Whole Foods Market's first store is scheduled to open at 7 a.m. on Sept. 10 at Kahala Mall, the company announced today.

But a planned store at Ward Centers that was to be the company's two-story flagship in Hawai'i has been delayed by a year and reduced to about half its initially planned size.

The changes for the Ward store, which is now slated to open in 2010, are part of a chain-wide adjustment to open fewer and smaller stores in light of economic pressures that have hurt sales at Whole Foods stores nationwide.

Still, the company said it remains optimistic at its expansion prospects because of growth in the market for natural and organic products.

The Kahala store is the first of four stores Whole Foods plans to open in Hawai'i, and will be third-biggest at 28,000 square feet.

A 26,366-square-foot store at Maui Mall in Kahului is slated to open next year. The biggest store will be a store in Kailua on O'ahu at 40,000 square feet that is projected to open in 2010.

The Ward store initially was slated to open this year, and be 67,000 square feet on two levels. Now the store is slated to be 35,000 square feet on one level and open in the first quarter of 2010.