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.”
In my NJ town, Whole Foods has been dragging its feet in putting up its store for about 4 years. I pass it every day and NOTHING is going on. Luckily, I found it in Princeton about a half hour from my home. We have no Krogers in NJ/NY so I either depend on WFs, Wegmans (which stinks), my brilliant local food market (summer) or the Union Square Market.
Where I live in Alabama, we have Walmart, Winn-Dixie and Piggly-Wiggly.
Walmart is the best deal pricewise.
We got a new store in town called Super Foods. They sell mostly to welfare people (EBT/SNAP), so their prices are cheaper than Walmart. But quality? Actually, not too bad if you like chitlins and greens! Seriously, good prices and quality on Soul/Southern food ingredients.
Whole Foods business model is doomed.....................
I wish Public would come to Houston. I think they might put a dent in HEB.
I think you get a certain elitist group that goes there. They want to be seen buying there. They have no consideration of money. It’s just, who’ll see me buying here. It’s a status thing.
Who could justify paying their prices? What a waste of money.
I don’t care how much money I had, and at times I have access to a pretty fair sum of it, I just don’t burn money if I can avoid it. It really rubs me the wrong way.
I always like your opinions - why does Wegman’s “stink?”
In our area of upstate NY, we have a bunch of discount chains, which is fine for stuff like non-branded Ketchup or super-cheap, thin toilet paper (I swear its from China) and then Wegmans, who has a much better selection of products.
I too enjoy grocery shopping. My King Sooper is a 15min walk so I do a lot of same day shopping for dinner.
Yep. Once you go Wegmans you never want to go anywhere else.
I’ve never shopped at Whole Paycheck. I just don’t seem to need those $6.00 jars of asparagus water, and if I did, I’d make my own. Walmart, Aldi, Kroger, Fiesta usually in that order. I don’t shop at the overpriced Safeway turned Albertsons, either.
Wal Mart is already doing exactly that. One of the local ones even built a large canopy at the pick up area, and signage and lane striping to the Pickup area...the motif is orange and white.
Another one of the local grocery stores will deliver to your house.
They would have given you one at customer service if you had asked. Just make up a phone number and email address to keep them off your back.
If you are nice to the cashier, sometimes they will pull out their card and scan it. You get the discount, they get the credit toward the discount gasoline.
Interesting trivia - you can use your Kroger card at their other chains. I used mine without any trouble at Ralphs in Southern California while on a business trip.
Whole Foods are big LGBT supporters.
Used to be we’d stop in their parking lot to laugh at the sickly looking hippies go in to shop.
Walmart offers that here. They started with 10 spaces, they are up to 10 now. And, it being Texas, they've put up a huge sun shade over the spaces. You call the number on the sign when you get there.
Kroger has started a similar service to try to compete, but their spaces are out in the regular parking lot - obviously an improvised arrangement instead of having been carefully designed.
We are supposed to get a Wegman’s here in Raleigh soon - just got a Sprouts and it is WONDERFUL!!!
I'll second that motion. What I can't get at Aldi I'll buy at Wal-Mart, which is high-priced by comparison. ;o)
I wanted to come back to the thread and apologize to anyone I may have offended with these remarks. My opinions are sometimes too pointed. I did not mean to insult the folks who do shop at Whole Foods. I’m sure I did, so I apologize.
I was too thoughtless in the way I approached the topic.
That really varies by location.
“I’ve never shopped at Whole Paycheck”
LOL
I do buy some produce at Aldi’s, but it is very hit and miss. And, they get cleaned out a lot. Sometimes there’s nothing there to buy.
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