Whole Foods' New Budget-Friendly Chain Will Be Down With Millennial Things Like Tattoos and Records Come for the produce, stay for the ink.
By Laura Entis
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Every go grocery shopping and wish you could pick up a quick tattoo along with your tomatoes?
You may just be in luck. Whole Foods will include non-food related services at 365, its new millennial-focused, budget-friendly chain of stores. The company is currently looking for partner vendors, which can be "any type of business," from startups to more established brands, that it can install at 365 locations. According to some winking promotional copy, these partners -- or "friends" -- will likely include tattoo parlors and record shops.
Last year, the company announced plans for 365, a chain of stores "geared toward millennial shoppers." Apparently Whole Foods has decided that along with less-expensive prices, young people crave a more experiential, less strictly food-based grocery shopping experience. In an interview on Bloomberg TV, Whole Foods' co-chief executive Walter Robb called the new stores "a way to reach more communities than we would with our mother ship."
The first 365 store is slated to open in May in Los Angeles. By fall 2017, Whole Foods plans to have opened nine additional locations.
Related: Whole Foods Just Released the Name of Its New Millennial-Friendly Chain