Whole Foods Market's first store is slated to open at 7 a.m. on Sept. 10 at Kahala Mall, but a planned store at Ward Centers that was to be the company's two-story flagship in Hawai'i has been delayed and downsized.

The changes for the Ward store, which will open in 2010 and be half the size originally planned, are part of a corporate adjustment to open fewer and smaller stores in light of economic pressures that have hurt store sales chain-wide.

But the Texas-based retailer of organic and natural foods is still optimistic about its entry to the Hawai'i market.

"We are thrilled to be able to introduce Hawai'i to the wonderful array of natural, organic and specialty foods Whole Foods Market offers," Larry Hoover, store co-manager, said in a statement.

The Kahala store is the first of four stores Whole Foods plans to open in Hawai'i, and will be second smallest at 28,000 square feet.

A 26,366-square-foot store in Kahului, Maui, is slated to open next year. The biggest store will be one planned for Kailua on O'ahu at 40,000 square feet that's projected to open in 2010.

The Ward store initially was slated to open this year, and be 67,000 square feet on two levels. The store has been downsized to 35,000 square feet on one level and is scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2010.

At the Kahala store yesterday, Whole Foods led the media on a tour inside the store as it is prepared for opening in the space formerly occupied primarily by Star Market Ltd.

Design elements of the store include cement floors stained in a red dirt hue, black granite counters, wood-paneled wine shelves and a giant mural displaying photos of Dean Okimoto's Nalo Farms in Waimanalo, a branch of ripe coffee cherry, the Ko'olau mountain range and other Hawai'i scenery.

Whole Foods said the store will feature the largest seafood preparation kitchen in the 270-store chain. An aisle of bulk item bins will carry everything from kidney beans to raspberry yogurt pretzels to arare.

There's also a plate lunch station, pizza oven, smokers for fish and meat, a case for 30 types of prepared salads, a sit-down dining area and a body care products section that's the size of a small specialty store.

About 30 local farms are helping supply produce, and the store will employ about 130 people.

Yesterday, employees were stocking shelves with nonperishable items, including organic miso soup, wild yam root, organic macaroni and cheese, a sodium benzoate-free Kikkoman shoyu imported from Japan and chlorine-free baby diapers.

Though the store will carry some mass-market brands, don't look for favorites that can be considered unhealthy.

"If you're looking for Pepsi or Coca-Cola, you're not going to find it in our stores," said Ray Stockton, co-store manager.

However, there's a wide range of alternative items, such as Newman-O's (cream-filled chocolate cookies that — unlike similar-looking Oreo cookies — are wheat-free, dairy-free and organic). Island favorites such as Hawaiian Kukui guava jelly also can be found in the store.

Whole Foods doesn't carry merchandise with ingredients it considers unacceptable. This list of prohibited elements is about 80 entries long and includes artificial colors, artificial flavors, artificial sweeteners, nitrates, monosodium glutamate (MSG), irradiated foods and foie gras.

Merchandise in the Kahala store has yet to be priced, but Whole Foods is well known for its upscaleness that some consumers jokingly express by calling the store "Whole Paycheck."

Claire Sullivan, community and vendor relations coordinator for Whole Foods in Hawai'i, said merchandise will be competitive with the local market. "We will be pricing to market," she said.

Annual sales for a Whole Foods store on average was $32 million in the company's last fiscal year ended September 2007.

But concerns over a weakened U.S. economy and slumping consumer confidence recently led Whole Foods to reduce the number and size of new stores under development.

"We believe that the economic hardships consumers are facing are impacting their behavior in various ways, from making fewer trips to making more conscious value decisions," the company said in a financial report earlier this month.

Whole Foods had expected to open 25 to 30 stores in the coming fiscal year, but has revised that goal to 15. The company in its last fiscal year and this year through Aug. 5 has opened stores averaging about 55,000 square feet. However, the average size for all Whole Foods stores is 34,000 square feet.

"We are 'right sizing' stores in development due to macro economic trends, and the Ward location has been reduced in size to accommodate those trends," Marci Frumkin, marketing director for the Whole Foods region that includes Hawai'i, said in a statement. "We are looking forward to a very successful store opening of the Ward store, following the opening of our Kahala Mall store."

Frumkin didn't say why the Ward store, which has been under construction for two years as part of a larger retail complex, parking structure and apartment tower, is being delayed by more than a year. Previously, the store's opening was projected for late this year.

Construction had been delayed a bit by repeated discoveries of iwi, or bones, on the site but away from the Whole Foods store area. As a result, developer and landowner General Growth Properties put the apartment tower and some other retail space on hold, but expects to open the parking garage later this year.