Wild Oats Location(s) Closing in Portland, OR

[formergrocerygal]

The Wild Oats natural foods grocery store on SE Division and 30th Avenue in Portland, OR is closing this month. With the opening of rival Portland-based New Seasons grocery store just mere blocks away, it seemed Wild Oats was doomed. This Wild Oats was a former Nature's before it was bought by Wild Oats. Does anyone have any more info on the closing of this store? I also heard another location was closing.

[storeliker]

The Wild Oats in San Anselmo was shuttered and has been vacant now for a few years, it was Picadilly Circus after Wild Oats went out of business but that was short lived. Alot of people say its because of a nearby Whole Foods that opened in the nineties.

[tesg]

Not only was it a Nature's Northwest, it was the FIRST Nature's Northwest.

There's some irony here. The New Seasons Market chain was started by disgruntled Nature's managers after Nature's sale to Wild Oats.

Wild Oats claims they're closing the Division store because of its small size (it's about 21,000 square-feet).

What goes around comes around, I guess...

[runchadrun]

There was a Wild Oats in West Hollywood in the space that had functioned as City Hall for about the first 10 years after the city incorporated. When a new City Hall was established down the street, Wild Oats moved in. It closed about the time that a Whole Foods opened in a former Alpha Beta at the corner of Santa Monica and Fairfax. (When it closed, that Alpha Beta still had the old red letters on the front of the store and the "Alphy" overhead sign. They kept it because it was grandfathered under an old sign ordinance.)

The former City Hall/Wild Oats is now a Trader Joe's.

[formergrocerygal]

Not only was it a Nature's Northwest, it was the FIRST Nature's Northwest.

There's some irony here. The New Seasons Market chain was started by disgruntled Nature's managers after Nature's sale to Wild Oats.

Wild Oats claims they're closing the Division store because of its small size (it's about 21,000 square-feet).

What goes around comes around, I guess...

Are we sure the FIRST Nature's Northwest was located on SE Division? A trusted source (also a veteran of the grocery world) informed me the first location was at the corner of NE 24th Avenue and Fremont Street in Portland (3449 NE 24th), currently home to Aja Pacific Kitchen (a pan Asian fusion restaurant) and another business. Can anyone verify this?

[tesg]

Are we sure the FIRST Nature's Northwest was located on SE Division? A trusted source (also a veteran of the grocery world) informed me the first location was at the corner of NE 24th Avenue and Fremont Street in Portland (3449 NE 24th), currently home to Aja Pacific Kitchen (a pan Asian fusion restaurant) and another business. Can anyone verify this?

My source is Willamette Week.

Wild Oats Market will close its Southeast Division Street location on Feb. 18. The store at 30th Avenue was the original Nature's and one of eight in that local chain to be gobbled up in 1999 by Boulder, Colo.-based Wild Oats.

They COULD be wrong. I wasn't living there at the time so I can't say I was around to be shopping there...