The new 39,000-square-foot store, which will open at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, is expected to employ 200 workers. Watch video
WALL TOWNSHIP - Dozens of employees were hard at work in the new Whole Foods Market on Allaire Road on Monday, as future customers could be seen with their face pressed up against the windows hoping for a sneak peek.
With the store's grand opening just two days away, a lot of the non-perishable products were already on the shelves and workers were handling a lot of the "finishing touches", including stocking some of the more perishable products while the bread baking and prepared foods teams were testing their ovens.
The store is scheduled to open for business at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, following its traditional bread-breaking ceremony at around 8:30 a.m.
The 39,000-square-foot Whole Foods Market will be the third in Monmouth County, 15th in New Jersey and 444th throughout the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
However, the Wall Township location will be unique.
"None of our stores are the same," said Michael Sinatra, a spokesman for Whole Foods Market. "So if you've shopped in our other stores in the state of New Jersey, or even here in Monmouth County, every store has different intricacies that really make it interesting and exciting for our customers, so this Wall store is truly like no other. It's an exciting store and has some exciting offerings for our shoppers."
Whole Foods officials said in October that the new store's location - in the same shopping plaza where Lowes Express in located, on the corner of Allaire Road and Route 35 - was an ideal location for the newest store and would help fill a demand from patrons in southern Monmouth County and northern Ocean County who were previously traveling to the Whole Foods locations in Marlboro or Middletown to do their shopping.
"One of things that makes Whole Foods Market so different is our quality standards. As you walk around our store and you see the quality in the products that we're carrying, it really gives customers a lot of assurance in what they're buying and what they're feeding their families, it's something we're very proud of," Sinatra said Monday. "We source a lot of our products locally, so as you walk through our store there are a lot of great products from here in New Jersey and a lot of great products from the tri-state area."
Sinatra said the new store will have extensive prepared food, specialty cheese and produce sections, a meat department where shoppers will be able to watch the butchers cut the meat in the meat room, locally sourced seafood, an onsite bakery and an "unrivaled selection of grocery items."
It also created jobs for hundreds of area residents.
"The great thing about opening a new store is we get to add great new jobs to the local community," Sinatra said. "This store employs about 200 total team members, many of them local to the Wall area and certainly the Monmouth County area."
Five percent of the new store's total sales on Wednesday will go to benefit the nearby Allaire Community Farm, Sinatra said.
"They do a lot of great work in the community," he said. "They're a beloved organization and we're really proud to be able to support them."
Rob Spahr may be reached at rspahr@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TheRobSpahr. Find NJ.com on Facebook.