Mixed metaphors were the order of the day at the much-anticipated opening of a new Whole Foods Market in North Burnaby Thursday.
It was the consummation of a successful “courtship” with developers and the city of Burnaby, according to Joe Rogoff, president of Whole Foods’ Pacific Northwest Region, and it was also the store’s birthday.
“I am one proud papa today,” he said at a grand opening event Thursday morning.
Shoppers and many of the store’s 230 employees flocked to the front of the store for the ceremony, taking selfies and applauding store and civic officials.
Mayor Derek Corrigan, who was on hand, admitted to being a late convert to the buzz around the new store, which is the 11th to open in Canada and the fifth in the Lower Mainland.
“I confess I didn’t know what Whole Foods was when they first came in,” he told the crowd, “and I was really surprised when all my young staff were saying, ‘This is the greatest thing that’s happen on earth that we’re getting a Whole Foods.’”
A tour of a Vancouver store brought him on board, he said, adding the new market is now part of the Burnaby of the future.
“I think gives evidence to the fact that Burnaby is becoming an exciting, urban community,” he said.
Corrigan joined store officials in tearing apart a braided loaf of bread to mark the store’s official opening.
Whole Foods also presented Burnaby Community Services with a $2,000 cheque to mark the beginning of an ongoing partnership.
