Something is being built where "That's Amore" used to be, across from The Giant.

http://www.thefreshmarket.com/stores/store_locations.aspx?StateCode=VA#Results

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"...your suffering will be legendary even in Hell!"

according to the, now taken down, sign at the edge of the parking lot today is grand opening.

did it happen?

reports, please, if so.

Yeah it opened. I went in, quite crowded (of course). Sort of like Whole Foods in the kind of food they have and prices are like Whole Foods. It is small compared to both Giant and Whole Foods. Not sure if I will make it a place to shop regularly and not sure if it will make it in the long term.

I went with my wife in the evening the first day the Fresh Market opened. Quite crowded,with tons of helpful employees as one might expect. Seems to be like a smaller version of Whole Foods, lots of emphasis on deli style foods and service, with a large central circular deli island, and an additional long deli section along the back of the store. My intitial thoughts: Some guys with big foreheads must have figured there are enough folks with expendable income in this area to support another upscale food store, with Giant next door, Whole Foods down the street less than a mile we have an abundance of selection. The prices are in the Whole Foods range, but for me, since I live south of Whole Foods, I don't see me using the Fresh Market much because of the poor location in terms of access and because, it's too similar to Whole Foods, and there is no point in driving any additional distance for what appears to be about the same stuff at about the same price, just on a slightly smaller scale.

made a run there yesterday, and i give the over/under on its stay as 18 months. like the post above intimates, i also feel it's a borderline carbon copy of fresh whole fields foods, only mini-me version.

the meat case, everything - beef, pork, chicken, seafood, etc., is about half the size of WF's beef and pork alone. prices seemed about the same, altho they did have babyback ribs on sale for, IIRC, 3.99 a pound.

produce section was decent size, smaller than whole foods, but not a much of a disparity as the meats.

i want to say there were only 4 or 5 checkout lanes?? no self checkout, that i could see, either. god help them when they do get high traffic.

all in all, whoever did the research that a store there, in that sized space, was a good idea must have been pulling tubes.

they sell coors light for pete's sake!

And Whole Foods is renovating to add some cool stuff, so I'm kind of thinking I'm going to be staying a WF customer.