OAKLAND — A crowd of people lined up bright and early Wednesday outside a new Sprouts Farmers Market grocery store in Oakland’s Auto Row, but unlike other lines around the city that day, they weren’t there to buy tickets for the record-breaking Powerball lottery.

These customers were in search of something with a more immediate payoff — such as fresh organic produce, meat and other items typically found at more upscale stores. By 6:30 a.m., about 30 people had gathered outside the front entrance, sipping coffee and munching muffins provided by the store as the staff of about 100 made last-minute finishing touches inside.

After cutting a ceremonial red ribbon, employees counted down the final 10 seconds until the doors were flung open. “We’re so excited to see you!” a manager said while handing each customer a 20 percent-off coupon.

“I think it’s marvelous,” said Izola Millicam, who’s lived in Oakland with her husband, Felton, since 1961. “They’re going to be selling some good fruit. We’re here early to check it out.”

“It’s a great location. Looks like a fine market,” said Bernie Lichtenstein, an East Oakland resident. “Sort of a larger Trader Joe’s, smaller Berkeley Bowl.”

The new store is a boon for the changing mid-Broadway area of Oakland between downtown and Interstate 580. It now boasts three grocery stores — Sprouts, Grocery Outlet and Whole Foods — while residents of many flatland neighborhoods often must travel farther to find a full-service grocery store with wide variety of fresh, affordable food and household staples.

The new Sprouts has parking near the front entrance as well as on the rooftop. There’s also a patio area on the roof, as well as limited seating inside. The Oakland outlet boasts the first salad bar of the chain’s Bay Area stores and, like all Sprouts, has a full-service deli and meat department. It also offers an extensive natural vitamin and skin care selection and, of course, bulk foods — chocolate-covered toffee pieces, anyone?

Gabe Moreno, the first in line, works in a nearby doctor’s office and was waiting along with co-worker Marci Gottlieb. “I’m excited about the produce they’re going to have here,” said Moreno, who said he would eat there for lunch.

In his basket were ripe avocados for the guacamole he planned to make for his fellow workers. Gottlieb picked up a roasted chicken for dinner. “It’s better than we were expecting,” she said.

Co-worker Irma Marticorena soon joined the two. “I know it’s a lot like Whole Foods, but it’s a little more affordable,” she said.

The chain is often compared to Whole Foods because of its similar product mix. According to a 2014 Bloomberg study, Sprouts’ prices averaged 13 percent less than Whole Foods.

A visit to the nearby Whole Foods bore that out, mostly. For instance, fresh bone-in chicken thighs with the skin on were $1.25 per pound at Sprouts and $4.99 per pound at Whole Foods. “Previously frozen” sockeye salmon was $8.99 per pound at Sprouts, whereas “wild, previously frozen” sockeye was $16.99 per pound at Whole Foods. The Sprouts sockeye did not indicate whether it was wild or farmed.

But Dr. Bronner’s Hemp Peppermint liquid soap was more of a bargain at Whole Foods, $11.99 compared with $16.99 for a 32-ounce bottle. And there was a mere 1 cent difference for a 25-ounce jar of pasta sauce.

Comparisons to Whole Foods aside, Gottlieb, a 25-year resident of the city, said, “We want them both to thrive.”