Ron Burkle, the Los Angeles businessman who made more than $2 billion buying and selling supermarket chains such as Ralphs, Alpha Beta, Fred Meyer Inc. and Food4Less, said the new players weren't appealing to the budget-minded.
"Most people look at grocery shopping as a chore," Burkle said. "Whole Foods is trying to redefine grocery shopping as a fun lifestyle experience. Tesco is trying to redefine convenience."
Whole Foods, Fresh & Easy and Sprouts are all going after shoppers such as Erik Sandberg, a 31-year-old freelance illustrator from Pasadena who once lived on a steady diet of mini-mart hot dogs and beer. But then an ex-girlfriend gave him advice that turned his culinary life around.
"She told me what I was eating was going to kill me and turned me on to Whole Foods," Sandberg said.
Sandberg is hardly alone. Organic food sales are expected to grow 20% this year to more than $20 billion, according to the Organic Trade Assn. in Greenfield, Mass.
Although Whole Foods, Sprouts and Fresh & Easy are building their brands around healthy fare, they don't exclusively sell organic food. And they offer up plenty of items that could never masquerade as health food.
Whole Foods' new store in Pasadena is an example of everything from the organic to the indulgent.
A key component of an aggressive Southern California expansion plan by the Austin, Texas-based company, the two-story building fills an entire block and has a quasi-industrial look of red brick, corrugated steel and glass panels. Its 300-space parking lot is below the store.
Shoppers will enter through a 6,000-square-foot produce department stocked with 500 items and a juice bar.
"We are a fresh-food market, and this gives people the concept of fresh when they enter," Besancon said.
Health products, the massage room and 18 check stands fill up the remaining first-floor space.
A "carveyor" moves shopping carts between the first and second floors and runs parallel to the escalator.
The second level is essentially an upscale food court with Korean barbecue, vegetarian foods cooked to order, a meat carving station, sushi, organic sake and beer. Shoppers can eat in a sit-down area or proceed to browse the large wine department, butcher shop and the packaged goods aisles.
