Henry's used to have this odor to their stores that was a cross between rotting cheese and rotting produce. Anyone who failed with a natural/organic concept in NorCal in the early 00's really was missing the mark.Īlthough the selection at Henry's suffered upon conversion to Sprouts, store operations and cleanliness improved dramatically. They had one store in Sacramento and a few others in the bay area. Operations were a disaster and the stores were not open long. Wild Oats basically exited NorCal and transferred the stores to Boney. They also operated under the name Picadilly Circus in an effort to reinvent themselves. I did find an entry in a food blog that attempts to lay out the convoluted story of the Boney family enterprises.Īfter Boney sold out to Wild Oats, there were some former Wild Oats in NorCal that became Boney Stores. No word on why he owned these two, however. It looks like Cohn has owned the stores since 1990 when he opened a Henry's in Chua Vista. Rwsandiego wrote: ↑ December 28th, 2017, 10:57 pm Grocery chains are notoriously difficult to operate based on a franchise model, with widely varying product selection and store conditions both being of concern. Although Sprouts may still have franchised locations in their system, that does not necessarily mean that they are currently offering new franchises, as klkla said. At the same time, it would be a terrible PR move for Sprouts to pull the rug out and terminate the franchise, as it would upset loyal shoppers and leave Sprouts scrambling for new store sites in these areas.
My guess is that these locations were franchised under Henry's, and for whatever reason, Sprouts has been unable to convince the franchise owner to sell the stores back to corporate.
It seems odd that Sprouts would franchise in an established market like San Diego. I don’t remember which ones nor do I remember whether they were franchised or whether the Boney family still owned the locations. It was probably before Wild Oats sold out to WFM and the Henry’s stores were under the same ownership as Smart and Final. This was back when Henry’s only had locations in metro San Diego. Long ago there was a handful of Henry’s locations that did not participate in the same sales as most other locations. Rwsandiego wrote: ↑ December 28th, 2017, 4:18 pm