Boulder, CO-based Wild Oats only currently has a handful of its own stores in the Northeast, two in Connecticut, three in the Boston area and one in Princeton, NJ. The store-within-a-store concept with Stop & Shop could help expose customers to the Wild Oats brand, Sonja Tuitele, a company spokeswoman, tells GSR. "We thought it was a great fit because we don't have a lot of store density in the Northeast," she says.

The retailer would also consider further expansion into other Stop & Shop units (the grocer has 360 Northeastern stores) if the partnership proves successful. Wild Oats executives will also look at other metro markets where the chain does not have a large brick and mortar presence, Tuitele says. The potential is there for quite a few partnerships since the company only has 111 stores in 24 states and is looking to have a total of 450 units across the country.

The response to another marriage has been good so far Tuitele says. "We've had several other retailers wanting to partner with us," she says.