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Tag: Whole Foods

  • Amazon Poised to Open Department Stores

    Amazon Poised to Open Department Stores

    Amazon may dominate e-commerce, but reports show it now plans to take on traditional retail with its own debarment-style stores.

    Department stores were once a staple of American life and the go-to place to shop for everything from clothes to household items. In recent years, however, e-commerce has taken a toll on the industry, with many going into bankruptcy or making major changes to how they do business.

    Now Amazon, arguably one of the biggest factors in the demise of the industry, is now preparing to open its own department-style retail stores in California and Ohio, according to The Wall Street Journal.Amazon already has some retail locations, such as bookstores and the Whole Foods chain it purchased 2017. The company also has its 4-star stores, although those primarily sell gadgets.

    According to WSJ, Amazon’s new retail stores will be roughly 30,000 square feet, quite a bit smaller than a traditional department store, which usually comes in around 100,000. Even so, the new stores will be much larger than the company’s other retail efforts and will offer the full range of products from top brands, much like a traditional department store.

    While nothing is a sure bet, Amazon’s chances of success are pretty good. Having its own stores would give users the ability to try on clothes before buying them, eliminating one of the more frustrating aspects of online shopping.

  • Lawmakers Want Info on Amazon’s Plans for Customers’ Palm Prints

    Lawmakers Want Info on Amazon’s Plans for Customers’ Palm Prints

    Amazon is once again in the spotlight over privacy, with lawmakers wanting to know what the company plans to do with customer palm prints.

    Amazon rolled out palm print biometric scanning as a way for customers to pay without having to use their card. The technology is already in use in Amazon Go, Amazon Books and Amazon 4-star stores, as well as some Whole Food locations.

    Lawmakers are concerned about the company’s plans, according to TechCrunch, writing a letter to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy to express those concerns. In particular, Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Jon Ossoff (D-GA) questioned whether Amazon would use the biometric data in its advertising business.

    “Amazon’s expansion of biometric data collection through Amazon One raises serious questions about Amazon’s plans for this data and its respect for user privacy, including about how Amazon may use the data for advertising and tracking purposes,” the Senators wrote.

    Amazon already has access to a wealth of information from their e-commerce operations and cloud business. It’s easy to see why there would be concern about them also having access to biometric data, especially if they plan to use it for anything other than a convenience service for their customers.

  • We Are Not Going Back to Old Retail

    We Are Not Going Back to Old Retail

    With the future of retail we have crossed over the demarcation line, says Walter Robb, the former co-CEO of Whole Foods. “We’re not going back to the old retail,” said Robb. “It’s just not going to happen. That’s the combination of digital and physical. We’re in what I would call new retail, which is the integration.”

    Walter Robb, former co-CEO of Whole Foods, discusses the retail revolution currently underway in an interview on CNBC:

    Traditional Retail Models Are Under Pressure

    From where I sit the customer is doing pretty well. They’re spending. They’re pretty strong. There was a lot of pessimism at the back half of last year that was reflected in some of the stock prices, but I think that was overblown. We’re going to see a customer that’s doing pretty well this year in 2019 and might surprise a little bit to the upside. That being said, traditional retail models are under pressure. The customer is spending their dollars in so many different ways and places than they could before. You used to just open up four walls and open a store and now the customer has so many more options.

    We do know that in the United States we’re about 24 square feet of retail space per capita and that’s two and a half times more than any other industrialized country. We have too much space so there’s going to be a winnowing out that’s going to happen here. There’s going to be winners and losers and we’re already seeing that. In 2019, I think that continues, but I do think that we’re in the second half of that. What we’re actually seeing that the mall is beginning to switch over and putting in exciting new uses and we’re seeing retail stores start to open again.

    We Are Not Going Back to Old Retail

    With the future of retail, we have crossed over the demarcation line. We’re not going back to the old retail. It’s just not going to happen. That’s the combination of digital and physical. You’re seeing the digital retailers, the Allbirds, the Warby Parker’s, come out and say, alright we’re going to open physical stores because we realize our customers want to experience our brand and be with us in that way. They’re bringing new ideas to that presentation of retail, which is pretty exciting.

