Although regional differences can usually be spotted by discourse — whether someone orders “soda” or “pop” at a restaurant — I find that the best way to find out where someone is from is to ask them where they get their groceries at home.
For me, this realization happened in the 7th grade at dance camp. Rachel from New Jersey shopped at Wegman’s. Susanne from Georgia shopped at Piggly Wiggly. I shopped at the Food Emporium.
The only grocers that can be considered ubiquitous are Wal-Mart, Target and Sam’s Club. The rest are broken up into little regions of grocery store geography.
When I came to IU, Kroger was a foreign land to me. Fairly quickly I learned to navigate around Bloomington’s two Krogers with ease, and my days of traipsing to find prosciutto – if you’re curious, it’s in the artisanal cheese section, not the bacon and ham section – were long gone.
That being said, I can guarantee that almost everyone has heard of Whole Foods Market. Hailing from Austin, Texas, this grocery store began operations in 1980 and has since then cranked out 462 locations across the globe.
As someone who frequents the chain at home to purchase fresh vegetables and produce, I am no stranger to the sweat beads that dot across my forehead when I hand the cashier my credit card after checkout. The bill is almost always more expensive than I think it will be.
Whole Foods is the SoulCycle of grocery stores. All products are organic, absent of artificial food dyes and flavorings, and most notably, they’re far more expensive. Maybe it’s the friendly staff members, or maybe it’s doubled-up crisp brown paper bags, but something in this store has made customers routinely come back for more.
Until now.
Shoppers want cheaper options, and places like Kroger honed in on the desire to eat organically while staying within a reasonable budget. Kroger now markets its own “Simple Truth” products that beat out Whole Foods’ “365 Everyday Value” products by sheer price points.
Krogucci has an entire section dedicated to organic offerings, and the quality is directly in line with that of a Whole Foods or Bloomingfoods. It’s 2017, and now most places — Wegman’s, Piggly Wiggly’s and Food Emporiums alike — all have similar organic sections with lower prices than those at Whole Foods.
Average growth sales for the grocery store chain are plummeting and it’s time for the store to make a change.
In fall 2017, 365 By Whole Foods Market will be introduced to our Bloomington community. This subset of Whole Foods is supposed to offer consumers high-quality organic eats at “everyday low prices,” according to the College Mall website.
Although it’s great that Whole Foods is trying to market to a different crowd, it might not prove to be a beneficial move since Kroger has already filled the cavity for cheap organic options.
Financial analyst Michael Lasser recently described that Whole Foods has become “the victim of its own success,” and that “365 by Whole Foods Market ... may wind up causing more harm than good... Even if Whole Foods becomes more price competitive with competing brands, the presence of 365-brand locations may wind up cannibalizing some of the sales that would otherwise go back to the flagship stores.”
It seems as though Whole Foods’ success is plateauing, and only time will tell whether its new business ventures will be successful.
jlkarl@umail.iu.edu
