Doors opened today at Honest Weight Food Co-op's new $5.4 M location on Watevliet Avenue Extension today.
Nate Horwitz, Membership Coordinator stands outside the sleek modern entrance greeting customers like a proud father. Horwitz, who's been with the co-op since the 1980s says he was there when the store on Central opened. That, Horwitz says, was a whole different experience. Today's grand opening felt organized, smooth, and well-executed, he says. And no wonder, the new store's been in the works for years.
And it shows! The interior is beautiful, and boasts tons of new amenities, including a larger prepared foods area, seafood section, and expanded housewares, beauty, bulk foods, and pet foods.
Horwitz reflects on the store's lifespan. "I think of Quail as our childhood, Central as our teenage years, and this is our adulthood," says Horwitz.
The natural foods retail market has operated its member-owned business in the Capital Region since 1976, and will move from its current location to the new 30,000 square foot store and community space in May 2013.
Honest Weight Food Co-op is the latest grocery store to relocate to Albany's uptown. Honest Weight Food Co-op funded the new store through a combination of sources, including $1.15 million in investments from individual owners. The store also secured $750,000 from the Albany County Business Development Corporation, the largest loan ever approved by that organization.
