f Sprouts is coming to the Lake Highlands Town Center –- and that looks more likely than it did 10 days ago –- then Trader Joe’s, Tom Thumb Lifestyle (the chain’s store at Mockingbird and Abrams in East Dallas) or Kroger’s Signature (the chain’s store at the old Dr Pepper site) aren’t coming.
Why has the Sprouts situation changed? I asked the company’s Patty Mulligan about reports I got from a couple of very good sources. Could she confirm or deny that Sprouts was considering moving into the town center and that an announcement might be made as soon as May? She said: “We usually don’t deny or confirm until we have a signed lease, so we’re not as far along enough with that process as necessary. So I can’t really deny or confirm.”
Which, in the journalism business, means maybe. Sprouts is probably looking at the town center, but no decisions have been made. When I talked to Mulligan last week, she said Sprouts was not interested in the town center “at that point.”
Wamre and I took a field trip to the chain’s store at Forest and Midway on Friday. Rick took some pictures, and you can see the chain’s weekly ad. The Sprouts has an open configuration, and it’s about the same size as the old Lake Highlands Whole Foods. That makes it smaller than the old Lakewood Minyard’s.
The produce looked OK, and the prices were competitive. Don’t expect to find too many national or local brands — no Pace or local restaurant salsas, for example, and Tom’s toothpaste instead of Crest. The store had three short rows of bulk products, a well-stocked vitamin section, and one shortish row of frozen foods, mostly the sort of stuff you’d see at Whole Foods.
