GreenAcres Market to close one store and expand another

A lack of available employees is forcing GreenAcres Market owners Barb and John Hoffmann to close one of their stores, but that closure is allowing them to then expand another.

Barb Hoffmann said it’s all about optimizing each remaining store “to get them to be as good as they can be.”

The Hoffmanns have four stores in Wichita, one in Kansas City, Mo., one in Oklahoma City and one in Lawton, Okla. They’re closing their store in Clear Lakes, near 21st and Amidon.

“It’s our smallest store,” Barb Hoffmann said. “The store was doing OK, but we were just scrambling over and over to get enough help for our four stores. . . . It wasn’t something we wanted to do at all, but we got to the point we didn’t have any choice.”

Also, she said, the store’s lease is up.

The Hoffmanns have owned the store about eight years, but the previous owner had the store at Twin Lakes for years. There, it went by the name Whole Foods Association.

Most of the inventory is already gone.

“It’s pretty empty,” Hoffmann said.

The store probably will close by the end of June.

This will allow the Hoffmanns to expand the deli at their store at 21st and Maize Road, which they have had to scale back due to the lack of help.

“Again, we haven’t had the personnel to build it, but we do now,” Barb Hoffmann said. “We’ve hired some really great people.”

That includes the former deli manager from the Sprouts Farmers Market that closed in April.

“She said, ‘I had no idea you guys have what you have. You should tell the world,’ ” Hoffmann said.

GreenAcres already has a thriving deli at its Bradley Fair store.

“That takes a lot of effort,” Hoffmann said.

There is a large grab-and-go area along with hot meals.

“We’ll make everything from scratch,” Hoffmann said. “We don’t pour out of cans or anything.”

She said dishes include organic items when possible.

“The big difference is just what we make it with,” she said. “We just put good product in it.”

Hoffmann said she realizes that might scare some people away who think the dishes are healthy but not tasty.

“That’s such a hard thing to get over,” she said.

However, Hoffmann said, “It tastes wonderful.”

This story was originally published June 6, 2022 at 4:47 AM.