Organic food shop to open in Feb.

The large, empty site of Chapel Hill's original A Southern Season location will be given new life next year by an organic foods store.

Earth Fare, a completely organic and natural grocery store, is expected to open in February at the Eastgate shopping center on East Franklin Street.

Some say it will revitalize the center, which has seen turnover since A Southern Season moved to University Mall.

"Rather than duplicate A Southern Season, Earth Fare will draw the same affluent customer base and increase the number of trips customers make to the center," said Vikki Quinn, senior director of marketing for Federal Realty Investment Trust.

Customers generally make two-and-a-half trips per week on average to a grocery store, compared with two trips per month to a shopping mall without a grocery store, she said.

"It will help with foot traffic and bring more customers," Quinn said.

Earth Fare performed a detailed survey of the market under the current demographics, taking into account the nearby Whole Foods Market, at 81 S. Elliot Road, and determined that the new store will be able to attract customers, she said.

The company signed its lease in August.

Troy DeGroff, director of sales and marketing for Earth Fare, said Chapel Hill seemed like a logical location for the store.

"There's a high degree of education (in Chapel Hill), so people know they need to eat healthy," DeGroff said.

To compete with Whole Foods, the company plans on focusing on what its representatives say the store does best - offering healthy foods to the public, DeGroff said.

The company has a strict food policy, which recently was updated to include the removal of high fructose corn syrup from all of their products.

He also said 90 percent of the products Earth Fare sells are completely organic and many of those are locally grown.

Lica Smith, a marketing specialist at Whole Foods, said she thinks people will take advantage of both stores because each carries products that the other does not.

"It's exciting to think that this town is interested enough in a healthy diet to support another store like (Whole Foods)," Smith said. "This could be another voice in the same arena."

Store owners at the Eastgate shopping center are also excited about the new grocery store moving in.

"It's going to bring more customers to the mall," said Cynthia Fox, owner of the Wild Bird Center. "I'm very excited about it."

Though her store has not been affected by the loss of A Southern Season, the shopping center needs an anchor, she said.

Don Levine, an owner of The Potted Plant, also said Earth Fare will be a good anchor and will help draw in customers.

"Since we're right next to it, (Earth Fare) will help us a lot," he said.

Earth Fare is currently renovating the new location.

Changes will include the addition of a community room upstairs, where cooking classes and lectures will be given.

Half of the inside cafe will be converted into a nutrition and body-care department.

Earth Fare plans on keeping the outside cafe, but there will no longer be a coffee bar inside the store.

"We gotta make it look like an Earth Fare," De Groff said. "It will be a radically different experience from A Southern Season."

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