Wal-Mart, with more than 4000 stores across the nation selling groceries, offers a broad assortment of fresh produce, dairy, meat, and packaged foods. In addition to growing its organic food, the retailer is expanding its assortment in categories including yogurt, produce, deli, and bakery.
As consumer preferences have shifted towards healthy, authentic food, the high cost associated with going organic, has kept many of the low price paying customers away.
For Wal-Mart, that served up a plate of opportunity.
“We know our customers are interested in purchasing organic product and traditionally, those customers have to pay more…We are changing that.”- Jack Sinclair, Executive VP, Grocery, Wal-Mart.
Wal-Mart in partnership with Wild Oats is starting a movement
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Wild Oats launch marks a win for the organic food supply. Wal-Mart’s sheer size and scale will drive overall demand.
Wal-Mart is entering into long-term purchase agreement with farmers and suppliers. It is also looking to consolidate middlemen to further eliminate unnecessary costs. The production and distribution of organic food is highly fragmented, and Wal-Mart can change that, by delivering products through its world class distribution system.
Furthermore, Wal-Mart will remove the premium associated with organic products, so that they are also priced the same as similar non organic products. Around 3,800 Wal-Mart stores, carry around 30 Wild Oats organic products, and customers are saving up to 25% compared with national brand organic products.
As a deep discounter, Wal-Mart has a natural advantage that they are attracting new customers and those customers are spending money .On the other side, Whole Foods is suffering from its reputation as an expensive place to shop for expensive
In recent years, it is not even necessary to turn on the news to hear about the bad reputation farming has been getting in recent years. With the media focusing on things like drugs in animals and Pink Slime, or Lean Finely Textured Beef, it is a wonder that people are eating “non-organic” foods. However, many pro-farming organizations have been trying to fight back against these slanders. Still, the battle is not without heavy competition, and a good portion of it comes from Chipotle, a fast food Mexican restaurant that claims to only use completely organic ingredients in their food. Chipotle is constantly introducing advertisements claiming to have the natural ingredients, while slandering the names of farmers everywhere.
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.
This is due to the symbiotic relationship Walmart has to its consumers, they are able to offer lower prices in more locations and consumers desire affordability and proximity. Despite the obvious domination of the economy by Walmart, less conventional producers and consumers are present and on the rise. Local rather than global and small rather than large, the increase of these less conventional manners of production can be seen in the increase abundance of farmers’ markets, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), and community gardens. Farmers’ markets are common areas where farmers meet on a regular basis and sell various fresh produce directly to the consumers. The number of farmer’s markets between 1994 and 2014 has increased from around 2,000 to 8,000 (ers.usda,gov). Farmer’s offer an aesthetic that Walmart cannot provide—the opportunity to be personable. The consumer is able to see who grew the food, ask how it was grown, and will not be dazzled by fancy packaging or
Comparing my shopping experience at Whole Foods verses Walmart, I have always had positive experiences at Whole Foods. I admit at first I was hesitant to shop there because I thought their prices would be too high or that they wouldn’t have the items I was accustomed to purchasing. My first experience was shopping for lip balm. I was told they sold a brand that didn’t include camphor phenol and that was important to me. Being that I never shopped in Whole Foods before I immediately asked for assistance in finding the right isle. Not only did they direct me, they walked with me and asked what I was looking for, they showed me the product and even gave me useful information regarding the lip balm. Since that day I have been back many times, not only for lip balm but for a variety of groceries and products. Whole Foods staff is pleasant, enthusiastic and extremely helpful. They are well trained on their merchandise as well as customer service and seem to genuinely enjoy interacting and working at Whole Foods. In addition,
Since this oversight, Walmart has taken great strides to turn the cotton project around. Going organic is safer and better for the brand and community. Being that Walmart has been in business since 1962. The history of organic cotton goes back to a time we all would like to forget. Many are asking, why Walmart started going organic so late? I mean, they had the money, and almost own half of the world. But not to take away from the fact, they did correct this. By going organic, they are now able to produce more ecofriendly products. They are even taken it a step future by producing and investing in product that
First, increased its competitive market by acquiring competitor such as Wild Oats, which was the second largest natural foods supermarket in the nation and it had 193 stores. It eliminates the competition and allows for more locations where Whole Foods was not available. It is a huge possibility for growth on Whole Foods Vision of expanding and being dominant in the market. Second, build its brand equity with organics through marketing so when consumers think “Organic”, they think “Whole Foods.” Also, the company involves in the community to help extend the market through the social mission. Based on the motto, “Whole Foods, Whole People, Whole Planet,” its social mission is donating 5% of after-tax profits to nonprofit organization, supporting sustainable agriculture, reducing waste, and encouraging environmentally friendly store maintenance programs. One of the example of Whole Foods’ efforts in promote sustainable agriculture and protect farm worker and the environment is Local Producer Loan Program. This program provides loans to small, local producers who sell their products to Whole Foods and need the loans to continue their
Along with being the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart is also the world's largest grocer. A full grocery center has been added to many of the Wal-mart's nation wide. Wal-Mart's most current goal is to become a player in the organic food market. Adding organic foods to...
