Organic grocer Earth Fare opens in Lakewood Ranch (Sarasota: houses, neighborhood)

[Sunshine Rules]

Here's the link to an article in today's Sarasota Herald Trib:

Earth Fare opening in Lakewood Ranch draws line of more than 800 - News - Sarasota Herald-Tribune - Sarasota, FL


Earth Fare has been running ads on the local stations over the past couple of weeks, looks interesting, especially in light of some of the changes Bezos is planning for Whole Foods.

[bbronston]

Meh...I think it was stupid for SMR to place that store right across the street from Publix. It's kind of a slap in the face to Publix, too. I'm not knocking competition or variety but I think they could have (and should have) come up with a better use of the property.

[beach43ofus]

Publix prices are too darned high, so I'm glad to see the competition. It will benefit us all.

[-parallon-]

A Publix customer is not an Earth Fare customer using most metrics. Publix has more horsepower in the local market anyway. Competition however is good for everyone. Frankly I think EF kinda suks anyway.

[Carolina Knight]

Originally Posted by beach43ofus

Publix prices are too darned high, so I'm glad to see the competition. It will benefit us all.

I have found Earth Fare's prices to be higher than Publix. It is typical of specialty organic grocers.

[Carolina Knight]

Originally Posted by -parallon-

A Publix customer is not an Earth Fare customer using most metrics. Publix has more horsepower in the local market anyway. Competition however is good for everyone. Frankly I think EF kinda suks anyway.

Comparing Earth Fare to Publix is comparing apples to oranges. Earth Fare is a specialty organic grocer. Its direct competitors in the specialty organic grocery segment are Sprouts Farmers Market and Whole Foods Market. Publix is a supermarket. Its direct competitors in the supermarket segment are Safeway, Walmart Neighborhood Market, and Winn-Dixie.

[-parallon-]

Originally Posted by Carolina Knight

Comparing Earth Fare to Publix is comparing apples to oranges. Earth Fare is a specialty organic grocer. Its direct competitors in the specialty organic grocery segment are Sprouts Farmers Market and Whole Foods Market. Publix is a supermarket. Its direct competitors in the supermarket segment are Safeway, Walmart Neighborhood Market, and Winn-Dixie.

OF COURSE THEY ARE APPLES AND ORANGES! that's the whole point about EF locating right near ANY PUBLIX SUPERMARKET. The advantage however goes to PUBLIX in that PUBLIX DOES operate in the organic space already, and stupid Earth Fare can't, and is unable to operate in a supermarket's space ! The salient point is that PUBLIX offers some of the same "organic products" at a lower price than EF....and for that matter, so does WallyMart. Earth Fare is a scam in pricing models vz quality. Additionally, the PULBIX customer is probably 3 times more "loyal" in re customer service, than ANY Earth Fare. A customer keeps going to their local, near PUBLIX because of fantastic customer service, not necessarily PRICE!

[Carolina Knight]

Publix sells organic products through its GreenWise line and operates GreenWise Market specialty organic/gourmet grocery stores.

[FLHfan]

Originally Posted by -parallon-

A customer keeps going to their local, near PUBLIX because of fantastic customer service, not necessarily PRICE!

There's a sucker born every minute.

[Bob_Brasher]

Originally Posted by FLHfan

There's a sucker born every minute.

There must be a lot of suckers then around all the new expensive and gated communities all over SW Florida within 5-8 mins of the houses, and all around North Carolina, South Carolina, middle TN and beyond, because lots of people are standing in line to buy food at Publix...even all around Atlanta metro now.