Can Whole Foods Serve Chicago Southside Soul Analysis

As I walked into Wawa, I could confidently tell you where everything is because the layouts of every Wawa in New Jersey are almost identical. There is a wall of refrigerators filled with soda to the right as you walk in, a side of the store towards the back reserved for making sandwiches, endless shelves of junk food by the registers at the front entrance and the refrigerators filled with soda, and an open freezer area in the middle of the store with some “healthier” foods. The amount of people inside took me completely by surprise as I opened the door because there was a lack of cars parked in the parking lot. I personally felt like I was in a grocery store rather than a Wawa. What I first noticed was the demographic of the customers in the Wawa. Almost all of the people in the store were either hispanic or african american. With people suffering from poverty and a lack of cars in the parking lot, I realized that many of these people walked to the store probably because they didn’t have cars. As I browsed through each aisle I found that Wawa had a nice selection of milk, fresh bread, and cereals that anyone can afford. As I attempted to search the store for any food filled with quality nutrients that wasn’t a dairy or wheat, the number of options weren’t to thrilling. Wawa’s fresh fruit consisted of about 5 red apples, 3 bananas,

All food should be available to all people. The concept of this is dwelled on in the article, “Food justice and Food retail in Los Angeles” by Mark Valliantos. Throughout the article, Valliantos maintains the notion that healthy food should be within everyone’s reach, yet inner cities are still suffering from shortages of fresh produce. To see this issue in action, Valliantos documented this reoccurring phenomenon in Los Angeles. The author gives a description of two areas within the city of Los Angeles, and how they are economically divided based on the amount of healthy produce one has at its disposal. He makes note of programs that already exist to help low income families receive healthy foods that they could not afford. He also

Whole Foods is a retailer that specializes in organic foods and it has done an excellent job of determining its target market and how to position itself. Instead of going head to head with large food retailers such as Wal-Mart, Whole Foods has found a niche market that works perfectly for itself. This niche market is one that prides itself on being health conscious and environmentally responsible and Whole Foods has done a great job of positioning itself in the same way through its environmentally safe actions and its use of the local community to stock its stores. However, as Whole Foods grows and expands, a person has to wonder if the company will be able to maintain this same position or will have to make

Collectively, there are fewer full service stores in wards 5, 7, and 8 than in ward 3 alone. These wards can be referred to as a ‘food desert’, urban neighborhoods or rural towns without access to fresh, healthy and affordable foods. This is a large contributor to the problem. If someone cannot easily access the right foods, are they expected to go out of their way to get it? Perhaps, but it certainly isn’t the reality.

These conflicts exist in the demographics served by Whole Foods – the elite and well to do. If Mackey is a conscious capitalist and servant leader and practices what he preaches he would have stores which are accessible to persons of all demographics. This has been the main complaint against Mackey and the one which the potential to damage his credibility as a servant leader and conscious capitalist and thus the good work of his legacy. Recently Mackey acknowledged the weakness of his legacy this and answered the call to provide good food for people of all incomes be creating Whole Food’s Market 365 stores, which only sell the stores brand. The 365 stores will have price points which are easily affordable to persons of middle and lower income (Kowitt,

The factors that would appeal to working at Whole Foods are that they values employees. When a company give employees the resources they need to be successful, this goes a long way with the employee. The employee feels empowered, will be loyal the company, and to management. Employees will go out of their way for the company if management makes them feel valued and appreciated (Kainkan, (2015. Knowing that management ways you to be successful makes the employee want to do everything they can to do exceptional quality work for the customers and are committed to achieving the company’s goal. This dedication is directly benefited by profits for the company.

