Wholefoods Case

The food retail business is a largely competitive business with many different companies vying for attention from the public. You have your small, privately owned stores, your regional chain businesses, large nationwide chains, specialty health, organic or vegan stores and everything in between. With operating only 347 stores nationwide, Whole Foods relatively makes up only a small share of the grocery store market in the United States. That said, Whole Foods is one of the few chains that has a true nationwide reach, operating stores in 40 of 50 states as well as multiple stores in the District of Columbia. To that end, let us turn our focus primarily to the national competition facing Whole Foods Market.

In the grand scheme of things Whole Foods Market has two significant direct competitors, followed by a litany of smaller, more regional-based contenders. The first of these to discuss is Safeway Inc. With close to 1,400 stores nationwide, Safeway is a true grocery giant. In addition to the nationwide reach of Safeway, its greatest concentration of stores are found in California & Texas, putting themselves in direct competition with the high volume of Whole Foods store locations in those two states as well. Despite primarily being known as more of a name brand grocery store, Safeway offers its own brand of organic foods, known as O Organics, in a direct attempt to challenge the WFM core demographic. In January of 2014 Safeway closed a deal to acquire Harris Teeter Supermarkets, giving them an even larger reach and a stronghold in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast regions of the US. Safeway’s aggressive expansion campaign, combined with their dabbling into the organic foods market makes them tough competition for Whole Foods in the upcoming future.

If Safeway is the number two competitor to Whole Foods, Kroger Co. would be the clear cut number one in regards to traditional grocery store chains. With 2,640 stores as of February 1, 2014, Kroger is the lead powerhouse of national grocery store chains. Kroger’s expansion year by year is even