Whole Foods now a done deal, what, my worried friends ask, is to become of Henry's, which has been a property of Wild Oats? Will our stores morph into Whole Foods?

Well, folks, it turns out that Whole Foods is selling the Henry's Farmers Market chain, as well as Sun Harvest stores in Texas, to Smart & Final. The deal is supposed to close by the end of this month. Smart & Final is held by Apollo Management, a giant private equity firm.

This begs the question, "what does this mean for Henry's shoppers?" Will prices go back down since the expensive Wild Oats will no longer be in the picture? Will we end up with a Smart & Final style of bulk shopping? Anyone who has been to a Smart & Final lately knows it's a great place to buy restaurant-supply-type items, soda, cleaning products and enormous jars of pickles and the like. But it's hard to see how a Smart & Final style of merchandising relates to Henry's.

Stay tuned.



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