Whole Foods Case Analysis 1. (a) Whole Foods operates in the organic, or natural and specialty foods retail industry. Leading the industry, Whole Foods Market is the world's most successful natural foods grocery chain. Having recently acquired one of its main competitors, Wild Oats Market, Whole Foods currently competes with two other large grocery chainsKroger and Trader Joe's. The company also acquired Amrion, a company specializing in nutraceuticals (natural supplements with pharmaceutical-type benefits), creating considerable competition with General Nutrition Centers (GNC) nutritional supplements and dietary products.
The food market business is usually a difficult one, but online retailer Amazon's proceeding to purchase high-end chain Whole Foods changed the landscape. The new corporation is currently reducing prices, as well as Amazon is managing to reduce costs by taking its online expertise
My organization, Trader Joe’s, is not an international business. Their stores are all located in the United States; therefore, I chose Whole Foods, who is a main competitor of Trader Joe’s for this assignment.
The retail grocery industry consists of the following strategic groups: grocery chains, small and large discount grocery (e.g. Dollar Stores and Walmart), wholesalers, and fresh-focused and specialty markets. Trader Joe’s could be categorized as a specialty fresh-focused store and it is often compared to Whole Foods, another organic store, defining it as its key competitor. Yet, it still competes with the large grocery retailers and now, Amazon grocery services.
First, addressing perceived authenticity of social mission in a changing marketplace. In a book called The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan, criticized Whole Foods and business like it to task for contributing the rise of industrial organic farms. As Whole Foods purchased from natural foods farming giants and he accused the company of ignoring the local focused, sustainable values that it supposedly acclaimed. Second, focus on suitable acquisition candidates to continue upwards growth trend. As it was said earlier that its strategy to increase its competitive market by acquiring Wild Oats, it faced a challenge from FTC (Federal Trade Commission) who was trying to stop the acquisition, fearful of the organic supermarket industry being monopolized by Whole Foods. Despite its challenges, I think it is possible in scale and profits and stay true to a social mission. According to Mackey, he saw a synergy from this tension and he called it “conscious capitalism” where this system as based on the pursuit of a deeper purpose beyond making profits. The best way to maximize profits is to not make them a primary goal of a business and I believe that the most successful businesses is to put customer
A former employee of a Pasadena Trader Joe’s filed a wrongful termination suit alleging he was fired for complaining about an instance of sexual harassment. The incident occurred during a holiday gift exchange. The former employee, Paul D. Roberts, complained after receiving a gift resembling a male sex organ at the 2014 Christmas party at one of the Trader Joe’s grocery stores located in Pasadena, California where he worked at the time.
Not many companies have the same track record and this proves that Whole Foods is in it not only for
Whole Foods’ core values statement proclaims the company is “part of a growing consciousness that’s bigger than food—one that champions what’s good, and the greater good, too.” Since the company’s founding 36 years ago, it has built its business around providing products that are held to extremely high quality standards in terms of ingredients and ethical sourcing, rather than simply selling SKUs that will bring a high profit. While this seems clearly aligned with its core business and a key to shareholder wealth maximization, Whole Foods also embodies a sense of higher purpose, which they express on the company blog as “reflect[ing] and reinforc[ing] our belief that companies should operate with a higher purpose beyond profits, and create
Senior Management of PepsiCo is evaluating the potential acquisition of two companies – Carts of Colorado and California Pizza Kitchen – in order to expand the company’s restaurant business. If indeed PepsiCo decides to pursue the acquisition of one or both, they must decide how to align each of these business units in its historically decentralized management approach and how to forge relationships between the acquired business units and existing business units. In their evaluation, Senior Management is faced with the question of whether the necessary capital investment in order to purchase one or both of the businesses can be profitable for each of the acquired business units, but must also take into consideration that the additional business units will not hinder the profitability of the existing business units.
“Attention Whole Foods Shoppers” is an essay written by Robert Paarlberg for the May/June 2010 edition of Foreign Policy magazine. Foreign Policy was originally founded in 1970 with the intention of providing views on American foreign policy during the Vietnam war and does more or less of the same today. Paarlberg’s purpose in this essay is to convince an educated western audience that the Green Revolution was not a failure and improved life everywhere it took place, organic food having advantages over non-organic food is a myth, and the solution to food disparity is investing into agriculture modernization. With logos as the main mode of appeal, Paarlberg’s organization effectively sets up his points throughout the essay with consistently
Dean Foods is a food and beverage company that specializes in dairy products, based out of Dallas, Texas. Dean Foods manufactures and distributes a wide variety of branded and private label dairy products. The products include milk, ice cream, creamers, and cultured dairy products. The Company is one of the nation's largest processors and distributors of fluid milk with about 75 plants located throughout the United States. They are made up of about 19,000 employees and in 2012 their nets sales reached 11.4 billion dollars. The company was founded by Dean R. Honas who owned an evaporated milk processing plant in Illinois back in the 1920s. Dean purchased other Illinois dairy plants and developed his enterprise from a small regional dairy distributor to a successful food company. The company is also known for their sustainability efforts over the past 8 years.
To most consumers Whole Foods is known as a chain grocery store specializing in organic and natural foods. Some may go as far as say the name is synonymous with quality. This comparison is the result of Whole Foods’ marketing their brand successfully to consumers demanding their specialized foods. As with any organization, Whole Foods may consider evaluating their strategic objectives and decide if necessary course corrections are needed to reach their objectives and goals. Through a fundamental and technical analysis, I will discuss Whole Foods’ mission, vision, and goals, their competitive environment, and some factors within their strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat analysis. With such data and information I will recommend, if needed, and strategic changes in order to sustain a competitive advantage.
Currently, in the organic food market, there are approximately six competitors. However, due to the market leader strategy in the form of pioneering the market, WFM has an upper hand and competitors are acting in providing health competitions in the industry. Competitors are acting like benchmarking companies that learn business and industry strategies from each other. The market is considered green in terms of organic food manufacturing and selling and there are little resources in terms of consumers these companies are fighting to keep. There is a large unsatisfied market hence those competing in the same industry do not seem to really compete but trying to satisfy the
Perry, Luddene, and Schultz, Dan. A Field Guide to Buying Organic. New York: Bantam Books, 2005.
hole Foods Market monopolies green foods with minimum processing, without genetically modified foods as well as artificial coloring and preservatives. Whole Foods Market is one of the leading retailers of organic and natural foods in the world. Main appropriate type or resident group and optimal location for Whole Foods Market will be introduced based on concepts of Whole Foods Market, theories of urban business location and concrete commerce conditions of Toronto. Therefore, somewhere with a little distance from affluent downtown neighborhood such as 777 Bay Street is a best place for new Whole Foods Market in Toronto with wealthy, educated middle-class consumers as its main consumers.
In the Grocery industry today there are 4 major companies that dominate the United States market share; Kroger, Safeway, Super value and Publix. With the competitive advantage of being the largest stores in the industry these retail giants should have competition at a minimum and should be thriving (Farfan, US Largest Retail Supermarkets - Complete List). The application of Porter’s Five Forces that influence an industry shows that these retailers do have many advantages but being vulnerable in even one of the areas can make a significant difference in market share and profitability.