Whole Foods is taking over America. Such was the headline Fortune magazine gave to a cover story about the organic grocer.Fortune reported:
The hugely successful natural-food retailer is expanding into new and unexpected markets — Boise! Newark! Detroit! — and changing the way the country eats, one kale smoothie at a time....
Whole Foods didn’t alter or dumb down its formula for Detroit, and why should it? The Austin-based chain is one of the country’s most successful retailers — its revenue has doubled and profits have tripled since 2007 — defying dismal grocery industry trends by offering consumers a mix of organics, truly delicious prepared foods, and an expanding array of staples under its 365 house brand. Now, having conquered affluent suburbs and trendy urban areas, Whole Foods is out to win over the rest of America, setting up shop in previously unthinkable places such as Detroit and Boise (KF note: Cue up the Jackson is Detroit jokes), and opening multiple locations in existing markets both large (San Francisco and Manhattan each have seven) and small (two apiece in Tulsa and West Hartford, Conn.).
This may come as a surprise to those who still think of the retailer as “Whole Paycheck,” an overpriced natural-food haven for yoga-practicing, juice-cleansing Prius drivers or hipsters obsessed with artisanal baking soda. And while Whole Foods’ prices are rarely the cheapest in town — and, yes, you may very well run into a Lululemon-clad hybrid driver in the checkout line — it’s appealing to a wider array of shoppers than ever before.....
Since Michael Pollan criticized Whole Foods in The Omnivore’s Dilemma for its lack of local product, the company has tried to bring smaller neighborhood businesses into its supplier mix. In the Detroit store you can find goods made by 30 different homegrown vendors. Whole Foods partnered with local bakery Avalon to supply half of the store’s baked goods and selected it as a recipient of the company’s local loan program to help build out its operations. A handful of suppliers were recruited from Eastern Market, a Detroit neighborhood that is home to a vibrant public bazaar. Among them: Spice Miser, which sells small packets of spices for 99¢, and dried fruit and nut purveyor Germack. Some would-be vendors tweaked their products to meet Whole Foods’ quality standards: Water Station, about 10 minutes down the road, took the coral calcium (a salt of calcium) out of its alkaline water. Gluten-free goody maker Ethel’s Edibles started using fruit without sulfites, cage-free eggs, and hormone-free dairy. Being in Whole Foods “has given us crazy credibility,” says Ethel’s founder and president, Jill Bommarito. (KF note: A platform for selling local? Wow. Councilman Stamps, Whole Foods will do it faster than any government initiative.).
Despite the good feeling conjured by Whole Foods’ entrance into the city, it’s still a business endeavor. Executives decided to lower the margin structure and pricing for Detroit, but almost a year in, the store is exceeding expectations and is profitable. Rest of the article
Ok, knuckleheads. Let the Whole Foods jokes fly in the comments.
25 comments:
Bunch of damn tree hugging liberals.....thanks but I'll stick to my loaded baked potato, ribeye steak , and miss schuberts rolls!
'Writer' is obviously infatuated with his own overused ability to turn a cliche'.
I don't believe they will be taking over Mississippi! :)
Namaste!
Our liberal guilt will force you to think you're the scum of the earth and the only way to change this fact is to buy our organic food! Mother Earth will thank you by letting you reincarnate as a shark so you can eat republicans that dare to swim in her waters.
Yet another part of the "Left Wing" Republican (didn't vote for my TP ultrarightwinger guy)/Liberal Democrat (black) Conspiracy. I heard online that Michelle Obama designs all the Whole Foods floorplans and that the UN will send troops to make us eat whole wheat bread baked over burning Bibles.
I think the tongue in cheek WF comments on here are funny, but hopefully nobody is genuinely offended by their business as some type of liberal affront.
Don't worry, the market will sort out business models. If you shop there, fine, if not fine. The market will tell us all whether their model is successful.
Much prefer Publix.
10:35
I don't shop at Whole Foods often, but will occasionally go in to get meat and seafood. The prime ribeye steak I bought there a couple of weeks ago was delicious (and about 25% off the price of prime at Paul Anthony's).
I;m eating their amazing peach cobbler right now. I say let them take over America.
The brisket is good. Really.
Some of you are so dumb, I'm surprised you've made it this far without falling out of a window (first four commenters on here included). It's not a damn political party, but a grocery store, just one that sells better products than wherever you knuckleheads shop.
I really wish Jeff Foxworthy would come to Mississippi to do an episode of "Are You Smarter Than A Sixth Grader" so the Jacksonjambalaya commenters can show us how "enlightened" they are. It would be entertaining indeed.
My daughter who lived in New Orleans called it "Whole Paycheck" and readers can easily figure out why.
" the UN will send troops to make us eat whole wheat bread baked over burning Bibles. "
Now that's funny - I don't care who ya are :-)
I read this week that Publix was making an offer to buy Whole Foods.
WF has certainly taken over Jackson. It's amazing how the crime has shifted from Jackson to Madison and Rankin since the store in Highland Village opened. I hope more stores will open in Jackson
Who the hell buys steak at Paul Anthony's? You can't beat the meat at Kroger 51 meat counter. Only place in the county to buy a bone-in ribeye. Excellent meat market. Or you could drive across the spillway and pay twice the price at Little Willie's. Your choice.
Wow!
This is America. Don't shop at Whole Foods if you don't like it.
Those of us who HAVE to be gluten free or have allergies are happy to have our options expanded.
And, you are missing out on some items you can't find anywhere else. Try to find larger artichokes! And, they have some ice cream that is like your grandparents cranked in the ice cream freezer!
There's nothing " political" about one's food preferences or needs.
Those who can afford to shop there get to decide how to spend the money they earned in a free country.
Some of y'all need to realize that not EVERYTHING is about politics!
Y'all can eat whatever you want and live wherever you enjoy most and I'm happy for you. It's YOUR decision.
Why y'all have to belittle those who make different choices is , frankly, puzzling.
And, to make matters worse, you also seem to imagine that being nasty and insulting will persuade others to change their views.
It just doesn't work that way.
And, if you mouth off socially the way you do on this blog, you run the risk of offending someone you think is weaker than you today or the spouse of someone you hope will be a customer or on your side, only to find they can get even without saying a word!
Lol...no whole foods isn't a political party....
But, if you know some of my friends that were raised republicans and turned into liberals that put on guilt trips worse than a hellfire and brimstone baptist preacher about the simplest things such as food from Kroger... Then you would understand the SATIRE.
If you're unfamiliar with satire, " Letters from the Earth" by mark twain would be a great start!
The High Road Ice Cream from Atlanta is amazing.
What happened to my 'meat post'? Kingbert is so fickle.
5:56 pm
I wasn't referring to the article which is fun.
I was referring to the comments which were the usual Jackson/Whole Food bashings.
8:49; Your need for Midol is evident. Vodka and Xanax might help too. Cheers.
Whole Foods=genius marketing.
Republican establishment board/shareholder types have convinced/hypnotized liberal democratic, white guilt, granola hippie types to promote and commit their loyalties to an overpriced consumer experience that has caused shares to explode. They're laughing all the way to the bank. That's not a local bank either. Whole Foods refuses to use local banks. Which is a piece of another amazing feat as well. These "eat/shop local" harpies are also tripping over themselves to get into Whole Foods. AMAZING!
I'm not mad at WF. I'm jealous.
I've never been to this place. Why should I venture into Cracktown to watch some guy in an apron, whistling Sinatra tunes while polishing his plums? I'll hang with Kroger.
Post a Comment