Southwest Florida is getting a new Whole Foods at the end of the month.

But, in a way, we’re almost getting two.

We’re less than three weeks away from the grand opening of the new Whole Foods at University Parkway and Honore Avenue, but while one construction crew has been putting on finishing touches on that store, another has been sprucing up the company's 13-year-old downtown Sarasota location.

What started as just signs announcing “We’re growing something good” following Amazon.com's acquisition of Whole Foods in June has evolved into a full renovation.

Work began at the store at 1451 1st St. in August and is expected to be completed at the end of February, according to Heather McCready, a spokeswoman for Whole Foods.

Anyone who visited the store in the early fall probably noticed a tarp or two and some new signs. Crews were still updating the frozen foods section when I was there Friday, and there was a large tarp hanging in the bakery.

Right after the acquisition, nothing felt all that different. That’s not the case now.

Just outside the market, there’s a new board that offers shoppers maps of the store and highlights some of the larger specials. They’ve added some areas and move around others, so if you haven’t shopped there for a while you’ll probably need the map.

As expected, there are Amazon lockers in the entryway near the carts, and while it’s certainly head-turning the first time you see the lockers where Amazon purchases can be delivered and returns can be left to be picked up, it’s not really what’s changing the store's overall vibe.

There’s a bright new sign that tells you to “love where you shop” and, once you’re inside, you’ll see the renovations might be giving customers a few new reasons to love the high-end, organic grocer.

The store has moved the coffee and juice bar from the prepared foods section to a spot near the entrance where the flower section once stood. There’s a new “juice on tap” system that allows customers to customize servings of cold-pressed juices.

When I was there Friday, shoppers had their choice of deep green, deep beet, orange, sweet green, apple and sweet carrot juices. The taps allow you to choose one or blend a few of them together. If you’ve ever had the urge to act like a kid and mix all the fountain sodas together at a restaurant, this is your chance — but without all the added sugar. You’ll probably have a much more palatable result, too.

The coffee side of that operation has also added a La Marzocco espresso machine and nitro cold brew coffee to its offerings.

Knocking out the old juice bar gave the store more room to amp up its prepared-foods section. McCready told me the hot-foods bar quadrupled in size and the salad bar doubled. There’s more space for things like soups, chowders and rotisserie chicken and a whole section dedicated to international foods. They’ve also got a new offering that is a partnership with the Nom Nom Paleo brand to make to-go food that McCready said fits into the company’s “feed your resolution" campaign that was announced this time last year.

The store has also added a bright new sign over the deli that reads “Chefs on 1st,” which nods to the downtown store’s location at First Street and North Lemon Avenue. The bakery, produce and seafood sections all sport vibrant, updated signs, too.

It’s not all cosmetic, though. The Whole Foods and Amazon partnership really seems to be working on the company’s reputation. Somewhere between the company's customary steep prices and specialty groceries, the organic grocer picked up the nickname “whole paycheck,” but lately all signs point to a serious attempt to shake that image.

The market is decked out with large, circular, yellow sale signs in a way that we wouldn’t have seen just a year ago, but there’s more to it than that. They’ve gone as far as to splatter the store with “new lower price” signs that highlight products that have been cut in cost since the merger.

Whether those items will keep you from spending a whole paycheck or calling it that remains to be seen, but it’s an obvious step in a more affordable direction. 

It’s likely also a glimpse of what’s to come.

The $13.7 billion deal between Amazon.com and Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods Market sent a tremor through the brick-and-mortar grocery industry. The e-commerce giant that has been battering traditional retail for the past few years now had a whole new threat — more than 460 stores in the U.S. and Canada to mold and update as Amazon saw fit.

That store off University Parkway would be among the first in the country and the second in the Sunshine State to open with Amazon’s hands and deep pockets involved. A location in Dadeland is slated to open this week.

I’ve been eying that shell on University Parkway since last summer, wondering what the new partnership could mean for the organic grocery market in Sarasota. Construction there has dragged on for months, so I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s been watching it.

But if we wanted to see what Amazon and Whole Foods were up to, really all we had to do was look downtown.

Maggie Menderski, the Herald-Tribune's retail and tourism reporter, can be reached at 941-361-4951 or maggie.menderski@heraldtribune.com. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @MaggieMenderski.