Will Whole Foods Dilute the Brand With a Lower Cost Chain?Pilot stores in Detroit, New Orleans

[brooklynite]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Turborama (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: AdWeek

Whole Foods Market, the upscale purveyor of organic and local food, is opening a new store in economically struggling Detroit June 5 as part of its repositioning as a go-to grocery store for everyday staples for shoppers on any budget.

The chain will launch pilot stores in Detroit, New Orleans and on Chicago's South Side in 2013 and 2014 that feature fewer staffers, lower prices, and more frozen and prewrapped food, said Whole Foods co-CEO John Mackey. "For every penny we cut off the price, we reach more people who can afford to shop with us," he said.

In anticipation of the Detroit store opening, the company has been offering classes in community centers about how to shop frugally at its store, focusing, naturally, on Whole Foods' own 365 private label line. Anne Howe of Anne Howe Associates, a shopper marketing consulting firm, commended the chain for going into so-called food deserts like parts of Detroit and New Orleans. "They are trying to serve the needs of communities that others ignore completely," she said.


Read more: http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/will-whole-foods-dilute-brand-lower-cost-chain-149955?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=06-04-2013&utm_campaign=advertising_&_branding

[onehandle]

1. Sounds like conservative Republican Mackey wants to take on Trader Joe's. nt

[Javaman]

17. +1...

There are 3 new Trader Joe's opening up here (Austin) next year.

I have several friends who work at WF's and I can tell you this, Management or "team leaders" are worried, not yet freaking out, but certainly worried.

Because, I have this feeling that there will be a mass exodus from WF's to TJ's next year. Not just in business but employees.

One of the Trader Joes is opening just a stones throw away from WF's "flagship" store. It will be very interesting to watch what happens.

[onehandle]

18. Most Whole Foods within an hour of me has a Trader Joe's across the street, or around the corner.

For this model to work, WFs would have to predict where TJ's is expanding and beat them there.

[Fearless]

31. Likewise.

[hobbit709]

2. They're going to have to cut the price by more than a mere penny to be affordable.

[MADem]

3. "Dilute the brand?" It's overpriced horse shit as it is. For every decent thing they have, they

have ten other things you can buy at the local market, same "organic" quality, for way cheaper.

It's called WHOLE PAYCHECK for a reason.

The 365 stuff is way overpriced.

[hobbit709]

4. The new stores will be called "ONLY HALF A PAYCHECK"

[MADem]

5. Ha ha ha! An Arm....OR A Leg!!!! Nyuck, nyuck! nt

[appal_jack]

28. Maybe "3/5 Paycheck"?

Maybe "3/5 Paycheck"? After all this encapsulates RepubliCon Mackey's attempt to market to predominantly black cities...

-app

[Wilms]

6. IOW their "brand" is selling at prices only the 20% can afford??

So now one can't impress others that they shop at an exclusive venue. Worse, they might have to park their $50K+ late-model auto next to a junker with an oil leak while an unemployed commoner runs in for a jar of peanut butter.

[FrodosPet]

32. The new Detroit Whole Foods is near the Detroit Medical Center

So at least the doctors, nurses, employees, and suburbanite patients can shop there.

For residential Detroit - it is a bus, taxi, or car trip to shop there. Not near Brightmoor (aka Blight? More!), not near Dexter-Linwood, not near Mt Olivet.

The "food desert" is still a desert.

[MindMover]

7. Unfortunately wholly foodies is one of the few stores to offer

a wide range of gluten free products ... and that is the only reason I shop at this egalitarian capitalistic nightmare ...

[niyad]

13. do you have one of the kroger stores near you? from what I can see, they offer quite a wide

range of gluten-free products.

[truthisfreedom]

8. Whole Foods charges outrageous prices. For half the price, I can get 4 times as much fresh

squeezed (in-store) orange juice at Rainbow Foods, and it's as good if not better tasting.

[Berlin Expat]

10. By Odin's beard

I haven't been in a Whole Foods in forever and a day.

