This opportunity is important because many consumers do not understand the health and economic benefits of purchasing and consuming organically grown foods. This may lead to a greater desire for people to grow organically produced food. Such production is needed because of the growing demand for organic products.
Whole Foods also has the opportunity to make organic products more accessible and affordable for everyone. The company has already established itself as an industry leader. In doing this it has also maintained high quality standards. With this understood the strategic management that the company chooses should embrace the idea of providing high quality products at reduced prices. This would serve the purpose of reinventing the store while also making the community healthier.
Threats
The shortage of organic food in the future is a major threat to Whole Foods. The company is built on the premise of offering consumers premium organic products. However the popularity of organic food has resulted in a decreased supply. There simply are not enough organic farms and producers to keep up with the demand. This issue is compounded by the fact that Whole Foods is no longer the only grocery chain that specializes in organic products. With this understood Whole Foods is competing with other companies to have access to the organic supply of products. The case study explains that "The market for organic foods grew from $2.9 billion in 2001 to $5.3 billion in 2004 an 80.5% increase in the three-year period. In addition the scarcity of the organic food supply is such a threat that some organic markets have begun to look outside the United States for their supply of organic products.
Although Whole Foods remains the largest such grocery of its type, there is an increase in competition in recent years. For instance Wal-Mart now carries a significant amount of organic foods. This is a very real threat to Whole Foods because of the large market share that Wal-Mart already holds and the number of stores that Wal-Mart has around the country and throughout the world. Additionally stores such as Trader Joes, which also sells products that are strictly organic, has a much lower price point.
Another threat is economic conditions. Although the company is selective in the types of locations that stores are place, growing economic woes can serve as an impediment to the company's bottom line. The company only places stores in neighborhoods where 40% of the residents have college degrees. The reasoning behind such placement is that people with college degrees are more health conscious and make more money on average than do non-degreed people. However, the problem wit this reasoning during difficult economic time is that many of these individuals are losing their jobs and no longer have the income to support the purchase of products that Whole Foods offers.
Alternative Action
One of the actions that Whole Foods can take is the lowering of prices. This can be done by developing a product line that is geared toward shoppers who want to eat healthy but have limited budgets. The company must overcome the attitude of only catering to middle and upper income individuals because during difficult economic times these individuals will not be able to afford Whole Foods and they will turn to alternatives. The offering of organic foods at a lower cost would serve the purpose of broadening the company's customer base and therefore allow the company to remain competitive well into the future.
Another approach in addressing the scarcity of organic foods is for Whole Foods to embrace vertical integration. Vertical integration is defined as the degree to which a firm owns its upstream suppliers and downstream buyers (Clinton et al., 2008)." Embracing this particular strategy will allow Whole foods to become self sufficient through the creation of organic farms that are owned by the company.
Whole Foods may also choose to go outside of the United States for its products. The company has to remain competitive and if the competition has access to products that are cheaper and...
Whole Foods Market The USA food market is currently dynamic and keeps changing on a daily basis. The current occupancy of the shelves that organic foods have taken is quite substantial and this extends to the dairy products category and any other mainstream food retails. It is estimated that the market retail sales of organic foods shot to $21.1 billion in 2008 up from $3.6 billion in 1997 and this has
Whole Foods Market provides a wide variety of products to customers since it carries organic and natural food. The company is the leading retailer of organic and natural foods across the globe with more than 170 stores in the United Kingdom and North America. As a firm that is uniquely mission driven, Whole Foods Market is very selective about the products it sells as well as remaining dedicated to strict
Whole Foods Market Instructions Competitive Forces and SWOT Analysis. Deltra Davis Trends In The Retailing Of Organic Foods.. Apply Porter's Model Competitive Environment. Financial Objectives and Related Success Environmental Factor Analysis And Identify Significant Opportunities and Threats. Whole Foods Market Whole Foods has proven to be one of the most surprising corporate success stories of recent date: in the competitive grocery business, where profit margins are razor-thin, Whole Foods has consistently shown a profit during even the leanest economic years.
Whole Foods Market Strategy Whole Food Market Strategy Congruence in a powerful measure of the overall health and functioning of an organization -- a key to understanding the organization in a static snapshot and to forecasting how well the organization can execute change strategy and adapt to a competitive landscape that is in a constant state of flux. Organizational congruence is pivotal to effective strategy implementation and to successful organizational change. The
The investment will take in a lot of capital, hence reducing the annual income for some time. Alternative that should be pursued and why The alternative that it should pursue is that of expanding the market base. This is because, the competition in the local market is increasing, therefore, diversifying the market will allow the organization to control larger share of the market. The organization has an opportunity to expand, as
As more stores are offering organic strawberries, the student might decide to shop elsewhere. The shortage of time for many consumers may also reduce foot traffic at Whole Foods: consumers who used to stop at Whole Foods for specialty items but do the bulk of their shopping at a mainstream supermarket may eliminate their trip to Whole Foods, if they are working longer hours to make more money. Time-pressed
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