Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Industry Analysts: Whole Foods Traffic Declines Are ‘Staggering’ (Kroger picking up)
Grub Street ^ | March 28, 2017 | By Clint Rainey

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.”


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: krogers; supermarkets; wholefoods
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 101 next last
To: drewh

Gee, who woulda thunk price would determine volume


41 posted on 03/28/2017 3:23:05 PM PDT by onona (Keeping the faith will be our new directive for the republic !)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: metmom

Wegmans building in NJ (very close) and I cannot wait !!


42 posted on 03/28/2017 3:24:21 PM PDT by onona (Keeping the faith will be our new directive for the republic !)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: drewh

WF is expensive, but their produce and meat are excellent. Their 365 organic stuff is good, also. I do not like the anti-gun policy, but to their credit, WF keeps armed security at the stores I go to.

Folks who think that cheap, factory farmed “medical meat” is the same as organic are misinformed. Grass-fed beef and heirloom chicken are completely different than their conventional, GMO-fed, antibiotics-pumped counterparts. I would rather switch to vegan than consume the conventional trash.

Part of the long term solution to health care should be relatively small-scale family farming, preferably organic.


43 posted on 03/28/2017 3:24:24 PM PDT by SecAmndmt (Arm yourselves!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: drewh
Kroger's isn't here​ in Florida, but we go to Publix, Greenwise (Publix natural supermarket), Winn Dixie, The Fresh Market, Aldi (Good store), WalMart and even Save A Lot, but Sprouts opened up last week and we visited it, along with Trader's Joe. We mostly like WD, which is cheaper than Publix, but Florida is dominated by one store - Publix. Food is expensive...In Connecticut, we had Stop and Shop, dominating, but IGA, Big Y, Price Chopper and Shop Rite competed, too. (Along with independent food stores).
44 posted on 03/28/2017 3:27:33 PM PDT by Deplorable American1776 (Proud to be a DeplorableAmerican with a Deplorable Family...even the dog is DEPLORABLE :-))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Conserv

Yes, Aldi can’t be your only store. I usually hit it every couple of weeks. The same with the big Walmart. The small Walmart grocery is for day to day, and the Kroger when I need something unusual or fancy. Fiesta is for specialty items or a cross cultural experience, but they probably have the freshest produce.


45 posted on 03/28/2017 3:29:56 PM PDT by PAR35
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 40 | View Replies]

To: drewh

The younger generation that isn’t obsessed with Organics and non Gluten bs started labeling Whole Foods as Whole Pay Check a few years ago.

More and more people are figuring that out.


46 posted on 03/28/2017 3:31:07 PM PDT by Grampa Dave ( The illusion of Trump-is-Hitler has been fully replaced with Trump-is-incompetent meme on 3/24/2017)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Buckeye McFrog

Don’t they have a “store card” if you ask at the register?

Many chains do, to avoid pissing off customers who are on vacation, but you have to ask.


47 posted on 03/28/2017 3:32:05 PM PDT by Pearls Before Swine
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: PGR88

How about Price Chopper/Market 32? I heard from my brother that Wegmans might be expanding into Connecticut. They just opened a store in the Boston area...


48 posted on 03/28/2017 3:32:43 PM PDT by Deplorable American1776 (Proud to be a DeplorableAmerican with a Deplorable Family...even the dog is DEPLORABLE :-))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: drewh

I used to go to Whole Foods a lot but the regular supermarkets have really upped their game by offering many of the quality foods WF sells at much lower prices. Basically stay on the perimeters of a typical supermarket and you’ll do OK. But I do dart into the beer aisle!


49 posted on 03/28/2017 3:35:30 PM PDT by SamAdams76
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: catnipman

The exact opposite of how Safeway destroyed the longstanding Dominick’s chain in and around Chicago.


50 posted on 03/28/2017 3:36:05 PM PDT by M1903A1 ("We shed all that is good and virtuous for that which is shoddy and sleazy... and call it progress")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: jjsheridan5

I like the air-chilled chicken. You can really tell the difference.


51 posted on 03/28/2017 3:40:03 PM PDT by SamAdams76
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: drewh

I hate the prices of organic foods. People who do buy only organic foods think they are protecting themselves from getting cancer. They do not realize most that cancer is the results of DNA copy errors:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3538499/posts

High-energy radiation, such as x-rays, gamma rays, alpha particles, beta particles, and neutrons, can damage DNA play a large part of environmentally caused cancer. Up to 10% of invasive cancers are related to radiation exposure. Another environmental cause of cancer is tobacco. How many people smoke tobacco and buy at Whole Foods because they fear getting cancer? How many people lay out in the sun or go to tanning salons and buy Whole Foods’ organic to avoid cancer. Yet, there is little data that conventional methods of food production cause more cancerous outcomes. To me the entire organic industry is a marketing strategy playing on people’s uneducated fears.


