Wednesday, May 10, 2000 | 9:19 a.m.
The American supermarket has always represented a revolutionary step in the history of commerce. It was really the first institution to bring a wide variety of foods to a mass audience and it has been evolving constantly for well over 100 years.
Wild Oats is a chain of markets that began humbly in Boulder, Colo. It has now swelled to 110 stores, two of which are here in Las Vegas. The rapid growth of this chain shouldn't come as a major surprise. This chain of natural food markets is, in part, a reflection of how we have recently changed as a society, with special regard for what we put in our bodies.
A brief tour of the two locations, in Green Valley on Warm Springs Road and Stephanie Street, and in Las Vegas on Tenaya Way and Lake Mead Boulevard, is fun, filling and informative. Some would even go so far as to call companies such as Wild Oats the future of the American grocery business. The jury is still out on that observation.
Both our Wild Oats stores have full service delis, colorful salad bars, extensive displays of organic produce, and huge vitamin and food supplement sections. Plus there are community areas for eating and socializing, premium wines, innovative new food and snack products and literally thousands of other items you won't yet find in typical supermarket chains.
There is also a liberal tasting policy regarding new products and individually prepared foods in the deli, although hopefully, that is not something of which customers will take unfair advantage.
The Tenaya store is the larger of the two. Everything is not in straight line aisles here, as in the Stephanie store, so it actually feels less spacious.
But Store Director Gil Contreras says that at 26,500 square feet, it is almost 2,000 square feet larger than the Stephanie location. Nonetheless, Contreras concedes, it is the new Stephanie store that is the prototype for future stores in the chain. That store has a Mexican food bar, a noodle bar and a sushi kitchen, as well as a bulk food section and cheese area larger than the one in the Tenaya store.
The markets are not restaurants, but shoppers love to sit in the community areas and eat lunch or an early dinner. And the choices, from the prepared food area, hot foods area and extensive salad bar, are legion. Doesn't anyone around here cook anymore?
That seems particularly true at the Stephanie store. In the noodle bar, where hot stock rages in large stainless kettles, one can order Japanese ramen, soba or udon, in hot broth with a variety of toppings. There are four types of thick crusted pizzas, and grilled-to-order panini sandwiches. (The grilled pastrami Reuben, which substitutes low fat turkey pastrami for the more traditional beef pastrami, isn't bad at all.)
There is also a hot food case where one entree and two side dishes can be ordered for $5.99. This turns out to be a whopping plate of food consisting of entree choices such as turkey meatballs, eggplant parmesan and spicy Thai curried chicken, plus hefty sides such as garlic mashed potatoes and cooked spinach.
This particular store even has a full-fledged sushi bar manned by a trio of Asians who are not Japanese but Burmese, an uncommonly gracious group of people who speak excellent English. Here you will get hand rolls made to order, sashimi and just about all the same types of sushi as you would get at any Japanese restaurant, at a much lower price.
For the record, you can eat just about everything but hot noodles in soup at the Tenaya deli section, but you won't get your sushi made to order.
Shopping is the main activity in both stores, though. The official position of the market with regard to organic and genetically engineered foods is posted in various places around the store.
Wild Oats supports clear labeling guidelines for foods that contain genetically engineered foods, and the store's private label products, such as peanut butter, are sourced entirely from nonengineered ingredients. The produce is organic, which means pesticide- and fungicide-free.
The down side is that for some foods, organic produce in particular, prices are slightly higher; according to Stephanie store manager Steve Miller, about 10 percent to 12 percent higher than like produce in the big supermarket chains. But Miller also points out the simple economics involved. "It's supply and demand," he says. "When the demand for organic foods grows, the supplies will increase, and the prices will drop." Amen to that.
Both stores have enormous bulk food areas, where you can buy raw grains, nuts, seeds, granola cereals, and much more. In the beautifully arranged produce sections, both stores had fruits for tasting, pineapple that was as sweet and ripe as any sold in town, fleshy orange cantaloupe and various types of oranges.
At the Tenaya store, bright green artichokes were 99-cents for a pound. The Tenaya store has a large beer and wine section, far bigger than the new store. The new Stephanie store, though, has a snazzy olive bar, located right behind a large selection of imported cheeses, labeled by country. Says customer Mrs. Charna Candlish, spotted eying the olives, "this is a wonderful store, long overdue in the area."
Both stores also have huge vitamin and food supplement sections, as well as nonfood items such as cosmetics, essential oils and medicines. This is big business. According to Miller, vitamins and food supplements account for approximately 22 percent of the sales at Wild Oats, which explains the myriad choices.
Aisle Five at the Tenaya store has a sign with sections reading things such as "spirit health," "antioxidants" and "brain health." There are also aisles stocked with tools for aromatherapy, feng shui and ayurvedic massage. The bottom line seems to be a blending of world food and culture, all coming together in what one would have to call a new age supermarket.
But at the same time, one must remember that some claims made by proponents of vitamins and food supplements are not allowed on labels and not officially substantiated by the federal Food and Drug Administration.
Nonetheless, the stores are full of handouts that they themselves publish, to help you make your own decisions. Guides to subjects such as food allergy, homeopathy and other related subjects are available at no charge, and they make interesting reading.
Both stores are open daily, 7 a.m.-10 p.m.
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