    At the same time, you’re seeing physical retailers adapt to digital ways. Take a look at Target and how they’ve employed all the new tools that they have for the customers, in-store apps and those sorts of things. You’re seeing a combination of these two. In some cases it’s adolescent and in some case it’s more mature, but we are not going back to just the simple form retailer. We’re in what I would call new retail, which is the integration.

    The edge of which is actually in China with a supermarket called Hema from Alibaba, which is which is simply fantastic. It’s integrated on the back end and on the front end. I think you’re seeing retailers say, we’ve adapted to the age of Amazon and we understand this is how customers want to shop. We’re seeing a whole new generation of businesses and entrepreneurs say, I’m going to bring the customer this fusion of digital and physical in a way that’s really exciting and really compelling. We’re not going back. I opened my first store in 1978 but that’s just not as easy to do anymore because you have to have that the tools to really understand your customer personally. I think it’s pretty exciting to see what’s happening.

    Physical and Digital Retailers Need Each Other

    The business model on the last mile is very challenging unless you’re connected into a physical store. If you just out there floating without a connection to physical retail those have not proven to be sustainable. I think it’s clear to me that the customer wants that choice. I think the data is very clear that they want both. They’re not going to give up physical stores and that’s why you’re seeing these digital and physical retailers. They need each other and they need both parts of that to make the thing actually compelling for the customer.

    I think there’ll be a shakeout. You seem some consolidation already, but the most interesting combinations are where the physical retailer buys the digital, where Target buys Shipt and where Walmart buys Flipkart or whatever you see around the world, realizing the combination is the most powerful. That will be the most sustainable from a business model perspective.

    We Are Not Going Back to Old Retail, Says Walter Robb, former co-CEO of Whole Foods

    Also Read:

    Nothing Short of a Revolution Happening in the Food Marketplace

  • Nothing Short of a Revolution Happening in the Food Marketplace

    Nothing Short of a Revolution Happening in the Food Marketplace

    There is nothing short of a revolution happening in the food marketplace today and it is not a quiet one, says Walter Robb, the former co-CEO of Whole Foods. “It is disrupting things left and right, all the way up the value chain back into the farmer’s field,” says Robb.

    Walter Robb, former co-CEO of Whole Foods, discusses the revolution happening in the food marketplace in an interview on CNBC:

    Nothing Short of a Revolution Happening in the Food Marketplace

    There is nothing short of a revolution happening in the food marketplace today and it is not a quiet one. It is disrupting things left and right, all the way up the value chain back into the farmer’s field. For me, to see these (organic) brands and to see it show up at the Super Bowl, the biggest media stage of the world, is kind of an exciting thing.

    Some 75 percent of the food we eat is from 12 plants. Somebody’s woken up to that realizing, wow, there’s a whole lot of stuff that we can create from stuff we don’t even know yet. The Natural Food Expo, which is the next month in LA, 85,000 people are going to that show. This is where the energy and the edge of the food industry is at right now.

    We’ve broken into this area now where there’s an amazing amount of innovation with young companies and entrepreneurs. This is where the growing edge of the food industry is now. It’s not just natural and organic but it’s this innovation around new foods and new food types.

    Amazing Amount of Innovation With Entrepreneurs

    You have to build the tools to really understand your customer personally. I think it’s pretty exciting to see what’s happening. On the physical side, Walmart is doing a lot of things, Kroger is doing a lot of things, and Whole Foods is doing a lot of things to try to integrate digital and physical retail in a way that gives the customer a very rich experience.

    I do think in terms of the food service delivery, Grubhub has had phenomenal growth. What’s happened is the world has woken up to how exciting food is again. We kind of went along after World War two for a number of years with this kind of dull drum of production, just regular stuff with the major CPG brands.

