Bicycle Chain also out as Whole Foods spreads out its table
July 22, 2010
The Herald-Sun follows up this morning on the tale of Whole Foods' wholesale swallowing of neighboring pads at Bull City Market, adding a new wrinkle to the story:
Popular local bike merchant The Bicycle Chain is also out, as its store along with Cinelli's kitchen area will be sites for the organic and natural foods grocer's expansion.
Presumably this means plans once floated for the grocer to hop north across Perry St. to build on the block sandwiched between Broad St. and Iredell are out, given that the H-S says the expansion by Whole Foods will bring it up from 22,000 to 28,000 sq. ft.
Although The Bicycle Chain has been in the Bull City Market shopping center on Broad Street since 1997, co-owner Scott Smith said Whole Foods as the anchor tenant always had the option of taking their space.
The Bicycle Chain has five locations in the Triangle. The Durham store will close by the end of this year, and the company is looking for another similarly sized space in the Ninth Street area to which to relocate.
If only Trader Joes would come into town . . . sigh.
Posted by: erin | July 22, 2010 at 09:27 AM
This is good news! I love the Durham WF but their space was way too small.
I am sure that the Bicycle chain will be as successful on Ninth Street.
Posted by: JG | July 22, 2010 at 02:05 PM
I'd love to see the Bicycle Chain move further East. Maybe find some space in the Central Park area. I'll be happy as long as they don't close though. They're where I spend all my disposable income (which isn't much).
Posted by: matt | July 22, 2010 at 02:11 PM
Matt,
The folks at Bike Chain are great and I hope they find a new home. If looking for something near Central Park, check out Grassroots Bikes. Located at Mangum 506, it is awaiting final inspections and will be opening soon.
Posted by: SomerSlam | July 22, 2010 at 02:25 PM
Why don't they move over where George's Garage used to be? What is going on with that space, anyway? Anything good?
Posted by: jen p. | July 23, 2010 at 12:55 PM
Wellspring/Whole Foods *used* to be in the George's Garage space a long time ago, but they outgrew it.
Posted by: marie | July 24, 2010 at 01:40 PM
I miss the old Wellspring when it was in the other space.
Posted by: DK | July 25, 2010 at 12:13 PM
This will be a great expansion and make WF event better. The expansion is big enough to address the space issue that they have and not bigger so that the community store felling remains.
Posted by: Andrew | July 25, 2010 at 08:11 PM
I dont think this is a bad thing. as you stated, Bicycle Chain has multiple locations, and an alternative location in the 9th st vicinity would probably serve them even better. Whole Foods Durham could use the expansion. While i adore that it is significantly less polished than other WF locations, it has become painfully tight in there, especially with the expansion of the hot/cold food bar areas...
Posted by: TSQ75 | July 26, 2010 at 09:08 AM
It would be interesting to see the Bicycle Chain use (at least a portion) the Book Exchange space.
Posted by: Andrew Theken | July 27, 2010 at 07:47 AM
Looks like is official. This is an email sent out by the Bicycle Chain:
Our Durham Store is Moving!
After 15 years of serving downtown Durham, it's with a heavy heart that we announce our Durham location will be moving. Due to the expansion plans of our neighbors, we're going to be moving out of the 639 Broad Street location just after the holidays. After an exhaustive search, we were unable to find a building currently available in the 9th/Broad street area that would allow us to continue to offer the selection and service our customers expect. We are, however, committed to the continued service of the downtown Durham community; so keep an eye out for news in regards to future plans in the area! We are excited to announce that our new location will be at 5400 Durham Chapel Hill Blvd (the corner of Mt Moriah and 15-501, in front of the New Hope Common's shopping center), and hope to open the doors in early 2011.
Posted by: Jody | November 19, 2010 at 01:14 PM