Eatzi’s: A Casualty Story of The Gourmet Grocery Wars
On a recent trip to Dallas, it seemed worth making a trek to one of the two remaining Eatzi’s in the country. Eatzi’s make a big splash when it opened and a big one when it closed. Employees arrived to work to find only a sign on the door saying that the company was closing here. Not only did they close here, but they closed all across the nation. The original owner bought back every store and closed them all, except two. The original and one in Chicago.
You may remember that when Eatzi’s arrived in the late nineties, Atlanta was abuzz! Gourmet quick take out! Then competitors began to arrive: Fresh Market, Market One, but especially Whole Foods. According to staffers in Dallas, the Buckhead store was among the most profitable outlets in the entire chain and then Whole Foods built the Buckhead market. In two years, revenues fell at the Buckhead Eatzi’s more than thirty five percent. In the grocery business, two percent is a big margin; thirty Five percent is an earthquake. This pattern was repeated around the country forcing the corporate owners of Eatzi’s to consider changes that the original owner didn’t like. So he bought it back and closed all locations except Dallas and Chicago. Now Eatzi’s will build out the Dallas market where home town loyalty insulates them from some of the burdens of the competition.
One interesting note is that staffers at Eatzi’s say the arrival of Trader Joe’s had little or no effect on their decisions. “Trader Joe’s has a different niche” said one staffer. Apparently, one of the keys to success of Trader Joe’s is paying as little rent as possible. They carefully find a posh area with a dead shopping space and go there.
In the meantime, Whole Foods booms in Atlanta and the southeast. They’re even developing a new space as they add more and more metro markets.
Will Fresh Market survive? Be There and Find Out!
January 9th, 2007 at 3:11 am
I dropped by the Eatzi’s by perimeter mall after it opened; it seemed like they couldn’t decide whether to be a deli, grocery, or restaurant — there wasn’t enough of the latter two for me to consider it a worthy stop.
And as luck would have it, I ate dinner last night in a place out in cobb county…I can’t remember its name (”mutt and jeff’s”, or something like that), but it reminded me of what eatzi’s could have done differently. Small deli, small wine bar, seating for 35ish (incl. the bar), frequently updated menu, and powerful draught selection. Eat in, carry out, have a drink, whatever. It was a much better layout.
January 9th, 2007 at 3:25 pm
Eatzi’s was wickedly overpriced, and yes, even compared to Whole Foods. When I worked in Buckhead, many moons ago, I was excited when Eatzi’s moved in, but quickly stopped going there as the customer service was so slow, and the price of a sandwich was insane.
November 15th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
Our Eatzi’s here in Chicago on Clark has a final reduction sale of 30% and closing seems imminent