Whole Foods closing (Martinez, Evans, Grovetown: appointed, leasing, buying)

[AUGnative]

Originally Posted by PJA

Their main customer base is not just the surrounding area. They draw from a much larger area than a regular grocery store. As mentioned earlier, their immediate target area is within a 20 minute radius, and st least 200,000 people in that radius. Evans is definitely in that radius but obviously folks from Evans would rather drive past Whole Foods and go to Fresh market instead.

No actually people in Evans would rather stay in Evans and shop at one of the numerous grocery stores there than spend 25 minutes in traffic (or more depending on time of day) and then have to fight for parking.

If Whole Foods actually believes their stores are regional shopping magnets like say a Costco or an Ikea or a Bass Pro then this probably explains why their stock price is plummeting and why they are closing stores. They might have been able to make that claim 10 years ago but they are no longer the only kid on teh block in the organic whole foods marketplace.

Did they really think people from Harrisburg and Laney Walker would be coming to shop at Whole Foods? People from South Augusta? Were people going to drive all the way from Aiken? That is the only rationale I can see for locating where they did. I think what happened to them in Augusta is indicative of the mistakes they are making all over the country. They seem to believe they are so special and so hip that people are going to beat a path to their door for the privilege of paying higher prices for groceries. Now I am not a whole foods shopper. I dont understand the appeal really to pay so much more for groceries but good friends of mine who live in Riverwood and are from Colorado are big fans of Whole Foods but even they said it was too out of the way for them and too much of a hassle even though they had been loyal whole foods customers in Denver. They opted for the closer Publix because it was convenient and offered a decent selection of organic foods. Now I suspect they were not the only ones in Riverwood or many of the other surrounding affluent neighborhoods who might have shopped at Whole Foods had it been located closer to where they live. The only people I know of who are willing to drive 25 minutes of more to go grocery shopping are those who live way out in the country where there are not any grocery stores nearby.

[PJA]

Originally Posted by evb1

I heard last year from someone formerly in management at Whole Foods Augusta that due diligence was not performed in retrospect. They said that if it had been, the store would have been located in Evans and been the small footprint out of the three store size options instead of the largest.

If that's the case then they would just relocate to Evans. They are currently relocating 2 other stores instead of closing them, they could do the same, but I suspect they that they still will have to compete with fresh market and earth fare.

[PJA]

Originally Posted by AUGnative

No actually people in Evans would rather stay in Evans and shop at one of the numerous grocery stores there than spend 25 minutes in traffic (or more depending on time of day) and then have to fight for parking.

If Whole Foods actually believes their stores are regional shopping magnets like say a Costco or an Ikea or a Bass Pro then this probably explains why their stock price is plummeting and why they are closing stores. They might have been able to make that claim 10 years ago but they are no longer the only kid on teh block in the organic whole foods marketplace.

Did they really think people from Harrisburg and Laney Walker would be coming to shop at Whole Foods? People from South Augusta? Were people going to drive all the way from Aiken? That is the only rationale I can see for locating where they did. I think what happened to them in Augusta is indicative of the mistakes they are making all over the country. They seem to believe they are so special and so hip that people are going to beat a path to their door for the privilege of paying higher prices for groceries. Now I am not a whole foods shopper. I dont understand the appeal really to pay so much more for groceries but good friends of mine who live in Riverwood and are from Colorado are big fans of Whole Foods but even they said it was too out of the way for them and too much of a hassle even though they had been loyal whole foods customers in Denver. They opted for the closer Publix because it was convenient and offered a decent selection of organic foods. Now I suspect they were not the only ones in Riverwood or many of the other surrounding affluent neighborhoods who might have shopped at Whole Foods had it been located closer to where they live. The only people I know of who are willing to drive 25 minutes of more to go grocery shopping are those who live way out in the country where there are not any grocery stores nearby.

Then why do they go to fresh market?

[AUGnative]

Originally Posted by evb1

I heard last year from someone formerly in management at Whole Foods Augusta that due diligence was not performed in retrospect. They said that if it had been, the store would have been located in Evans and been the small footprint out of the three store size options instead of the largest.

And I imagine they made this same error in judgement all over the country and this explains why they are hurting

[PJA]

Originally Posted by AUGnative

And I imagine they made this same error in judgement all over the country and this explains why they are hurting

They're hurting because they now have competition. They used to bethe only game in town for a lot of places when it came to organic foods and that is no longer the case. I have posted several articles about how they are going to have to reinnovate their company, service etc. to keep up with their competitors. Fortunately for a lot of other areas Whole Foods was already there when competition picked up so while they have lost customers, they still have enough. The Augusta area on the other hand Already has 2 chains that has our loyalty and Whole Foods offered nothing to earn it from them.

[AUGnative]

Originally Posted by PJA

Then why do they go to fresh market?

How do you know they are going to Fresh Market? Have you done a survey outside of the Fresh Market to determine where the people live who shop there?
Here's the deal with Fresh Market. It is a small European style grocery store. It is probably half the size of the whole foods. I imagine they cater to the same people who patronize many of the businesses at surrey center. I would say a lot of of their customers probably come from The Hill, Forest Hills, National Hills etc..
Fresh Market has been there a long time and has a loyal customer base. The prices at Fresh Market also seem to be more reasonable than Whole Foods (atleast on my visits). BUt that being said I think the surrounding area is able to support an upscale grocery on the scale of Fresh Market but not on the scale of the big whole foods and it certainly wont support both. I suspect Fresh Market would do very well if they located out in Evans. Whole Foods would have been smart had they beat Fresh Market out to Evans as that is where much of the growth is.

[AUGnative]

I suspect that some people were willing to drive from Evans and beyond to shop at Whole Foods and Fresh Market.. Just not enough of them .

[PJA]

Originally Posted by AUGnative

How do you know they are going to Fresh Market? Have you done a survey outside of the Fresh Market to determine where the people live who shop there?
Here's the deal with Fresh Market. It is a small European style grocery store. It is probably half the size of the whole foods. I imagine they cater to the same people who patronize many of the businesses at surrey center. I would say a lot of of their customers probably come from The Hill, Forest Hills, National Hills etc..
Fresh Market has been there a long time and has a loyal customer base. The prices at Fresh Market also seem to be more reasonable than Whole Foods (atleast on my visits). BUt that being said I think the surrounding area is able to support an upscale grocery on the scale of Fresh Market but not on the scale of the big whole foods and it certainly wont support both. I suspect Fresh Market would do very well if they located out in Evans. Whole Foods would have been smart had they beat Fresh Market out to Evans as that is where much of the growth is.

I frequent fresh market and know several of the staff and I know they pull customers from all over the area including Evans. I've also noticed when I paid attention in several occasions a host of cc tags when shopping there.

[Mutiny77]

Originally Posted by GRU_Minion

Your WF shares a parking lot with a CVS, hardware store and a small cafe, best I can tell. That's not nearly the same as having 3 sides of the parking lot bordered by dense retail strips that containing two very popular restaurants and several high-traffic retailers, among other things.

That parking lot, which is smaller than Augusta's, serves a lot more retailers than that (check out the area on Streetview) and is heavily utilized for downtown events which happen all the time.

[PJA]

Originally Posted by AUGnative

I suspect that some people were willing to drive from Evans and beyond to shop at Whole Foods and Fresh Market.. Just not enough of them .

Apparently it's enough at fresh market.