Whole Foods Market Inc. is known as America’s healthiest grocery store. The company has been recognized as “Most Admired 2015 Companies” and “Top 100 Companies to Work For” by Fortune for eighteen years, stating, “The supermarket chain has redefined grocery shopping in the U.S”. The establishment has been also been ranked at number 3 on the list of America’s most reputable companies in the retail industry. The recognitions and awards represent the decades of passion and dedication of the Whole Foods Market’s

As of September 2015 Whole Foods Incorporated had 431 stores in the United States, Britain and Scotland. Over the years since its inception Whole Foods Incorporated has grown steadily recording high revenues that have made it to be recognized as a Fortune 500 company. It has accomplished this by sticking to its original mission of retailing organic foods in a market where other retail stores mainly retail processed foods that are high in calories and hydrogenated fats. During the 2008 recession, revenues in Whole Foods Inc. dropped as this company struggled to meet its operation costs with a receding number of shoppers, this caused the company to close some of its stores in Britain for failing to meet is profitability targets (Market, 2008).

The reason that management needs to keep a close eye on these companies is because many of these chains have started to create special organic and health food sections in an attempt to tap into the organic market. The reason that this could cause serious issues for Whole Foods is because “the higher prices that we charge for many of our products has prompted some media critics to dub Whole Foods as “Whole Paycheck,” a term that resonated with price-sensitive grocery shoppers who had visited a Whole Foods store”. This could drive them to enter competitors’ stores that are viewed as “discounters” to get the better deal in their mind. Some consumers however are able to overlook the exaggerated pricing of Whole Foods due to being “enchanted with the company’s product offerings and shopping experience”. This has been shown as many new customers that enter Whole Foods are often “awed by their perishables as we devote more space to fresh fruits and vegetables, including an extensive selection of organics, than most of our competitors”.

Whole Foods Market has a reputable history as a desired place to work. It has been placed in prestigious lists such as Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For”, Ethisphere “World’s Most Ethical Companies” and the “Top 150 National Workplaces” (Whole Food Market, 2015) Which web page?. Such accomplishments endorse Whole Foods as a key player in the supermarket industry and an excellent model for competitors.

Whole Foods’ core values are indeed sincere, especially where a sense of community is concerned. For example, Whole Foods sponsors the program, “Whole Planet Foundation” where small loans are granted to individuals in impoverished areas of the world to start a small business utilizing a special skill or trade; Whole Foods also assists with financing low-interest loans to local farmers to ensure their continued livelihood to provide locally grown produce and livestock; Whole Foods also participates in their annual “5% Day”, where 5% of the day’s net profit from each store is donated to a chosen local non-profit charity. Whole Foods does not limit their motto and core values just to print – they are proactive in what they believe in.

According to an article that was published by the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, many grocers are finding that customers are changing their preferences about their food, and are now wanting fresh foods and organic foods in their local supermarkets. This paired with increasing transportation costs are causing grocers to rethink the ideas and processes of large centralized distribution centers (Ernst & Woods, 2012).

Coming to 2016, Whole Foods aiming to extend their market to a broader audience in a way that still

Canton had many restaurants and markets and supermarkets and food sources, but Madison had just a couple corner stores and one “supermarket”. Combined with the data we gathered from research that half of Madison residents do not have access to cars, we identified that Madison might be a “food desert”. A food desert is a place where it is exceedingly difficult to find food, and harder to find healthy hood, and even more expensive. The people in Madison have very limited options in terms of access to food, and are thus forced to spend comparatively more of their resources in order to access the food they need. I thought the “day in the market’ initiative put on by Johns Hopkins University was an important first step, but I am not sure if it does enough to meet the needs of the

According to Harrison (2014), “Whole Foods Market has grown into a natural and organic food empire, with nearly 400 locations, more than 80,000 employees, and annual sales exceeding $12 billion,”, and it has continued to expand to 460 locations since then. Amazon is looking to amplify their business through Whole Food’s numerous locations all over the world. Whole Foods has acquired the nickname “Whole Paycheck” due to the high prices of their groceries (Wingfield & Merced, 2017, para. 8), and because of this aspect, they struggled to compete with stores such as Walmart and Kroger who have reasonable pricing. They often have better and healthier products, but consumers are drawn to lower prices. Struggling to attract customer has led to Whole Foods losing “a fifth of its value in the last three years” (Gensler, 2017, para. 5).