The newest Whole Foods supermarket scheduled to debut today in northeast Phoenix isn’t the grandest version of the brand in the Valley — the Chandler store is 20 percent bigger.

When organic grocery giant Whole Foods opened its Chandler location Friday, it wasn’t lacking competition.

Whole Foods is cooking up plans to open the Valley’s first upscale, urban-style grocery store inside the appropriately named Cosmopolitan condominium project in downtown Tempe.

Whole Foods is preparing to open the first Scottsdale-area version of its new prototype store on Feb. 28 on the southwest corner of Scottsdale Road and Mayo Boulevard.

A Whole Foods Markets is coming to the East Valley.

Chill out at the Watering Hole at Whole Foods Market and learn all about the brewery or beer of the week.

Learn to incorporate seasonal ingredients in delicious ways at this free class taught by Patty from Duncan Family Farms. Samples are included with the class. Register at sp.chr.marketing@wholefoods.com.

For many of us, the new year brings resolutions to eat healthier. Some of us will start diets, some will begin reading labels and some will just want to make a change or two for healthier eating options. 

No Coke. No Pepsi. The proliferation of organic grocery and natural-foods stores can almost be summed up by what they don’t offer — including the country’s two most popular beverage choices.

No Coke. No Pepsi. The proliferation of organic grocery and natural-foods stores can almost be summed up by what they don’t offer — including the country’s two most popular beverage choices.

The desert’s not as harsh and barren as you might think. In fact, it’s a virtual drive-through window, if you know what to look for.

Gentle Strength, the threedecade-old, Tempe-based natural foods cooperative at University Drive and Mill Avenue, plans to move to cheaper quarters.

Whole grains inspire horror in some people. Images of grandma stirring a bubbling pot of tasteless goop on the stove for two hours or hippies munching on granola in fields of flowers come to mind. Well, forget your trauma. Whole grains taste a lot better today than they did during the natural foods movement of the 1970s.

In case you’ve missed all the hoopla and mass of mail ads, the Container Store opens its first Arizona location at 9 a.m. Saturday in the Whole Foods-anchored shopping center on the southwest corner of Mayo Boulevard and Scottsdale Road.

Dozens of people sporting colorful T-shirts proclaiming the company motto, "Contain Yourself," stocked shelves, constructed clever closet setups or clustered into small groups to discuss the varied uses of plastic shoeboxes and bamboo bins.

Arizona consumers are benefitting from having a lot of grocery stores competing for their business.

Alan Hutcheson, who helped open Arizona's first Sharper Image store - and helped close it when the specialty retailer slid into bankruptcy earlier this year - was selling the virtues of double cabinet shelves from The Container Store for stacking cookware.

Food prices in Arizona are going up.

Deflation has finally come to the Arizona shopping cart. New figures from the Arizona Farm Bureau Federation find that, on average, the cost of food from grocery stores in the state is about 20 percent less than it was a year ago.

Got a freezer?

Last-minute holiday shoppers should be glad to know that most local grocery stores are extending their hours for Thanksgiving shoppers.