An existing Whole Foods Market in Evanston, in a mixed-use building near downtown; the Green Bay Road store is a separate location. Photo: Payton Chung from DCA, USA / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Whole Foods Market began recruiting in June 2015 for its third Evanston store, a remodeled former Dominick’s at 2748 Green Bay Road.
The company said the store would create more than 100 jobs. Applications were being taken through the Whole Foods website, and the company planned in-person interview days on June 19 and 20 for candidates it selected. It also said it had formed ties with two local employment groups, the Youth Job Center of Evanston and National Able Network, to point job seekers toward openings. Construction was in its final stretch, with a summer opening expected.
How the site changed hands
The building had been empty since Dec. 28, 2013, when Safeway closed all of its Dominick’s stores in the Chicago area, including both in Evanston. The closures left large vacancies on Green Bay Road and at Dempster Street, and residents worried about what would fill them. In early February 2014, Whole Foods confirmed it would take over the Green Bay Road property, one of seven former Dominick’s locations it bought around the Chicago area, according to the Daily Northwestern.
The store was first expected to open in 2015. The interior was rebuilt, and in February 2015 the company proposed adding a wine bar and pub to the location, the Daily Northwestern reported.
A second former Dominick’s, on Dempster Street, was also headed for a new grocery tenant. Valli Produce was preparing to open in Evanston Plaza that summer and had held a job fair of its own ahead of opening. Between the two, the supermarket sites that worried neighbors after the 2013 closures were on their way to being refilled.
Whole Foods already ran two Evanston stores, at 1640 Chicago Ave. and 1111 Chicago Ave., so the Green Bay Road shop brought its local count to three. For neighbors who had relied on the Dominick’s for full-service grocery shopping, the hiring call was the clearest sign yet that the site would be back in use.
The hiring process had a clear sequence: online applications first, then the two interview days, with in-person slots going only to candidates the company chose. Interview days also gave the store a first look at the local workforce it would depend on once its doors opened.
Background from the Daily Northwestern; hiring details from Whole Foods Market.
Daniel Okafor covers business, startups and the Innovators section for The Evanston Edge.
