Whole Foods’ gimmicky shenanigans are a well documented phenomenon. We’ve covered just about everything — the company’s produce butcher, their infamous six dollar asparagus water, eco-friendly pre-peeled oranges, and even the introduction of vinyl records AT A GROCER. We scratched our heads at Whole Foods’ curious frivolity, but the company’s vision is finally starting to make sense. With the emergence of one fierce competitor, Whole Foods has felt the loss of millions of customers and we’re starting to believe they saw it coming from miles away. Hence all that desperate scheming.
According to Karen Short, an analyst for Barclays, Whole Foods has lost as many as 14 million customers in the past six quarters to none other than Kroger. The conventional grocery store recently bolstered its organic food supply in an effort to lure customers away from Whole Foods and other organic food markets and their efforts appear to be working. According to Business Insider, last year, the sale of natural and organic foods at Kroger totaled $16 billion compared to $15.8 billion sold at Whole Foods.
These numbers should be taken with a grain of salt, however, considering that there are six times as many Kroger stores as there are Whole Foods Markets. (Also as a side pro tip, keep in mind that foods labeled “natural” might not indicate what you think they do.)
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In any case, Short explained that customers choosing to shop at Kroger instead of Whole Foods are unlikely to go back. “The magnitude of the traffic declines … is staggering,” Short said. “As most retailers know — once traffic has been lost, those patterns rarely reverse.” Just ask Chipotle!
It’s no surprise that people are making the switch. Business Insider reported a 15% difference in the price of Kroger’s “Simple Truth” organic line and average prices at Whole Foods. The company’s CEO addressed growing competition from traditional grocers in February saying, “The more conventional mainstream supermarkets have upped their game. We’re going to do the best job that we can to keep our core customers from migrating back over to those guys.”
While we wait to see what wacky charade Whole Foods uses to reign in its core customers, we will graciously toss them this organic bone: lower your GD prices. It’s the only way!
(Via Business Insider)
