Following "a huge first month" of sales and then an unexpected downturn, the Sunflower Farmers Market in Santa Fe has been forced to lay off about 25 percent of its workers.

"It's unfortunate, but in these times, you gotta do what you gotta do," said Mike Gilliland, founder of the natural-foods chain that has 27 stores in six Western states.

About 30 people lost their jobs at the retail business in DeVargas Center, 199 Paseo de Peralta. Sunflower opened Aug. 11 in Santa Fe.

The store's grand opening was packed, and early sales were unexpectedly high, Gilliland said. "We had a huge first month that didn't seem to want to slow down. We hired 120 people to work in the store."

That turned out to be a mistake.

"After all the hubbub of opening, sales weren't as robust as we expected, although it's still above our average store," Gilliland said. "That led to the layoffs."

Gilliland said the cost of training the new employees — who were then laid off after only three months on the job — "is kind of hard to quantify," but may have been in the thousands of dollars.

Another factor in the job losses was the fact that Gilliland and his managers anticipated that the second Sunflower Market in Santa Fe, now under construction in Plaza San Isidro, off Cerrillos Road at Zafarano Drive, would be finished by now.

That would have allowed excess workers from the DeVargas Center store to be transferred to the new market.

Now, the new store isn't expected to open until Jan. 12, Gilliland said, explaining that it's impractical to open a new store until after the Christmas holidays.

Staffers who were laid off from the first Sunflower will be given preference for a job at the new store, Gilliland said.

Another factor in the layoffs was the fact that Gilliland expected a certain number of employees to leave their jobs after the store opened, but, because of the hard economic times and high jobless rate, few did so.

As for the rest of the workers at the store, "We're now staffed for the sales that we have," Gilliland said. "I can't give a bullet-proof guarantee, but we don't expect any further issues" that would result in layoffs.

Contact Bob Quick at 986-3011 or bobquick@sfnewmexican.com.