The Haight Street Market at 1530 Haight St., dubbed “The Health Food Store” by Urban students, recently expanded its selection to offer a bigger selection of foods made to order.  Expanding the store into the building next door, they now offer sandwiches, hot food, a wide selection of drinks, sushi, and Blue Bottle Coffee.

A family-owned business, the store is run by Georgia Vardakastanis, her husband, and their two sons.  According to Vardakastanis, since the opening of the new store, “(business has) been good.  Not as well as expected, but okay.”

McCall Calhoun (’13), an avid supporter of the store, says that before the expansion, “the store was rather small, a little cramped.  It seemed more local, homier.  I think it served the same function as the bigger one serves now, except now we can get hot food and sandwiches.”

In March, Whole Foods, a nationwide corporation, opened a supermarket just down the street from The Haight Street Market.

Asked whether she preferred Whole Foods to the more local Haight Street Market, Anna Boyer (’13) said, “the prices are better at the health food store and I like supporting a local business rather than a big market chain like Whole Foods.”