Steven Shapin is an expert when it comes to telling people the reality of the situation. In his, article “What Are You Buying When You Buy Organic?” Shapin exposes and explains the truth behind the word organic. He explains that our view on organic is not a reality. The small farms that we picture in our heads are really just big business in disguise and these big businesses are trying to do good by supposedly not using harmful pesticides. Which are supposed to not damage the environment but in reality they are probably not making any sort of difference. Some people care about the environment, while others are buying taste when it comes to organic food but using different pesticides are going to help the taste, only freshness tastes the best.
Mackey acknowledges that Trader Joes is probably their most aggressive competitor, especially since some perceive their pricing to be lower. Conversely, WFM has answered back with its own price strategy developing a store brand organic line, 365 Foods. With the number of consumers demanding organic increasing over the years, major grocery chains like Kroger have added organic and specialty food choices to capture some of WFM customers. So have other stores like Wal-Mart and Meijer. However, ask any WFM loyalist and they will tell you that the product offering in these stores cannot stand up to the standards they are accustomed to. However, other holistic competitors such as Sprouts Farmers Market and The Fresh Market are showing that they are serious competitors as they cautiously add stores. Also, WFM stocks did not do as well as stockholders anticipated (Competitive A...
While the organic movement has increased the production and sale of organic food in the United States, something that should be noted is that the stock of Whole Foods Market, a grocery store is dedicated to the sale of organic food, has gone down 40% since October of 2013. Whole Foods Market’s success rates are slowly beginning to diminish and it may lose its dominance in the organic foods market (The Economist, 2014). While this may seem indicative of a decrease in public interest of organic food, it really indicates the opposite. After seeing the success of Whole Foods Market, new stores such as Trader Joe’s and Sprouts entered the organic market and became strong competition. The decline in Whole Foods Market’s success may be attributed
Wal-Mart has two brands of stores, the regular Wal-Mart and the Super Wal-Mart. The difference being that the Super Wal-Mart has a grocery store inside as well as all the other products. Products offered by Wal-Mart vary from automotive needs to Compacts Discs and DVD's. Family's can get households goods for kitchens, bedrooms, or patios. Wal-Mart's offer products for every household need like vacuums, mops, and brooms. Wal-Mart is an example of a one-stop shop; parents can get clothes for the kids or for adults.
Walmart product selections is almost three times as much as that of HEB. Walmart is a one-stop-shop store. Customers can walk into Walmart and literally shop until they drop. Walmart provides groceries, baby clothes, boys/girl clothes, adult men/women, shoes, backpacks, diapers, wipes, baby formula, electronics, candles, towels, laundry detergent, cookware, gardening tools, birthday cards, gift bags, candy, costumes, school supplies, office supplies, mini refrigerators, outdoor activities, toys of all ages, board games, bikes, scooters, helmets, sport activities, a fully functioning automotive department, where customers can get oil changes while they shop. An Ophthalmologist office with in store purchase and carry out, a nail and hair salon, and a fully functioning bank. If that’s not enough, why go home and cook after all that shopping when you can stop and grab a bite to eat at Mcdonalds or
A. A. The “What's So Great About Organic Food?” Time. 176.9 (2010): 30-40. Online.
Thirty years later, organic farming was in high demand, but suffered developing pains. Although there was agreements being made, there was no regulations put forth towards organic farming. Fast forwarding to present time, many consumers are starting to purchase organic food products even making it a trend. Written in Inouye, Alena, and McCauley’s 2006 article “Organic Farming Should Be Pursued”, “organic farming is gaining in popularity due to Americans ' increasing concern about food safety and environmental protection.” This quote assumes the reasoning behind the sudden popularity in organic farming is society’s attraction towards the idea of a cleaner food industry and environment. The article also mentions, “As a result, sales of organic foods in the United States have increased by more than 20 percent every year since 1996, reaching $7.8 billion in 2000.”(Inouye, Alena, McCauley) The fact that popularity towards organic farming grows at a rate of 20 percent every single year further proves how its movement has such an impact towards the consumers of
The trend towards healthier and organic foods is an opportunity that Wal-Mart can take advantage of. A recent survey shows that there has been a positive trend towards lower fat diets in the past decade. This data means that the general public is willing to improve their health and diet – a wide customer base Wal-Mart cannot ignore. Government and private sectors even made efforts towards guiding Americans to more healthful diets, through nutrition education and information efforts.