    If you get a $5 latte and it’s probably a $5 delivery charge at what point does the customers say that’s a great value problem? I don’t know, but I think we’re going to find out. I do think this idea that the customer wants the convenience is here to stay and that they’re used to having that option. In some cases, they will choose it. Where that line is it’s too early to say exactly where they’ll say, that’s too expensive or that’s not a good deal.


  • Amazon Reportedly Prepping to Go Cashierless at Whole Foods

    Amazon Reportedly Prepping to Go Cashierless at Whole Foods

    According to the Wall Street Journal Amazon is testing larger format stores with its Amazon Go cashierless technology as a prelude to a Whole Foods rollout. The WSJ appeared to have spoken with several insiders. “It is unclear whether Amazon intends to use the technology for Whole Foods, although that is the most likely application if executives can make it work, according to the people.” There are predictions by some experts and entrepreneurs that virtually every physical retail store will be checkout free within 5-10 years.

    Walter Robb, former Whole Foods co-CEO, discussed the possibility of Amazon adding its cashierless technology to Whole Foods in an interview on CNBC:

    Amazon May Go Cashierless at Whole Foods

    I just think is part of a larger revolution that’s happening in retail and in food in general. The customers are having more and more options. Amazon Go, which is now up to 13 stores already has this deployed in a smaller store format. The application of this to a larger selection of products, most Whole Foods stores have about 35,000 units, is very exciting and very interesting.

    I think we’re just seeing this massive wave of disruption and innovation in retail in general. What this does is, if you call the grocery business about $2 trillion in the US plus or minus, what you’re seeing is all these new ways in which the customer can get their food. This is part of that choice. I think one of the things that people miss about the Amazon Whole Foods merger is the fact that physical retail really matters. What this does is say, okay we’re going to try to make the physical experience a little more streamlined for people so it contrasts with the online experience. I think you just see this bevy of choices the customers never had and we couldn’t even imagine five years ago.

    Whole Foods and Amazon Culture Clash Smoothing Out

    It’s still early but I think Amazon and Whole Foods certainly have different cultures and different styles, but I think that Amazon has very smart and capable people and I think the cultures are beginning to find their way, both their work processes. If you think about what we at Whole Foods gained from Amazon, we got tremendous first best-in-class technology and data capabilities, the digitization of Whole Foods, was significantly accelerated.

    I think for Amazon they got a great brand in fresh foods which they’d struggle up to that point. They got the knowledge of the customer in the physical stores versus just the digital world and they got proximity to about 85% of the US population. It was a real win-win-win combination. People forget that food is probably the largest sector in the economy. This is a very significant deal that happened and I think a proxy for the fact of how business and commerce in general are evolving so quickly.

  • Amazon’s Whole Foods Purchase Raises Demand for Same-Day Grocery Delivery Services

    Amazon’s Whole Foods Purchase Raises Demand for Same-Day Grocery Delivery Services

    Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods was met with wariness and a not-so-unexpected round of hostility from rival supermarket chains. There was little doubt that the company’s foray into grocery retail would have made a big impact on the industry. What’s surprising, is how the buyout is also opening doors for suppliers and grocery-delivery startups like Instacart and Shipt.

    It didn’t take long for Amazon’s $13.7 billion deal with Whole Foods to disrupt the grocery retail industry. The first and most obvious impact was the pressure that supermarkets like Kroger felt when Amazon began lowering prices at Whole Foods. However, after having its shares rattled by Amazon, Kroger was able to regain investor confidence by partnering with Instacart and several other grocery delivery services, allowing it to outpace Amazon over the past three months.

    Corporations like Target and Walmart also hurried to hammer out deals of their own. In fact, Target announced on Wednesday, that it would acquire Shipt for $550 million. The delivery startup already saw a 60% upsurge in orders since Amazon’s Whole Foods takeover in June. It’s now expanding its reach from 30 U.S. markets since 2016 to 70 before year’s end.

    Instacart, a company that had described itself as the American grocer’s ally against Amazon, admittedly had a challenging time pushing its service before Whole Foods was purchased. But according to Instacart CEO Apoorva Mehta, that all changed after Amazon’s acquisition, as retailers started calling them insisting that they launch in as many stores as possible. Now they have 165 retailers, a far cry from last year’s 30.

