Lazy Acres Natural Market, an organic and natural format owned by Good Food Holdings, opened its sixth location on Friday, a 31,000-square foot store in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles.
The store, among the chain’s largest, is located in a former Rite Aid building on a busy corner near Griffith Park, in one of the city’s most affluent residential areas.
“This is a really special neighborhood,” Kate Halper, director of marketing, told SFA News Daily on opening day. “The people in this community share a lot of our same values.”
In addition to being the furthest inland of any of the previous Lazy Acres locations, the Los Feliz store also is the first to have a dedicated space for educational activities, including cooking classes for children and adults and workshops on topics such as composting and urban gardening. The store is also showcasing the debut of Envirotokens, through which Lazy Acres donates 10 cents to a local nonprofit organization for every reusable bag customers use. Customer can choose which of six local nonprofits to support. The Envirotokens program is being rolled out to other Lazy Acres stores, Halper said.
In addition, each Tuesday for the first six weeks of operation the store will donate 5 percent of its sales to a different, local non-profit organization.
The store features the chain’s latest lineup of prepared-food stations, including one each for Mediterranean wraps and bowls, California BBQ, fish tacos and burritos, sushi, and a poke bar. It also has hot and cold salad bars and islands for grab-and-go prepared foods, including one dedicated to vegan dishes. A coffee and smoothie station is located right at the entrance, alongside a small indoor/outdoor seating area.
Some of these foodservice concepts first appeared at the chain’s Long Beach, California, location earlier this year, Halper said.
The store also includes a full-service deli and bakery, including the massive, fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies that sister chain Bristol Farms is known for. It also has service meat and seafood departments with a range of sustainable, wild-caught and farm-raised seafood items, and organic, natural and grass-fed meats.
In addition to its focus on organic, natural, and healthy items that meet demands for a variety of dietary preferences, the store also showcases some locally made products, including some unique to the neighborhood, Halper said. These include some wellness items in the store’s Natural Living section, which features environmentally and socially conscious health and beauty care products and a variety of supplements and natural remedies.
Lazy Acres was founded as a single-store independent in 1991 in Santa Barbara, California, and was acquired by Bristol Farms in 2005. Bristol Farms, which was owned by Albertsons at that time, expanded the Lazy Acres chain along the Southern California Coast, adding locations in Long Beach, Encinitas, San Diego/Mission Hills, and Hermosa Beach. Both Bristol Farms and Lazy Acres are now owned by Good Food Holdings, which also owns the Metropolitan Market, New Seasons Market, and New Leaf Community Markets banners all along the West Coast.
The Los Feliz store will compete with a Gelson’s supermarket about half a mile away in Hollywood and an Erewhon that opened about two years ago in Silver Lake. Ralphs and Whole Foods also operate in the area.
Joe Ragusa, vice president of marketing and merchandising, Lazy Acres, said some local consumers in Los Feliz might be familiar with the Lazy Acres name from vacation visits to the beach towns where the banner’s other stores operate. To introduce the concept in the Los Feliz area, the company has been using direct mailers and outdoor advertising, he told SFA News Daily. Mailers include a coupon for a different free item each week for the next six weeks, with an opportunity to obtain six additional free items for customers who sign up for the store’s email notifications.
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