Whole Foods Strategic Plan

Whole Foods Market’s first retail location was in Austin, Texas. Today there are 342 stores in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. The growth of this health conscious conglomerate happened over the years by strategic acquisitions of profitable independent stores throughout United States. Mackey’s idealism and respect is exhibited in his openness about the contributions of these retailers to the success of WFM, as the website provides an in depth summary of each acquisition and its contribution to promoting healthier food choices (Whole Foods Market History, 2014). After four years in Austin, Texas WFM branched out into the city of Houston when it purchased the Whole Foods Company, and shortly after, on the west coast, a new store was built in Palo Alto, California. Subsequently WFM began aggressive acquisitions over the next few years, which help to accelerate the growth rate of WFM in other geographical locations. In 2002 WFM opened in Canada and in 2004 through the acquisition of United Kingdom’s grocery chain Fresh & Wild, it opened seven stores. Holistic eating is a worldwide affair that WFM is taking advantage

The organic food industry has seen a huge spike in growth that is expected to continue into the future due to an increase in consumption. This will provide Whole Foods Market with huge opportunities. In addition, a wave of ethical and responsible consumption has swept across America. Whole Foods’ decision to pursue sustainable activities will certainly give consumers an added incentive to purchase its organic products.

Whole Foods Market is one of the biggest organic and natural whole food suppliers in the world. They provide a wide variety of select foods that are without hormones or antibiotics and are stamped with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s stamp of approval. They value the fact that they can provide people with access to healthy food and be identified with being socially and environmentally responsible.

Whole Foods is a retailer that specializes in organic foods and it has done an excellent job of determining its target market and how to position itself. Instead of going head to head with large food retailers such as Wal-Mart, Whole Foods has found a niche market that works perfectly for itself. This niche market is one that prides itself on being health conscious and environmentally responsible and Whole Foods has done a great job of positioning itself in the same way through its environmentally safe actions and its use of the local community to stock its stores. However, as Whole Foods grows and expands, a person has to wonder if the company will be able to maintain this same position or will have to make

Every retail location carries a variety of products that distinguishes it from other stores in the same chain. Not surprisingly, it is difficult to achieve economies of scale. Supply Chain Mackey describes his consumers as being “part of a cult”. Whole Foods believes that the company’s emphasis on perishables and locally-sourced produce differentiates their stores from run-of-the-mill supermarkets and attracts loyal and devoted customers. However, “fresh produce” is one of the most challenging product categories to operate due to limited product shelf life and high cost of spoilage. Whole Foods has tried to circumvent most of the problems inherent in supplying fresh produce to its stores by sourcing locally and having short and flexible supply chains. In the case of fruits and vegetables, Whole Foods has buying relationships with local farmers who supply the store with seasonal produce. Thus, if one farmer is unable to produce a sufficient amount of yellow corn or heirloom tomatoes, the shortfall can be made up by another farmer. Although challenging to perfect, these short supply chains are agile and difficult for other big retailers to duplicate.

Whole Foods was established in 1980 with one store in Austin, Texas. Today, Whole Foods is the world’s largest leader in natural and organic foods. There are over 310 stores in North America and the United Kingdom. Whole Foods is committed to the finest natural and organic foods available, sustainable agriculture and have one of the strictest of quality standards. Whole Foods offers customers a wide variety of products. “Natural” refers to food that is free of growth hormones or antibiotics, where “certificated

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.

Specialty grocery stores have grown in attractiveness to customers, but the main issue is that often specialty stores have restricted locations which in turn limits their reach to customers. Whole Food’s Market and Trader Joe’s are two specialty grocery stores who have increased locations to the hundreds while adhering to an unforeseen market standing for formerly untargeted market segment.

Whole Foods started in 1980 when it’s CEO, John Mackey merged his store, SaferWay, with a competitor, Clarksville Natural Grocery. Since then, Whole Foods has expanded to 275 locations in North America and United Kingdom with 47,000 employees, making it the world’s leading supermarket retailer of natural and organic products (Harbin and Humphrey, 2013). With a mission to promote the vitality and well- being of individuals,

Whole Foods' utilizes a differentiated strategy, focused on organic and natural foods. This distinguishes them from mainstream grocery competitors, and puts them into competition with other specialized grocery outlets (Urani, 2008). This differentiation, combined with more traditional grocery industry size and operations, gives the company an advantage over most of its competitors.

Whole Foods Market Inc. is a service provider in the grocery industry, which report in the US economy under the North American Industry Classification System NAICS 42441, General-line groceries merchants wholesalers, by the time the company started operations in 1980 supermarkets had a history of 51 years. Supermarkets unlike other type of retail is considered truly American in origin, self service grocery stores are traced back to 1912 in Memphis Tennessee, and it was in 1930 when Michael Cullen opened the first store of the King Kullen supermarket chain, it was around that time after the big depression that the independent stores which at that time only offered dry groceries started to transition to the supermarket

Whole Foods ' strong brand identity is likely its greatest source of competitive advantage. The company has successfully established itself as the leader in the organic and natural food segment, and has invested heavily in store quality and customer service. These factors differentiate it from other grocers and have fostered a relatively loyal customer base that is assured of WFM’s high quality products and services. Maintaining this advantage will be essential in preserving the franchise’s competitiveness despite the increase of other companies offering natural and organic products.

Whole Foods Market is a chain of organic, natural supermarkets found in USA, Canada and the UK. Initially founded in Austin, Texas in 1980, at a time when there were less than half a dozen natural supermarkets, the company saw rapid growth domestically through expanding across Texas and then into the West Coast of America. This was achieved through growth from the ground up and acquiring smaller natural food companies. Whole Foods Market in the present day is the result of acquiring 14 smaller firms - a key driver in breaking into the UK and Canadian markets.

Whole Foods Market (WFM) was founded in 1980 as a single local grocery store by John Mackey for natural and health foods. By 1991, WFM had 10 up-and-running stores with revenues of about $92.5 million in United States Dollars (USD), and a net income of about $1.6 million in USD. In 1992 WFM became a publicly traded company with its stock trading on the NASDAQ. By 2006 Whole Foods Market had progressed into the world’s largest retail chain of natural and organic foods supermarket. As of September 2007 WFM has 276 stores up-and-running. 263 of the stores are located throughout 37 of the U.S. and the District of Columbia. 7 of the stores are in Canada and 6 in the U.K.

Over the past few decades, the diet and health food industry has become big business. Americans, along with people in many other countries, have become more educated about the benefits of exercising regularly and eating healthy. Whole Foods Market is pursuing a business strategy that strives to offer products that are of the highest quality, least processed, most flavorful and natural foods possible (Whole Foods Market,