The upscale grocer, known for its pricey organic products, is increasingly emulating the discount tactics used by traditional supermarkets. It is also moving beyond the realm of grass-fed beef with more lower-priced items like frozen meatballs and vacuum-packed fish fillets.

The new strategy comes as Whole Foods fends off a growing swarm of rivals competing for customers who have become more careful with their pocketbooks. […]

One of the chain’s latest initiatives: nationwide “flash” sales on specific items promoted on Twitter and Facebook that run for just a few hours, like a five-hour buy-one-get-one-free deal on ice cream last month. The chain also is increasing one-day sales […]

Whole Foods long avoided such supermarket tactics […]

The chain has increasingly been opening new stores in smaller markets, suburbs and lower-income urban areas […]

Meanwhile, competition has ramped up from other natural grocers as well as traditional supermarkets that are expanding their selection of natural and organic products. Kroger Co., the country’s largest traditional grocery chain, has been trying to attract a more affluent clientele in certain markets with items like dry-aged beef, fancy cheese and a larger vitamin section. Kroger last month agreed to acquire upscale grocer Harris Teeter Supermarkets Inc. to deepen its reach into the high-end segment. More direct rivals such as The Fresh Market Inc. and Sprouts Farmers Market Inc., which became a publicly traded company earlier this month, have been opening more stores.

I’d really suggest reading the entire WSJ piece — it contains fascinating details about one of the key elements of life: how and where we find our food.

Savannah certainly qualifies as one of those “smaller markets”, although you might not realize that if you drop by our new store on Victory Drive. Some friends have reported finding slow times to shop there, but the place has been pretty much packed for the last 10 days. Even company employees who have relocated from much larger metro areas and who have helped open stores elsewhere seem a little overwhelmed.

This evolving strategy to try to shed the “Whole Paycheck” reputation is nothing new. In February 2012, when we pretty much knew that Whole Foods was coming but when some local cynics refused to accept the obvious evidence, I posted Why a Whole Foods in Savannah makes more sense than you think, citing an earlier WSJ piece: Whole Foods Aims to Alter ‘Price Perception’ as It Expands.

I’m a random shopper who never has written lists and has little on my mental lists beyond cat food.

So I generally sort of scavenge my way through grocery stores, and that’s what I’ve done on my two trips to Whole Foods Market since the store opened. (I also had a nice tour before it opened and posted a lot of preview photos.)

I’ve bought organic cherries for $4.99/lb (amazing flavor and freshness), organic grapes for $2.99/lb (perfect), and even vacuum-packed fish fillets like those mentioned in the WSJ piece. I got a couple of beautiful pieces of Mahi Mahi in coconut/mango sauce — less than $8 for about 3/4 lb. When I was ready to cook them, I thawed them quickly in warm water before opening, wrapped each fillet in aluminum foil, added some freshly diced mango (from Kroger) and thinly sliced Vidalia onion (from Berry Farms via the Forsyth Farmers’ Market), and stuck them in the oven. So, so good.

Whole Foods also has their company brand milk priced about 5 percent higher than Kroger prices its own brand. I bought a jar of pure, freshly ground peanut butter too, but don’t know what I even paid for it. It’s so good that I don’t really care.

There are many people in the Savannah area who are simply willing to pay more for better food with more transparent supply chains, purchased from employees who are passionate about their jobs and the products they’re selling.

Longtime shoppers at Brighter Day Natural Foods here in Savannah fit that description too. Interestingly, rather than seeing Whole Foods’ arrival as a positive thing for the city, quite a number of those shoppers have been adamant on Facebook that they see Whole Foods as a dangerous competitor. As I’ve said before, I really don’t think it does either business justice to try to make a comparison. After all, Whole Foods is 10 times larger than Brighter Day — WF is a full-service chain grocery store, after all. I’d say Whole Foods’ presence will dramatically expand the potential clientele for a niche store like Brighter Day.

Savannah Bee Company products at Whole Foods Market

It seems clear that Whole Foods’ presence in the Savannah market is going to make other major grocers step up their game.

Even if they never set foot in WF, customers of Kroger and Publix will surely see some changes for the better because Whole Foods is just down the road.

And Whole Foods’ obvious success here is surely going to be noticed by some other corporations, including Trader Joe’s.