    Independent retailers are also seeing an upside to the Whole Foods deal. The rising interest in local food and the fears local producers have over losing their market to Amazon could force small and independent retailers to develop systems that allow for a mix of different products.

    The Good Food Merchants Collaborative, a group of around 22 independent groceries, is planning to roll out a cooperative buying system that will offer competitive prices for consumers and help expand the buying power of small retailers. To that end, these small grocers are hoping to tap into local food producers, since they have stronger ties to the community and consumers. It’s an interesting gamble, and one that could have a big payoff. Research has shown that consumers are also looking to independent grocers for local food.  

    [Featured image via Whole Foods Market]

  • Square Makes First Grocer Partnership With Whole Foods

    About a year and a half ago, Square announced a major partnership with Starbucks. Today, Square has announced another such partnership with Whole Foods Market, which will see select grocery stores implementing Square payment and checkout features.

    Whole Foods expects the integration of Square Register and Square Stand (and in some stores, Square Wallet) to make the checkout process faster and easier for customers., allowing them to skip checkout lines, including at interior sandwich counters, juice and coffee bars, pizzerias, and beer and wine bars.

    Square CEO Jack Dorsey said, “Whole Foods Market and Square share a focus on supporting local sellers and creating amazing shopping experiences. With Square, Whole Foods Market will enable commerce in more parts of their stores with easy, accessible tools that showcase the best of what’s achievable in the service of retailers and customers.”

    “Together with Square, we’ll deliver options to expedite checkouts, and we look forward to developing new concepts to further simplify and improve grocery shopping,” said Walter Robb, co-CEO of Whole Foods Market. “Square’s forward-thinking vision and technology makes them an ideal partner to create a convenient, responsive experience for our customers.”

    Seven Whole Foods venues already use Square Stand. It’s unclear how many stores will utilize Square initially as a result of the partnership. Some of them, however, will serve as “lab stores” testing additional features ahead of wider roll-outs.

    It goes without saying that entry into grocery stores is a huge step for Square, which may go public this year. Other grocers will no doubt be watching to see how the partnership affects the customer experience at Whole Foods.

    If you’re a smaller business, it may interest you to know that Square recently reduced the price of Square Stand to $99.

    Image via Square (Twitter)

  • The Paleo Diet vs Plant Based Diet

    The Paleo Diet vs Plant Based Diet

    With 2014 upon us most people are making their New Year’s resolutions. The number one resolution is to lose weight.

    Weight loss seems to elude many American’s – mostly because of our lack of knowledge, and due to the fad diets that plague our country – promising quick weight loss. We are short on patience, and much too trusting – as evidenced by the droves of fast food places on nearly every corner of every street – in even some of the most remote places in the U.S.

    When thinking about losing weight – the successful dieter realizes that any diet that promises rapid weight loss cannot be healthy or sustaining – nor does it work. Weight loss takes time and effort, and entails eating right and not taking shortcuts.

    Approximately 80 percent of people who lose more weight than 2 pounds a week, gain it back. Many gain back more weight and become heavier than when they started.

    “Losing weight is one of the top resolutions made every year, yet only 20 percent of people achieve successful weight-loss and maintenance,” says Jessica Bartfield, MD, internal medicine who specializes in nutrition and weight management at the Loyola Center for Metabolic Surgery & Bariatric Care.

    The Paleo Diet states: the world’s healthiest diet – is based upon eating wholesome, contemporary foods from the food groups that our hunter-gatherer ancestors would have thrived on during the Paleolithic era.

    But there is one obvious problem in that statement – we are no longer hunter-gatherers. The Paleolithic period was a time when people spent an entire exhaustive day searching, and hunting for food. It was the cultural period of the Stone Age beginning with the earliest chipped stone tools, about 750,000 years ago.

