How Long Have Whole Foods Possessed

John Mackey and Renee Lawson Hardy, the co-founders of the current Whole Foods Market, simply wanted to provide quality healthy food to the American consumer. This was about three decades ago when the first store opened. According to Mackey, making money was not the first priory, but helping people to eat better was. Happily for Mackey and Lawson, the residents of Austin Texas were hungry, no pun intended, for just this type of product. At the time, though there were several small independent healthy food stores, there was not a full sized grocery store. This is what set Mackey and Lawson apart from their competitors, their enormous sized health food grocery store was a huge success and now Whole Foods Market (WFM) is not only a

Whole Foods Market started off as being Safer Way natural grocery store in 1978. However they were not

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

The mergers with great reputation brands not only elevated Whole Foods Market’s character, but also stabled its market position. In 1991, Wellspring Grocery joined Whole Foods Market. Similar to Whole Food, Wellspring Grocery started with a positive attitude toward changing the market. Unlike other grocery stores, it wanted to bring healthy diet on shelves, rather than pills and canned food. This idea brought attention to what people are consuming daily. Second merger happened one year after Wellspring Grocery’s success. Bread and Circus, a company that used to sell natural food and wooden toys, valued costumer’s opinion. Costumers were happy to shop in Bread and Circus. Its expeditiously expansion caught Whole Foods Market’s attention. In order to stable its market not only in Taxes, it decided to purchase Bread and Circus. Last, Mrs. Gooch’s, a grocery store that targeted on allergic

Who exactly are Whole Foods? They are one of the finest natural and organic foods grocery store in the US. The store maintains the strictest quality standards in the natural foods industry and an unshakable commitment to sustaining agriculture. Whole Foods as a brand are currently growing and spreading like wildfire. Moreover, with the successful chain planning to open 100 new stores by 2017, we are yet to see how much more the organic grocer has lined in store for us.

Whole Foods is a supermarket that has successfully become the leader in the organic food segment of the grocery industry. While traditional markets have low brand loyalty and recognition, Whole Foods has focused almost entirely on its brand image, causing their strategy to be one of differentiation over cost leadership. Whole Foods is known as being far more expensive than other chains, due to this brand recognition. In their press release for the Q4 2014 results, they describe their vision and sum up what helps them develop that brand recognition. “We hold the idea of “food” to a higher standard, banning more than 75 ingredients commonly found in other stores, and we believe our unparalleled quality standards

Additionally, it sought to offer the highest quality, least processed, most flavourful and naturally preserved food available. It has thus marketed them in appealing store environments that have made shopping at Whole Foods an interesting and enjoyable experience. The company uses strategies with respect to their growth, store location, product line, pricing, merchandising and even it’s social responsibility and community citizenship initiatives that have helped tremendously in its success.

Whole Foods Market, Inc. was founded and created by four business people in Austin, TX during 1980. The founders opened Whole Foods Market because they wanted a supermarket that offered natural foods. This company was able to be successful because at the time they opened there were less than half a dozen natural food supermarkets in the United Sates. In 1984, they build stores in Houston and Dallas, they then moved to New Orleans, and eventually to the West Coast. A major part of Whole Foods growth has come from the many mergers and acquisitions with companies that have occurred throughout the years. The mergers and acquisitions gave Whole Foods’ even revenues to move to the East Coast.

As discussed above with the SWOT Analysis of the company, Whole Foods certainly is a very financially sound and a major player in the organic food industry, however, it is important for Whole Foods, to continue striving upon increasing/ bettering the customer experience at all of its stores. Whole Foods, has a strong customer base,

Recommendation Whole Foods Market was the pioneer and leader of the organic and natural food sector for many years. The company had established their initial success due to a broad differentiation strategy. Unfortunately, large conglomerates consisting of Kroger “a best-cost provider” and Wal-Mart “a low-cost provider” have been able to provide the same unique goods and service as Whole Foods Market, while staying true to their respective competitive strategies. In result, making the organic and natural food sector a possibility for people of all socioeconomic classes. Due to the emergence of competition, Whole Foods Market is under extreme pressure from outside forces and will seemingly never return to their once prominent position.

Whole Foods Market believes that the operation of a company should exceed beyond profits and focus on creating values and relationships within their communities. Whole Foods Market is “currently the 8th largest public food and drug retailer in the U.S., ranking #232 on the Fortune 500” (Whole Foods Market Annual Report, 2013). Food retailing has gained more competiveness over the years. Whole Foods Market, has been awarded, “America’s Healthiest Grocery Store.” Whole Foods Market’s “seek out the finest natural and organic foods available, maintain the strictest quality standards in the industry, and have an unshakeable commitment to sustainable agriculture” (Whole Foods Market Company Info, 2014). They believe that providing customers with natural and organic products, they are giving customers the most nutritious food and the best tasty food as well. “The quality of their foods is measured by nutrition, freshness, appearance, and taste” (Whole Foods Market Company Info, 2014).

Furthermore, something that Whole Foods Market is already doing very well is sustainability. Their efforts thus far have proven quite worthy for business and their consumers however, there is always room for improvement in areas of the business, this being one of them. Those smaller competitors know that to compete against a massive giant, they must come up with the best and greatest ideas and stay ahead of the curve. Some ideas that Whole Foods Market could use would be to add simple things like skylights in their building offering more natural sunlight to shine in reducing the need for electricity, solar and wind power, all of which Whole Foods Market is using. Also, packaging their products in biodegradable containers would be a fantastic

In his book “The Tipping Point: How little things can make a big difference,” Malcolm Gladwell (2001) indicates the power of intelligent action and the potential of little changes are responsible for starting epidemics. These epidemics occurred, according to the law of the few, the stickiness factor, and the power of context. The law of few affirms the influence on communication. That connector, maven, and salesman each has its ability to conjoin, collect, and cajole; they distribute information globally. The stickiness factor refers to a technique that allows information to stick in the minds of society. Moreover, he acknowledges how repetition and direct information bring success to Sesame Street. Last, the power of context stresses that not only human reactions are responsible for epidemics, but also the environment’s elastic. Gladwell, intelligently, collects the secret keys to successful business. To capture customer’s attention, to hire the perfect leaders, and to invest in the firm’s future, Whole Food Market enlarges its potential market even when large chain retailed competition increases.

The business level strategy that Whole Foods Market utilizes is differentiation strategy. Whole Foods is focused on selling natural and organic foods. The intention is that customers will value the high quality of the organic food and eventually pay a high price. Also, WFM nurtures customer loyalty by providing unique products. For example, Whole Foods features “foods that are free of artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, sweeteners, and hydrogenated fats.” (7) Also, Whole Foods has implemented animal welfare standards. The animals are not treated with antibiotics when preventing diseases and infections or when developing their growth. Additionally, to demonstrated customers that they care for the farm animals they developed a 5 Step Animal

Whole Foods Market began in 1970 as a local supermarket. Over the past 31 years, Whole Foods Market has grown from a single store in Austin, Texas, to becoming one of the worldwide leaders in providing consumers with natural and organic foods. They have grown to over 300 stores in both North America and the United Kingdom. (Whole Foods Market, Inc., 2011) This report examines the chief elements of the strategy that Whole Foods Market has put into place. Also, it uses past financial data to provide an assessment of the condition of the company going forward. Those assessments include recommendations of future actions, along with concerns I have about the way the company is currently operating and some difficulties that may be on the way.