Sunflower Market Opens in Denver

By Kate Lawrence

A new natural foods store opening is big news for vegetarians, especially when it’s a store in a chain new to the area. Sunflower Markets are already open in New Mexico and Arizona, but this is the first in Colorado.

Located in University Hills in the space formerly occupied by Savers (the same shopping area as Chez Artiste), the store will serve a part of the southeast metro area where folks have had to travel several miles to a Wild Oats, Vitamin Cottage or Whole Foods.

Visiting on opening day, my first impression was of the lovely golden yellow walls, and the store’s open design. The bulk bins, barely shoulder-high, occupy the center of the space, while produce displays are set apart from each other. This makes it possible to see from one side of the store to the other and evokes a spacious, relaxed feeling.

Keith and I had no sooner begun to explore when we saw Lisa Shapiro, Natural Living Operations Director for the store, and longtime vegan and animal activist in the Denver/Boulder area. It is her job to supervise the opening of Sunflower Markets’ stores; she said that her next assignment will be their soon-to-open store in Tucson. She commented on some vegan options the store offers, such as all the flavors of Soy Delicious frozen desserts, and in the bakery, two cookies and two muffins which are vegan. She encourages vegan customers to talk to Karen, the head baker, about making more vegan baked goods. Lisa said that Karen would be open to implementing these kinds of suggestions.

In the produce section there is one of the large free-standing display units and a section of the wall space devoted to organics, not as much as we had hoped. Again, Lisa urged us to make our wishes known to the management, and in fact introduced us to the store manager for that purpose.

According to an article in the Denver Post, the founders of Wild Oats Markets have plucked their favorite traits from competitors in the cutthroat grocery business to build a new type of low-priced natural foods store. Sunflower Markets intend to offer these lower prices by buying directly from farmers and manufacturers, and by incorporating more of a "warehouse" look. We thought it looked much nicer than a Costco-style warehouse. As to prices, we intend to wait a month or so until Sunflower is past their opening weeks, and then do a price comparison with similar stores. In the meantime, drop by and see what you think. They are offering numerous sale items to celebrate their opening.

Sunflower Market, 2880 S. Colorado Blvd. at Amherst Ave., 303-758-4400. www.sunflowermarkets.com.