    They didn’t drive cars, shop at grocery stores and sleep in homes. Logic should tell you that this is a diet to avoid; we are long past the Stone Age.

    With our lifestyles in the 21st Century, there is a way to lose weight, obtain optimum health and never have to worry about counting calories. It’s called a plant based diet.

    Web MD says: If your diet is rich in fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains, and meat substitutes such as soy, you may be less likely to have certain risks for heart disease and other heart problems, such as:

    High blood levels of total cholesterol
    High levels of LDL “bad” cholesterol
    High levels of triglycerides
    High blood pressure
    Overweight and obesity
    Metabolic syndrome
    Diabetes

    Dr. Neal Barnard can get you started on the path to a slimmer you, with the added benefit of abundant health with his 21 day weight loss kick-start, using a plant based diet.

    While losing weight and keeping it off by a lifestyle change – you can avoid most all diseases. What could be better than that!

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Etsy Brings DIY Tutorials, Tote Bags To Whole Foods Market

    Etsy Brings DIY Tutorials, Tote Bags To Whole Foods Market

    Etsy and Whole Foods Market announced that they have formed a partnership, which will bring DIY craft tutorials from Etsy sellers to Whole Foods stores and its website.

    The partnership will extend throughout this year and all of next year. To kick things off, they’ve put together a 2013 Holiday Guide, and Etsy has a Whole Foods holiday page, which features artist profiles, products and shops curated for Whole Foods shoppers.

    “With packed holiday schedules, homemade holiday entertaining can seem out of reach for some shoppers,” said Barry Hirsch, global partnerships director for Whole Foods Market. “Thanks to Etsy, we’ve developed the perfect recipe of creative ingredients – both DIY and food – to help shoppers see how easy, fun and affordable it can be to add a personal touch to their holiday celebrations.” –

    “Etsy looks for partnerships that bring our seller community to the forefront and celebrate their skills and creativity,” said Dana Mauriello, director of new business opportunities at Etsy. “Together, Whole Foods Market and the Etsy community can share ideas to create the best handmade holiday.”

    Etsy’s Laura Chin says on the company blog, “Eight Etsy sellers came up with festive craft ideas for holiday entertaining. Their tutorials will appear in print, in the Whole Foods Market’s Holiday Guide, and on ‘recipe cards’ that shoppers will be able to take home. Best of all: all of these crafts can be made from everyday materials and ingredients.”

    Artist and Etsy seller Matte Stephens also had a designed selected by Whole Foods for use on a reusable tote bag the store will be selling.

    Whole Foods lists its DIY events here.

    Image: Etsy

  • Trader Joe’s Named Top Grocery Store By Survey

    Trader Joe’s Named Top Grocery Store By Survey

    A survey conducted by customer intelligence firm Market Force has crowned Trader Joe’s as its top grocery store in the country.

    While Trader Joe’s may be known as a specialty market, it has a devoted following of customer and performed near the top in the survey’s customer satisfaction areas which included cleanliness, accurate pricing, courteous staff, atmosphere, and fast check-out. While most chains performed well in a couple of areas, Trader Joe’s performed extremely well in all of them. The Monrovia, CA based company aims for a small, community feel, as opposed to the massive layouts of other stores.

    Other stores that performed well include Publix, Hy-Vee, and Whole Foods, which challenged Joe’s for the title. Large chains like Wal-Mart and Target ranked highly as a one-stop-shopping choices, but Wal-Mart ranked the lowest in customer satisfaction.

    The study sheds light on what consumers are now looking for in a supermarket; cleanliness, friendliness, and a no-nonsense approach that includes more of a feeling of home. While the traditional giants like Wal-Mart keep churning out high profits, customers are beginning to tire of their sheer size and lack of a personal touch. Trader Joe’s presents a nice middle ground for those looking for a more intimate store while still wanting a wide selection. However, the survey is far from conclusive since the sample size only consisted of 6,600 consumers.

