Whole Foods opens Kailua store; has 600 shoppers in first hour
Whole Foods Market opened its Kailua store at 9 a.m. today and said it had more than 600 shoppers in the first hour.
The Kailua store is the third in Hawaii for the Austin, Texas-based organic and natural food store.
The Kailua store has a solar cooling system that uses liquid desiccant air conditioning technology and a solar thermal array to reduce energy consumption, the company said. The company said the solar cooling system is the first of its kind used by a U.S. supermarket and reduces the store’s need for electricity to power its air conditioning and refrigeration systems.
The company also used recycled wood from Oahu Tree Salvage and Douglas Fir at the Kailua store.