Call it “Whole Paycheck” all you want, but it’s already clear that Savannah is the perfect spot for the company’s evolving business model(s).

Hugh Acheson’s Savannah restaurant will be called the Florence, officially. He’d tentatively called it Vittoria at first, then settled on the double entendre that the Florence provides: It’s not only the name of a city in Italy but also the name of Savannah’s famous waving girl statue.

Yes, Florence Martus. I wonder if she ever ate the Italian-ish cuisine that Acheson has planned. Click here for more on Acheson, who will also be featured at the Savannah Food & Wine Festival in November.

Now, let’s be clear that March 2014 looks like a really ambitious goal. There’s active construction on One West Victory, where Florence will be, but we haven’t really seen anything come out of the ground yet.

In other news, the Whole Foods Market in Savannah is now on Twitter at @wfmsavannah. I’m taking a preview tour of the store tomorrow (Saturday), which I will likely write about for next Tuesday’s City Talk — Tuesday is opening day.

Also of note: the Facebook page for the Whole Foods in Charleston (actually in Mount Pleasant) has 3140 likes, while the yet-to-open Savannah store has 8514.

In other foodie news, my City Talk column on Sunday is about my first trip to The Bier Haus, which got its beer and wine license just a week ago.

Spudnik will be opening soon on West Broughton.

Chipotle and Zoës Kitchen will both be opening in the next month or so next to Whole Foods.

For whatever reason, the Savannah store was very late getting to the corporation’s page of Stores in Development, but we’re there now. On the page for the local store, you can register for newsletters, see sales flyers (none there at the moment), and contact the store directly.

The store is offering sneak previews for a $5 charitable donation this coming weekend, but all those slots have been taken. (I’ve got one and will likely say something about the store for my City Talk that will be published on opening day.)

The Savannah Whole Foods Facebook page is especially interesting. Here we have a major corporation, but they’re bending over backward to try to personalize consumers’ experiences by including tidbits of history, noting the community service work by the startup team, and introducing some of the key employees. If I had to trade places with anyone, I guess I’d want to be the guy in charge of cheese, beer, wine, and chocolate.

Say what you want about “Whole Paycheck” and the rest, but it seems pretty clear that Whole Foods has a customer service approach that makes people want to shop there and feel like they’re being invited to shop there.

Today the local Facebook page posted this calendar of events for the first month. Click on through for more info:

From the store’s Facebook page:

We are thrilled to announce our Grand Opening Date of Tuesday, August 13th (9am)!!!!! We have lots of fun events planned so as soon as all of the details are available we will post here! We also announced today our Sneak Preview Tours which will be your chance at a pre-opening peek! Stay tuned for more details but for now….start making your shopping lists cause we cant wait to see you!

It says something about the Whole Foods business model that individual stores have their own Facebook pages.

Eventually, the Savannah store will have its open website too, but we have not yet appeared on this page of stores in development.

So good news, unless you’re one of the local residents more concerned about traffic than happy about this fairly important development in terms of food culture not to mention the overall retail climate in Savannah.

As a friend noted recently in the comments, there are other grocery stores off of Victory Drive that are hardly the key issues behind the slow traffic in the general area of Skidaway Road and the Truman Parkway. Grocery stores — even the busiest of them — spread out their business through the day, and many shoppers at Whole Foods will be approaching the store from the Truman, from the east, or from the back via the Daffin Park area. So relax about that.

Savannah’s food culture has developed in positive ways in recent years, with larger numbers of residents investing in some way in healthier, more local fare. Whole Foods is still a major grocery chain, of course, but its presence in Savannah will encourage those broader trends, force other grocers to step up their games, and make some local naysayers view the city more positively.

It’s a big deal.

Oddly, Savannah still hasn’t appeared on Whole Foods’ list of “stores in development,” but the company has listed 19 different job openings, some of which presumably represent multiple positions. There’s general information about employment at the Whole Foods website.

By the way, I was in New Orleans for part of last week. While I didn’t visit the existing Whole Foods, I did see the site of a new one that’s a key part of redevelopment on North Broad Street. I hear a lot of Savannahians say they’d rather have a Trader Joe’s than a Whole Foods, but New Orleans — one of the great foodie towns in the entire nation — doesn’t have a single Trader Joe’s.