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The customer who lined up for the Grand Opening of the Echo Park Sprouts were met with a balloon arch and morning rain.<\/p>\n
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Customers lined up in the rain to be the first to enter the Echo Park Sprouts store on grand opening day.<\/p>\n
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Sprouts employees handed out roses to the first customers to enter the Echo Park store.<\/p>\n
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Customers explore the produce section in the Echo Park Sprouts.<\/p>\n
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Customers in check out line at Echo Park Sprouts on opening day.<\/p>\n
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All smiles at the Echo Park Sprouts check-out line.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n The customer who lined up for the Grand Opening of the Echo Park Sprouts were met with a balloon arch and morning rain.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Customers lined up in the rain to be the first to enter the Echo Park Sprouts store on grand opening day.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Sprouts employees handed out roses to the first customers to enter the Echo Park store.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Customers explore the produce section in the Echo Park Sprouts.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Customers in check out line at Echo Park Sprouts on opening day.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n All smiles at the Echo Park Sprouts check-out line.<\/p>\n Echo Park\u2014A new Sprouts market has opened at the site of a former Rite Aid on Glendale Boulevard, after many delays and some of the indignities to which empty buildings are sometimes subject.<\/p>\n “Echo Park is going to be different. There\u2019s a mixture of everybody,” said the floor manager, Jeremiah Huggins, who has worked at about a dozen Sprouts locations in his 13 years with the company. “You see so many kids excited about fruits and vegetables.”<\/p>\n
The store held a special preview event Thursday night for select customers, and officially opens for business today. The market chain has a reputation for quality products, organic options, and a broad variety of produce, including from local farmers.<\/p>\n Suzy Ramirez and Richard Bugarin, customers at last night\u2019s event, were buying Lucy Glo apples<\/a>, which are naturally pink on the inside. Stacy Harris, who lives four blocks away, is a fan of the store\u2019s prepared foods and homeopathic remedies.<\/p>\n And state Assemblymember\u00a0Jessica Caloza<\/a>, whose district includes Echo Park, was buying an assortment of cookies, scones, and other pastries for a staff retreat the next day.<\/p>\n “I\u2019m just excited they\u2019ve brought 100 jobs,” Caloza said, noting that a lot of people who were handing out free samples at last night\u2019s event had been hired recently.<\/p>\n
Today’s grand opening concludes a long transition for this building. The Rite Aid that once occupied this spot closed in May 2022<\/a>, amid a nationwide string of closures for the drugstore chain. At that time, The Eastsider took a reader poll for what should replace it, and the choice, it turns out, was Sprouts.<\/p>\n Before that could happen, however, the building was a temporary Halloween store and, briefly, a homeless encampment<\/a>. But finally,\u00a0in August 2023<\/a>, Sprouts announced they would take over the building. They initially planned to open in 2024, then August 2025<\/a>, then October 17<\/a>.<\/p>\n All that time, the store opening has been hotly anticipated, with people frequently checking the web to see if the doors had opened yet.<\/p>\n “I\u2019ve been looking forward to it since they announced it,” Harris said.<\/p>\n The new Sprouts market on its preview night, Nov. 13.<\/p>\n Photo by Barry Lank<\/p>\n Handing out free samples of purple sweet potato pie.<\/p>\n Photo by Barry Lank<\/p>\n State\u00a0Assemblymember Jessica Caloza checking the price on the avocados.<\/p>\n Photo by Barry Lank<\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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