Just an hour after Whole Foods Market opened the doors to its new store at 777 The Alameda on Dec. 9, customers were lined up six deep at the seafood counter.

The draw was the market’s opening special on fresh crab–$3.99 a pound–and there was little relief in sight for the workers prepping the crustaceans for the dinner table.

“They’ve been cracking away all morning,” said a bemused co-worker.

Less than a mile away, business wasn’t as brisk at Race Street Seafood Kitchen, which started selling fresh crab on Dec. 8 for the first time after closing its retail operations in October 2012.

“We haven’t done any advertising,” said Russ Hannah, who is managing Race Street’s retail revival. The only indications that the seafood kitchen, located at 253 Race St., has crab for sale are on its marquee and a small sign in the front window.

And even those who’ve seen the signage might be loathe to pay the $10.98 per pound that Race Street is charging, given that Whole Foods is letting go for less than half that amount. But Hannah said there’s a reason for this big pricing gap.

“We order only select-size crab. Ocean-run crab is whatever’s legal; it’s what grocery stores usually sell.”

Select-size crabs are 1¾ lbs. or larger, he explained, while ocean-run crabs can be as small as a pound. Larger crabs have a higher meat-to-shell ratio, he added.

“In 100 pounds of crab, you’ll get 10, maybe 20 crabs that are [select] size,” Hannah said. “The rest will be a pound or a pound and a quarter.”

Hannah has some insight to what the competition is selling since he was training to work at Whole Foods’ seafood counter until the day before Thanksgiving. The Whole Foods team members had been eating their lunches at the seafood kitchen, where Hannah had worked when it was still Race Street Fish and Poultry. Hannah ran into his old boss, who hired him back.

In addition to crab, Race Street’s retail sales include the fish that’s served in its kitchen. “All the food here [also] goes to the restaurant to be cooked,” Hannah said. “We’ll keep it like this through the holidays then expand [our selection] a little more.”