Wild Oats to turn traditional design inside out at larger Reno location

Wild Oats Marketplace will move in mid- 2007 from its 17,000-square-foot store at 5695 S. Virginia to a 29,000-square-foot-space at 4995 S. Virginia, in the Redfield Promenade shopping center where Good Guys previously was located.

"We needed more space to expand, but wanted to remain relatively close to the existing store and keep our customer base," says Sonja Tuitele, a spokesperson for Wild Oats. With 70 percent more space, the store will reflect the new protoype to employ the latest thinking that Wild Oats Markets Inc. is developing at its Colorado headquarters.

That model turns the traditional grocery store layout inside out. It puts the perishable department not at the back but at the heart of the store. "That's the first place a new customer will go," says Tuitele.

"All of the prep areas are being brought in front of customers," she says. Chefs will be preparing food in public view. Even the butchers will go on show. And, there will be lots of live sampling.

The Reno store is one of 116 Wild Oats stores nationwide and among the first to reflect the protoype layout. The company came to the Reno market in 2000.