The Wall Street Journal is having a love/hate with Whole Foods' decision to build a store in "scruffy downtown Detroit, a very unlikely location for the upscale grocery store." (And yes, that location is still in MIDTOWN, which they call a section of Detroit that was "rebranded" (does that mean redeveloped?)) In any case, it's an weird article because after calling the decision a "gamble" and making WF sound crazy for trying, it ends on one of those "Ra ra turnaround!" notes. "The big news is what's happened in this section of the city. After decades of incremental, three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust development work, Detroit has pieced together enough vitality to make a higher-end supermarket viable. Or at least worth trying." Our take-away? The most important grocery store to ever open in America is like Lindsay Lohan. You may think it is essentially nuts but you can't help but root for it to work. [Wall Street Journal]
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