New natural grocery
By Vicki Vaughan - Express-News
As Tracy Wolff surveyed her new domain Monday, a natural foods grocery on Stone Oak Parkway that will be opening at 7 a.m. today, her enthusiasm was evident.
She walked through Green Fields Market's section of 500 bulk-food items that range from the prosaic, such as sugar, to the exotic, dried mango and wasabi, while employees put last-minute touches on items in the 15,000-square-foot store. The bulk-food section, like the produce section, lets shoppers bag their selections.
“Buying in the bulk section can save families money because you can buy just the amount you need,” Wolff said. She showed off a bit of dried cantaloupe, saying, “I can't wait to try this.”
With the opening of the store at 19239 Stone Oak Parkway, Wolff and her husband, Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, are back in the grocery business after a decade's absence. (Tracy and Nelson Wolff, along with other Wolff family members, decided to sell their San Antonio-based natural food store chain, Sun Harvest Farms, in 1999.)
“It's really exciting to see this come together,” Tracy Wolff said. “We've been planning this for two years and have been intensely involved for at least a year and a half.”
In building the store, the Wolffs partnered with Tom Turner Jr. and his wife, Billie, spending an undisclosed sum on the venture.
“I've been wanting to get into this business for a long time,” said Tom Turner, who walked through the store Monday. The Turner family has long years of retail experience through their ownership of convenience stores at their chain of TETCO gasoline stations.
Green Fields Market's buyers will focus on purchasing locally or Texas-grown natural foods. It's also designed to be a neighborhood store, where patrons can get in and out quickly, Wolff said.
“I'd like to change the concept of fast food by having healthy choices that don't take a lot of time,” said Wolff, who is Green Fields' president.
Organic foods aren't known for being inexpensive, but Wolff promises that prices will be competitive.
But for those who want to splurge, Green Fields can accommodate. The store stocks several items that Wolff said aren't available elsewhere in San Antonio, such as Akaushi beef, natural beef from cattle raised in Texas whose lineage is Japanese.
Green Fields took over a space formerly occupied by a number of small businesses at The Shops at Stone Oak.
“We spent a lot of time redoing it,” Wolff said. “The floors were uneven, and the lighting was terrible.”
The store held a job fair last month, hiring 50 full-time workers and 25 part-timers from pool of 400 applicants, Wolff said.
Green Fields Market will hold a grand opening starting at 10 a.m. Oct. 6.
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