  • Kinect Shopping Cart Takes Whole Foods Shoppers To Aisles Of The Future

    Kinect Shopping Cart Takes Whole Foods Shoppers To Aisles Of The Future

    Checking your phone, pushing a shopping cart, reading the nutritional info on that new Cheerios variant, reining in your hyper-curious children – going to the grocery store can be an exhausting exercise in multitasking. If you choose to do your pantry-stocking at Whole Foods, though, you may find that juggling all of those tasks will become remarkably easier in the future.

    No, Whole Foods isn’t going to be sewing an extra pair of free-range hands onto your body – they just want to free up the set of hands you already have. To do that, the grocer is set to debut a prototype for a hands-free shopping cart utilizing Microsoft’s Kinect. The sensor technology of Kinect will work with a Windows 8 Tablet in order to follow your motions and obey your voice commands, thus ferrying you into the future of shopping.

    GeekWire broke the news yesterday that Whole Foods was working on the shopping cart of the future, which is also capable of recognizing a shopper’s Whole Foods loyalty card and uploading your shopping list to the tablet.

    As you put items into the cart, the cart will recognize the items with a vocalized confirmation, but be on your best behavior: the shopping cart is not afraid to act as a dietary nanny, as well, which you’ll see below in the demo.

    Wired.com put on their detective caps and managed to find out that the Kinect-enabled shopping cart is the product of Microsoft’s collaboration with Chaotic Moon, a mad science lab of inventors you may recall from CES 2012 when they dazzled audiences with their motorized skateboard. Wired spoke with an anonymous source related to the project and found out that the futuristic shopping buggie, which Wired is calling Smarter Cart, comes with the aforementioned Windows tablet and a UPC scanner. The tablet will be able to read shopping lists using RFID tags and, based on your list, make recommendations or even second-guess some of those buys that might breach the boundaries of nutrition (as evidenced by the cart’s questioning of a gluten product in the video above). What’s more, it appears that you can even pay for your items directly with the cart – no need to go bumbling through U-Scans or bother a cashier.

    Of course, extant problems with shopping carts like the inevitable wheel that doesn’t really roll so much as drag stubbornly with the cart won’t necessarily be remedied by the Chaotic Moon gang, but then again, if anybody could re-invent the wheel it’s probably that crew. In case your memory lapsed and you forgot what these savants were capable of, check out the video of their mind-controlled skateboard (yes, you read that correctly).

    So if these guys can invent a brainwave-directed skateboard, they can probably handle your grocery store needs with utmost finesse and ease.

  • Whole Foods, LivingSocial Team Up For 50% Off Deal

    In what many are considering the holy grail of daily deals, LivingSocial is offering a voucher today for 50% off groceries at Whole Foods Market.

    The voucher is good for $20 worth of merchandise for only $10.

    They say beauty exists in the relationship between a “whole” organism and its parts. And with today’s deal, lettuce show you the natural simplicity of healthy goods, courtesy of Whole Foods Market: Pay $10 for $20 to spend on high-quality natural and organic products. Whether you want local produce; freshly prepared foods; gluten-free goodies; or you simply want to avoid artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, sweeteners, and hydrogenated fats, Whole Foods Market has you covered.

    Whole Foods is donating 5% of the sale price to their brand new organization, the Whole Food Foundation. Their goal is to improve children’s nutrition through programs with school and parents.

    @LivingSocial
    LivingSocial    What are you going to buy with your #WholeFoods deal? Coconut water? Stuff from the hot bar? Cheese and wine? 29 minutes ago via HootSuite · powered by @socialditto

    @WholeFoods
    Whole Foods Market    WOWZERS! $10 gets you a $20 WholeFoods gift card today (9/13) on http://t.co/cjJPcWW….that’s 50% OFF! 2 hours ago via CoTweet · powered by @socialditto

    Unfortunately, there is a limit of one voucher per person. But If you buy the voucher, share the deal using a special link, and 3 of your friends buy the voucher following your link, then yours ends up being free.

    As of right now, over 269,000 people have bought the deal. Whole Foods is the first national grocer to offer a daily deal with either LivingSocial or Groupon.