52 posted on 03/28/2017 3:45:47 PM PDT by jonrick46 (The Left has a mental illness: A totalitarian psyche.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Harmless Teddy Bear

you never had to leave your air conditioned or heated car.

___________________

Yeah because having a life cuts into screen time. sarc


53 posted on 03/28/2017 3:46:28 PM PDT by Chickensoup (Leftists today are speaking as if they plan to commence to commit genocide against conservatives.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: drewh

Never went to the Whole Foods across town in Richmond. There are a few other niche stores like Trader Joe’s and Tom Leonard’s Farmer’s Market right near them.

I’m on the southwest side of Richmond, close in. Within maybe a 5 or 6 mile radius, we have:

Kroger x 3
Martin’s - formerly Ukrop’s stores (had 4, now down to a couple and fading)
Walmart x 2
Food Lion x 4
Aldi (new) x 2
Wegman’s (new)
Fresh Market
Grand Mart (ethnic foods)
under construction: Lidl

All the grocery experts think our small area is completely saturated, but they keep on coming. I guess the damned Yankees moving into this area have money.


54 posted on 03/28/2017 3:52:53 PM PDT by USMCPOP (Father of LCpl. Karl Linn, KIA 1/26/2005 Al Haqlaniyah, Iraq)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Chickensoup
If you enjoy walking around a store then more power to ya.

Me, I would rather be home with my family, cooking dinner.

55 posted on 03/28/2017 4:00:54 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (Not a Romantic, not a hero worshiper and stop trying to tug my heartstrings. It tickles! (pink bow))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 53 | View Replies]

To: Cowgirl of Justice

Went into Sprouts today on Falls of Neuse Road in Raleigh for the first time and was surprised by the prices they had there. I thought they would be as expensive as Whole Foods but they are not. Found that the place is open, airy, and light. Want to go back again.


56 posted on 03/28/2017 4:02:40 PM PDT by NCSUgirl4ever
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: jonrick46
People who do buy only organic foods think they are protecting themselves from getting cancer.

People buy organic foods for a wide variety of reasons, not just cancer prevention (actually, I have never heard people give that as a reason, but it doesn't come up much).

To me the entire organic industry is a marketing strategy playing on people’s uneducated fears.

To some degree, absolutely. Especially among wealthier, urban/inner suburb, food snobs. But there are a much less demonstrative, yet broader, group of people who tend to be very conscious of how food is prepared, and who are just trying to make the best, most informed, decisions they can. I wouldn't be so quick to judge them, since you are painting with a very big brush.
57 posted on 03/28/2017 4:13:52 PM PDT by jjsheridan5
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 52 | View Replies]

To: PGR88
My Wegman’s stinks. It went from being a great store with a tremendous fresh produce department to being the usual stuff. They got rid of their amazing hot pepper selection and wonderful fresh greens for the usual hydroponic stuff . Also, years ago, it got rid of local and international products in favor of its own brand. I don't need Wegman pasta or peanut butter when I'm looking for DeCecco or Skippy. I always have to go to another store to make up for what Wegman’s forgets - which seems to be everything. Then they got rid of Kosher chicken which is superior to even organic chicken! I can't even get Poland Springs Water there these days! I use it primarily for bread and Parmesan cheese when I can't get to my brilliant little grocery store in Little Silver called Sickles. They also did away with the fresh pizzas, fresh coffees, etc. and the nice places to sit and consume it all. Sad.
58 posted on 03/28/2017 4:14:43 PM PDT by miss marmelstein
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: drewh

A Whole Foods store a couple of miles from my house opened a year ago. It is closed now. We have no Krogers in Utah. But we have Trader Joes now. Whole Foods is insanely expensive. Watch the people come out of the store. You will seldom see anyone with more than one bag.

Another interesting thing is that food in usual supermarkets is less expensive in Utah than say SoCal. Yet WF is more expensive in Utah than LA. This indicates severe price gouging by WF in Utah. At least in Utah you don’t get harassed by faggots with their stupid petitions in the parking lot like you do in LA.

WF has also severely curtailed their stocks of supplements. So there’s no point in having an expensive organic store when Walmart and Smiths and others are carrying organic stuff cheaper. WF can go belly up afaic.


59 posted on 03/28/2017 4:17:49 PM PDT by Seruzawa (I keel you Vorga feelthy.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Harmless Teddy Bear; drewh

The Kroger store nearest me has that “ClickList” pickup. I think the local Walmart has it now.

The recent Kroger Marketplace (largest store in the Mid-Atlantic region) even has a satellite police station. Said they would walk you to your car on request. The former Cloverleaf Mall site isn’t in the nicest of areas.


60 posted on 03/28/2017 4:18:08 PM PDT by USMCPOP (Father of LCpl. Karl Linn, KIA 1/26/2005 Al Haqlaniyah, Iraq)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 101 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson