Whole Foods Business Analysis

Whole Foods, just like any other retailer right now, has been struggling with the economy. The external environment has been changing in uphill and downhill motions daily, something that Whole Foods has never experienced before. Not only is there pressure on the financials of the corporation, but also there is the pressure to go green.

When Huntington stated how the problem was that Mexican immigrants were not dreaming in English stirs up the fact that they are obligated to assimilate into the Anglo-Protestant culture. So Huntington’s statement wants Mexican immigrants and other Hispanic groups to lose touch with their own culture? But it was not the case for most Latino students who would want to identify their Hispanic background and ancestry at school. In Paul Gorski’s article, A Brief History of Multicultural Education, found the importance to identify the historical roots of not only the Hispanic community but other race communities as well. Such as saying the equality in learning about other countries instead of the traditional American History in a classroom setting

The existing rivals of Whole Foods Market are primarily Trader Joe’s, Kroger, Wegman’s, Walmart, and Safeway. However, Whole Foods Market has a specific niche and caters to a particular clientele attempting to increase customer loyalty, as it focuses on carrying natural and organic foods and is considered a premium brand upscale grocery store. The principal competitor of Whole Foods Market is Trader Joe’s, which has over 400 stores in North America and sells a substantial amount of organic food and products (they are not, however, exclusively organic and natural). Trader Joe’s stores are much smaller with less product selection

Shortly after humans were created, they came to suffer. With fire recently taken away, the conditions were harsh. It rained almost everyday, and humans were dying at a remarkable rate. Recently abandoned by Zeus, Hephaestus was angry. Why should humans have to suffer like I do? What did they do to Zeus? Being a builder, Hephaestus knew that he must do something. He built and he built, trying to find a way to keep humans safe. Finally, he built a house made of mud and sticks. It kept humans protected from the elements, and kept them warm in the coldest of conditions. He brought it to the humans, who rejoiced. Now, Zeus was angry. He had taken away fire to punish Prometheus, and now Hephaestus was interfering? Angry and bitter, Zeus banished

It’s a privately held company and one that withholds many of their details with the outside world. The evidence however indicates that the company is remarkably profitable. One of the key drivers of profitability in the food retailing industry is sales per square foot. Experts noted that Whole Foods Market had the highest sales per square foot of any publicly traded grocer in the country, and yet Trader Joe’s doubled the sales per square foot achieved by Whole Foods. All of the 414 Trader Joe’s stores (as of July 2013) are company operated. This allows them to maintain better control over their information systems, policies and procedures. While their locations may be small for the industry they are carefully chosen to match their target demographic which were described as people who dress their kids in tie-dye but have really good car seats. Trader Joe’s also minimized their marketing and sales expenses. With the exception of a few radio ads, Trader Joe’s was able to reinvest that money to further train their employees and emphasize service to the customers which has certainly paid strong

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,

Whole Foods recent launch of their new stores, 365 by Whole Foods Market, is a way of trying to take a stab at Trader Joe’s niche. The one way Trader Joe’s has fought back was by lowering their prices. With other competitors joining the ranks of the organic food market, Trader Joe’s may be thinking ahead with other strategies, and may be in for a good fight as others want to duplicate their

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

Whole Foods have already cut their prices, which is already competition for the next grocery store. However, they have taken it one step further. We all know Amazon has million of customers (prime customers) and those customers are receiving a discount on top of a price drop on food. Because Whole foods have already slashed their prices, then on top of that they have given prime customers another discount to encourage them to shop at Whole Food gives the competition no other choice but, to drop their prices to keep up, which can be seen in the weekly sale

The grocery industry is highly fragmented, with a multitude of strong regional players (Safeway, Publix, Kroeger, Wegmans, etc.). The largest grocery retailer in the United States is Wal-Mart, with an estimated 33% share. Other major retailers are targeting this segment of the industry, focused on a relatively narrow selection of key commodity foods at relatively low prices (Forbes, 2011). Whole Foods competes in a segment occupied by differentiated grocery players including Trader Joe's, Fresh Market and a highly fragmented selection of local and regional upscale and health-conscious grocery stores. The big players in the industry usually carry ranges of organic and natural products as well, siphoning off some business from Whole Foods. As Whole Foods grows, it comes into competition with mainstream grocery retailers more frequently (McLaughlin & Martin, 2009).

In technological factor and sociocultural factor, as grocery delivery should become a new trend, Whole Foods also respond to this by applying online grocery shopping even though they are a little slow responder compared to their competitors. Whole Foods appears to have the ideal customer base which can benefit from such a service as its shoppers tend to be high-income, urban, and willing to spend a few extra dollars to save time. This could benefit Whole Foods if they can figure the aggressive and effective way to develop this. The most successful new promotion may be its digital coupons, a program that was launched on January 28th. Daily downloads of the Whole Foods app jumped up to 5 times in the period after the coupons were introduced.

In the merger and acquisition of Amazon and Whole Foods brings two different companies together into a cohesive business entity that complement each other. Separately these two companies commanded their own prices. Whole Foods market power was their ability to charge high prices for high-quality organic foods. Hence why they are also called “Whole Paycheck”. Amazon was a price leader in offering low prices.

Some of the disadvantages that the merge of Amazon with Wholefoods brings are the fact that in order for the customer to get the Amazon Prime deal, the customer must buy the groceries online and can do a store pick up option, but doing this eliminates the need for a cashier. The cashier is now being replaced with the technology changes that Amazon is embracing. This can be a disadvantage to many cashiers in the future. Still with the Amazon Prime deal, Wholefoods is expensive compared to other grocery stores. Wholefoods has penetrated only in certain locations and if the prices stay expensive the grocery store won’t be able to penetrate in low or middle income neighborhoods.

From reading the article I understood that since there is a lot of competition in the grocery industry the margins are low so the making of a grocery store to emerge can take long. If Amazon were to come up with a grocery store from scratch it would take long, merging with Wholefoods puts Amazon at a national level competitor. Another advantage, with the grocery stores already built and running Wholefoods, has many stores and at upscale locations. Amazon doesn’t have to worry about finding store locations. To take advantage of this, some customers who do not live near these upscale locations, Amazon can deliver which makes it convenient for every customer.

The board of directors from Amazon.com is likely to take an approach of nominal participation with their executives. Whole Foods is a new acquisition for Amazon.com, but one that was already having great success. Bezos emplaced a company man at the helm of Amazon.com to make sure that the larger company interest was observed, and should to allow leading the way as a manufacturer and designer of an exceptional product.