I used to go to Whole Foods on Fridays after work to get growlers of microbrewery draft beer to bring home. And that's it.
Posted on 03/28/2017 2:20:32 PM PDT by drewh
New market data has somehow managed to make Whole Foods’ beleaguered lot look even worse. On top of reports last week that rival Albertsons was sniffing around Sprouts Farmers Market, an upstart organic grocer and wellness store whose prices are about 19 percent cheaper on average than Whole Foods, there are now some new numbers suggesting the high-end grocery chain is also still hemorrhaging shoppers.
Foot traffic has dipped once again, Barclays analysts note, straight-up describing the magnitude this time as “staggering.” Technically, it’s 3 percent, which can make “staggering” seem a little far-fetched — until you consider it translates into 14 million lost customers who would’ve spent an average of between $30 to $50.
An even harder pill to swallow? Those shoppers had to go somewhere, and it looks like Kroger — not a place most people visit for their kale ice cream or tofu-ginger rice muffins — is the primary benefactor.
It now has multiple aisles of natural foods (many of which are available under the company’s own organic house brand, Simple Truth), as well as a formidable selection of organic produce.
Prices are, no surprise, less than the cost of similar items at Whole Foods; and that no doubt partly explains why, per Barclays’s figures, Kroger did $16 billion in organic and natural-food sales last year, while Whole Foods did just $15.8 billion.
(This is a little apples to oranges, since Kroger has 2,796 locations and Whole Foods has 462, but still.)
It’s not as if Whole Foods isn’t trying. The company’s lower-price 365 spinoff line was created specifically to neuter conventional supermarkets, which CEO John Mackey admits, “have upped their game.”
He’s added that they’re “going to do the best job that we can” to keep people from “migrating back over to those guys,” but data suggest a migrated customer is a gone customer. “As most retailers know,” the Barclays report says, “once traffic has been lost, those patterns rarely reverse.”
Publix is on a major expansion in the SE and intentionally builds next door, across the street or as close as it can get to the most upscale grocer in town who takes the biggest hit from the newcomer.
Paid a visit to Kroger while visiting my daughter in Ohio (they bailed out of Pittsburgh 30 yrs. ago due to union problems).
Since I don’t live near any myself I did not have their little blue shopper discount card. Do NOT shop there without one! They charged me full rippin’ retail for EVERYTHING.
I used to go to Whole Foods on Fridays after work to get growlers of microbrewery draft beer to bring home. And that's it.
It’s just too expensive. Why pay 7.99 lb for “organic” chicken when “inorganic” cost .79 lb and tastes the same off the grill?
I know someone couldn’t afford Folgers so he settled on Kroger coffee. Says it’s better.
Kroger openly welcomes shoppers who carry.
The think I like about Kroger is that when they acquire a local supermarket chain, they keep the local branding, and add the Kroger Quality Control and house brands. So you essentially have a local supermarket, but your loyalty card is good all over the country.
They continuously rose in price the last 8 years while Obama was in office. I'm guessing Wholesale Foods have lost a lot of their business due to the higher cost of organic goods from the younger veagan and hipster customers who found out you have to make your vehicle payments every month or they come repossess it.
Wegman’s is the answer.
My daughter says that when people ask her what’s so great about Wegmans (obviously someone who has never heard of it before) she tells them to think Whole Foods with three times the quality at half the cost.
The major food chain in our region, Food City, announced this week online sales for pick up at the store. My wife hopped on immediately but was disappointed to learn it was being rolled at only one store.
She pretty much lives on her computer or kindle and the grocery list made on line as she thinks of things can be put in the shopping cart and ready when she goes to the store.
such an ability will save her time and more importantly, walking
Even better - go to Aldi. The best grocery store on the planet in terms of prices and quality.
Yep.
People shop from their computer, pay with their card and swing by on their way home.
It is a five minute or less stop, you have all your shopping done and you never had to leave your air conditioned or heated car.
Organic Arugula framed by Rainbow children, fertilized with organic Yak poop, watered with limestone-filtered water, lovingly picked by organic virgins and costing half a paycheck gets really old after a while; one eventually craves Wendy’s Chili or the like.
1. The indy/gourmet food producers have better online services and don’t necessarily need WF to get their unique item to customers. Without the fun stuff why go there?
2. There is usually a local alternative that can beat them. Being a locavore is trendy.
3. We had a new Whole Foods open up in an area that has one boutique grocery store and our local version of Kroger’s “limited service” store as the competition. People were worried about the boutique store. I wasn’t. I thought that Whole Foods’ biggest competition would the Whole Foods 4 miles away.
4. The expansion and improvement of take home meals, organic foods, whole foods and gluten free products at a regular store give more people a one stop shop.
5. Gluten Free foods are more trendy than Whole Foods now.
You barbarian!/sarc
I hate both of these markets which are gun-free zones.
“Health food stores” not inducive to my health.
Looks like an ongoing attempt by LIBERALS to put WHOLE FOODS out of business because they detest the CEO’s opinion on OBAMACARE.
Whole Foods threatened with boycott by liberal customers after CEO compares Obamacare to ‘fascism’
In my neck of the woods(Middle Georgia), there is no Whole Foods.
I mostly shop at Kroger, hit some BOGOs at Publix, and sometimes go to the new Walmart Neighborhood Market(sells food and toiletries)... which I can actually get in and out of very quickly.
“The think I like about Kroger is that when they acquire a local supermarket chain, they keep the local branding, and add the Kroger Quality Control and house brands. So you essentially have a local supermarket, but your loyalty card is good all over the country.”
Kroger’s is one of the few big companies that is smart about its acquisitions, leaving purchased chains in better shape than before the acquisition.
King Soopers in Colorado has always been awesome, but is even better after Kroger bought it.
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