The opening of the Whole Foods in Longmont, originally scheduled for next month, has been pushed back.

“There is a delay, we know that,” said Heather Larrabee, executive marketing coordinator at the company’s Rocky Mountain Regional office in Boulder. “There should be an announcement next week.”

Whole Foods is slated to be the south anchor of the 480,000-square-foot Village at the Peaks retail complex.

In October, project developer Allen Ginsborg of NewMark Merrill Mountain States told the Times-Call that Whole Foods “is on track to open as planned in late January.”

That opening is now in question.

In recent weeks, social media has exploded with questions about the natural foods grocer, with speculation that the store might not open at all.

The company itself has not had a banner year, and faces stiffer competition in the natural food industry.

Last year, for instance, Wal-Mart announced it would begin lowering prices of its organic products by as much as 25 percent.

Also this year the company unveiled a new concept called 365 that will target shoppers looking for organic foods at lower prices.

Last month, Whole Foods reported quarterly earnings that were below expectations.

During a call with investors in November, the company said it had eliminated 2,000 jobs and planned to reduce expenses by $300 million by 2017 as part of a new business plan.

“We recognize we have our work cut out for us,” said John Mackey, Whole Foods co-founder and co-CEO in the investor call. “We believe we are taking the necessary steps to regain our sales momentum, fundamentally evolve our business model and produce the returns that the investment community expects and that we expect from ourselves.”

Whole Foods would not comment on whether any of this plays into the situation with the Longmont store.

Longmont city officials also declined to comment.

“We believe we’ll hear something early next week, from Whole Foods, about what their plans are,” Ginsborg said Tuesday afternoon.

Larrabee at the Whole Foods regional office would not confirm nor deny whether the Longmont location would open during 2016.

Attempts to reach senior executives with the company at their Austin, TX headquarters were not successful.

Whole Foods employs 91,000 people through its 434 stores worldwide.

On Wall Street Tuesday, Whole Foods (NASDAQ:WFM) was down .37 a share, closing at $32.97.

Vince Winkel: 303-684-5291, winkelv@times-call.com or twitter.com/vincewinkel