Whole Foods expanding in S.F. including Noe Valley, SOMA and other locations!

Whole Foods - the high-end, nonunion, specialty grocery store - will soon move into a 24th Street Noe Valley spot recently vacated by the more basic, unionized Cala Foods-Bell Market.
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Planning officials have approved a special permit required for the chain store to open on the commercial strip. Another nearby market, Real Foods, closed about five years ago, and the Bell Market shut down a couple of weeks ago.

"People have been very concerned about having a strong grocery store there, and I think Whole Foods did a really good job of reaching out to the community," said the area's supervisor, Bevan Dufty.

While Cala appears to be dropping out of the city, Whole Foods is looking to expand. In October, the Planning Commission granted a permit for a four-story, 62-unit condo building at Stanyan and Haight streets, with plans for a Whole Foods on the ground floor.

In addition to its existing grocery stores in Pacific Heights, Potrero Hill and SoMa, and the two pending in Noe Valley and the Lower Haight, there is also talk that Whole Foods wants to replace the shuttered Ford dealership at Dolores and Market streets - right across the street from the Castro Safeway.