A trip to Wild Oats West Hartford store this Saturday was a pleasant surprise. The store was busy, pleasant and unlike many of its counterparts, packed with shoppers.
While the bakery was a little disappointing, both it and the deli were underoing renovations. Upon checkout, NBN’s cash register receipt had a coupon for $10 off my next purchase of $45 or more with an expiration date, November 6th. Not so bad for a $51 purchase.
Mmmm, we thought. Lets try this again. So NBN went back into the store and purchased a 10ml bottle of Oshashi Stress Relief Oil (we were visiting family). This time my receipt for a $14 purchase yielded a $5 off coupon.
Whole Foods West Hartford store opens October 26th and Oats is working hard, pumping out coupons, renovating and no doubt maybe even lighting some sage smudge sticks in the parking lot, hoping to prevent a pattern that has happened across the country: a new Whole Foods store opens up in Wild Oats territory and makes a once busy Oats store look like a Halloween shop the first week in November. Somewhere nodoby shops.
NBN wonders what happens when the magic of coupons wear off. We like underdogs but aren’t betting on this one.
Stay tuned. We have some scouts waiting to report from the aisles of the new West Hartford WFM and from the Oats stores too.
