Sprouts Farmers Market Hopes to Take Root in Dublin, CA
Sprouts Farmers Market recently announced that it will be moving to the 34,000-square-foot building previously occupied by Circuit City in Downtown Dublin next to The Floor Store and Chuck E. Cheese. News of Sprouts Farmers Market’s imminent arrival has generated a great deal of interest from residents looking for organic and farm fresh foods at a good price. The Arizona-based Sprouts Farmers Market has seen tremendous growth in Arizona, California, Colorado, and Texas. The new Dublin location will be Sprouts Farmers Market’s third store in Northern California.
Sprouts Farmers Market’s first Northern California store in Sunnyvale offers a glimpse into what Dublin can expect:
- Over 300 bulk food items;
- Extensive selection of organic and free range meat options, prepared gourmet meals, artisan baked goods, fresh roasted coffee beans, and fine chocolate;
- Spacious central produce area with limited space reserved for traditional grocery aisles; and
- Health supplement store-within-a-store that rivals most neighborhood health food stores such as Valley Health Mill in Pleasanton.
The shopping experience Sprouts Farmers Market offers is best described as Trader Joe’s on steroids. Like Trader Joe’s, Sprouts Farmers Market adopts a rustic style in its interior design, but unlike Trader Joe’s, Sprouts Farmers Market features much wider aisles and a more open store layout. While inventory at the two stores overlap significantly, Sprouts Farmers Market seems to give customers more choices in general for each product type than Trader Joe’s. Finally, Sprouts Farmers Market has a full-fledged meat and deli department and a huge fresh produce section on the same scale as those at Safeway and Whole Foods.
The good news about Sprouts Farmers Market came on the heels of the recent announcement by Grocery Outlet about its intention to fill the vacant space left by the old Anderson’s electronics store. Sprouts Farmers Market and Grocery Outlet will be joining Target, 99 Ranch, and Safeway in the Downtown Dublin area. On the surface, Downtown Dublin may have an overabundance of grocery store options; however, as Assistant City Manager Chris Foss noted, “All of the grocery stores in the Downtown area serve different segments of the community.” Sprouts Farmers Market’s main competition will most likely be from Safeway, located just a block away on Dublin Boulevard. Still, the two grocery stores each have their own strengths. While Sprouts Farmers Market arguably offers a more desirable array of farm-fresh produce and premium meat selections, Safeway is a proven provider of the mass market items found in the aisles of most large grocery stores.
Sprouts Farmers Market may very well have considered the location that had been reserved for Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market at the Rose Pavilion in Pleasanton, but the Dublin site it ultimately chose offers far superior freeway visibility from I-680 and will be close to the future west Dublin BART station. All these geographical advantages should help Sprouts Farmers Market thrive and take root in the Tri-Valley and the Greater East Bay area.
Sprouts Farmers Market is expected to open in Dublin at 7:00AM on June 29th.
1:13 PM on September 8th, 2010
My wife and I are excited for a Wholefoods/Trader Joes alternative. Especially since it’s close to my house. With Ranch 99 close by I can see myself frequentingg Sprouts.
11:15 AM on September 13th, 2010
Wonderful news about Sprouts coming to Dublin. Not too crazy about Grocery Outlet though as we were hoping for a restaurant of some sort to go into that building. Hopefully Sprouts and Joanna’s Craft store will remodel the exterior of that old Circuit City and The Floor Store buildings as it is quite drabby looking. If they just move in with only a signage change and a new coat of paint like 99 Ranch did it will be dissappointing as downtown needs quite a bit of updating to the buildings there.
11:18 AM on September 13th, 2010
Speaking of Sprouts, since it is in the same corridor. Anyone knows what the status is of the old Honda site? I is quite obvious they’ve abandoned the construction months ago and have put the property up for sale.
2:27 PM on December 17th, 2010
Based on the blog post from yesterday, REI will be tearing that old structure down and moving in there.
3:27 PM on December 17th, 2010
Hi Anonymous – that’s correct. The info in the blog post was provided by the City of Dublin.
Thx, John Z.
2:27 PM on January 11th, 2011
I am so overwhelmingly excited of this news!!! Coming from Colorado where stores similar to Sprouts are everywhere, I was quite dissapointed moving to the Bay Area only to find very few and far away choices for real food and supplements. Thank you city of Dublin and Sprouts!!! I look forward to shopping there!!!