The one and only time I was in one, I took a look at the mind-boggling, epically insane prices and settled on buying myself a tube of Tom's of Maine toothpaste. And that was only because I didn't feel like driving all the way across town to the usual store I would buy it at.

[olddots]

9. sounds like a tax loss plan to me

$ 3.98 per pound for water melon yes they wanted 40 bucks for a fucking water melon .

[FrodosPet]

15. Between shoplifting losses, insurance premiums, and security guards

Pretty much any store you open in the City of Detroit is either going to be losing money or be making its money off of fried foods, snack foods, and alcohol.

Go ahead and get mad at me for saying it. But I live here, I talk to people, I see what people are putting on the grocery counter at the Sav-A-Lot and Meijer stores in Southfield. Sav-A-Lot doesn't carry a lot of fresh produce, but they carry some. Meijer has a fairly extensive selection of fresh food. And a lot of people, especially younger people, zoom right past heading for the processed meats, sodas, and salty snacks.

[Incitatus]

29. I don't doubt shoplifting is a problem in some areas.

But $4 a lb for watermelon is ridiculous, but this is a free market. If people are willing to pay the asinine prices whole foods asks, then they will persist.

[FrodosPet]

30. Was that in season or out?

I'd have to think that watermelons out of season would be pretty expensive, since I imagine they come all the way from Mexico or Central America. Even so, $4.00 a pound seems high.

Now if it was $4.00 a pound in August, that would be mind-blowing.

[KT2000]

11. two problems with Whole Foods

Ridiculous prices and their precious customers.

[YOHABLO]

22. Yeah, way over my head($) .. I'm on the social security disability .. I feel out of place in there.

[hobbit709]

33. What I call the Healthier Than Thou crowd.

But appearances are deceiving.

[beac]

12. What are they going to call them?

"Slightly Less Pretentious Ass-whole Foods"??

[appal_jack]

25. Whole Foods in Black Cities = 3/5 Foods (!)

RepubliCon Mackey reminds me of someone who might wish for more "states' rights" and "original intent" (i.e.-veiled terms for racism) in the US Constitution, so please forgive the macabre humor in my subject line...

-app

[bitchkitty]

14. I ate WF fruit once

when a friend brought some strawberries and melons to an outdoor gathering. I have to say that the fruit was perfection, but the price was outrageous. In season fruit at the farmer's market is a far better buy, and just as delicious.

[ananda]

16. There are alternatives to WF here, thank goodness.

Every so often there is something I need or want that I can only get at WF,
but mostly I shop at Sprouts and HEB where prices are much better and
the food and produce is just as good or better.

[Javaman]

19. If you live in Austin, check out "The Natural Grocer" or Wheatsville instead. nt

[ScreamingMeemie]

26. I absolutely LOVE Sprouts! And HEB prices really can't be beat.

[closeupready]

20. Not going to make any difference to me - won't shop there

due to the CEO's RW bullcrap.

[Puzzledtraveller]

21. Hmm, Half-Price Foods, Partially Whole Foods?

[Jennicut]

23. There aren't many Whole Foods in CT near me. Or Trader Joe's. I go to Stop and Shop.

Closest Trader Joe's is in Hartford, West Hartford for Whole Foods. I guess there are only Stop and Shops in the New England, NY and NJ. They do have a section for organics and sell organic produce. My brother works for Peapod, their delivery service.

[Sunlei]

24. this is very good, people need healthy foods instead of those over priced 'corner stores'

food deserts..without a car people walk to the close store and frequently its a corner store with no fresh foods at all. even the frozen foods are cheap tv dinners type and very over priced milk, eggs, bread.

of course they take food stamps and make a killing in profits. Let the grocery stores with fresh foods in the food deserts.

[madaboutharry]

27. Whole Food's chicken salad at the deli counter

is $11.99 a pound. They put grapes in it and call it "Sonoma Chicken Salad," maybe people think they flew it in from the Napa Valley.

[Turborama]

34. Locking

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