1:43 PM on January 14th, 2011
Does anyone know if this is still happening? I haven’t seen any work on the building.
5:22 PM on January 14th, 2011
Hi Jeff – Sprouts is expected to open in late spring 2011.
Thx, John Z.
5:21 PM on January 27th, 2011
I am soooo excited!
10:07 AM on February 8th, 2011
I am thrilled to have a Sprouts open in Dublin, if you have never been to a Sprouts or a Henry’s you’ll just LOVE IT. I’m originally from Southern California and the markets in Northern California seem limited. Now I have the option of SPROUTS, I love the Meat section, the prices of the fruits and vegetables are fantastic and the selection of health foods and goods IS GREAT!! Thanks for coming to DUBLIN!!!
10:46 PM on February 9th, 2011
does anyone know how to apply there? i’ve tried to appy online but the official website states that there is no sprouts in the 25 mile radious of 94568 can some one help me please
also very excited about a sprouts opening in my home town!
3:52 PM on February 19th, 2011
yea call 925-578-9555
12:28 PM on February 10th, 2011
John, do you have any idea why they have recently cut down all of the trees adjacent to the Amador Plaza side of their building? Suddenly trees are an unnatractive nuisance to the community?
1:00 PM on February 10th, 2011
Thank goodness. I HATE TREES. They are not a sudden nuisance; they’ve been annoying forever. They’re ugly and block sunlight, just look at the horrific eyesore that is Palo Alto.
3:03 PM on February 10th, 2011
Hi Anonymous – I’m not sure why the trees were cut down other than to increase visibility. That is a shame though. It seems like the most pleasant downtown districts have tall and full trees. They can really add to the experience for pedestrians. I’ll be driving by that area tonight to see what it looks like with the trees removed.
Thx, John Z.
4:14 PM on February 10th, 2011
It is a shame though. It seems our PC is willing to bend to the demands of the developers and merchants. Just look at what they did when they approved the huge signage for Sports Authority, in spite of the stringent requirements that are supposedly in effect for the Downtown Specific Plan. Businesses want gigantic signs and high visibility – they don’t care about the way it looks. It’s the job of the PC and City Council to make sure that tasteful design guidlines are adhered to in order to have a neighborhood that has a pleasing look and feel, instead of just a big box parking lot.
8:07 PM on February 10th, 2011
I really wish that they would have left the trees up. Taking the trees down sort of goes against the spirit of the Downtown specific plan intent.
John Z.
1:54 PM on February 19th, 2011
There was an questioned unanswered about applying for a job to this location. I want to make sure I get a head start against the competition. When can we expect to be able to apply for this store?
1:30 PM on March 2nd, 2011
I am interested in applying for a job @ Sprouts, too. Any information on how to go about this would be appreciated.
Best of Luck with the opening! I have to drive to Pleasanton or Danville for this type of shopping. It will be nice to have this so close.
6:02 PM on April 12th, 2011
Ryan and Clee, I received an ad in the paper today. You can apply for a job at sprouts.com. Good luck!!
7:25 PM on April 8th, 2011
Cam anyone tell me what is planned to be built in the closed up housing area along Dougherty? I saw they begun to remove trees, just wanted to know if anyone knew the plans and timeline.
Thanks
7:40 PM on April 8th, 2011
Hi Mandowndubtown – that’s the Arroyo Vista redevelopment. Not sure what the new project will be called, but it will have both affordable and market rate housing components. The affordable housing portion is likely the area that is being cleared out right now. Here are a few articles that we wrote that have a bit more detail:
http://www.arounddublinblog.com/2009/05/arroyo-vista-redevelopment/
http://www.arounddublinblog.com/2010/10/dublin-ca-arroyo-vista-redevelopment-edges-closer-to-reality/
Cheers, John Z.
4:44 PM on May 11th, 2011
How long will it be before you review the applications posted on line? I filled an application out about 3 weeks ago.
Thanks!!
1:38 PM on May 20th, 2011
i am excited about Sprouts! any notion when EXACTLY they will be open for business? i know it was advertised for mid may but i spoke with one of their reps and was told grand opening was dalayed until some time in june….