Be201

BE201TMA

Spring 2012

Whole Foods Market versus Fresh Direct. Com

Whole Foods Market is a supermarket chain with less than two hundred stores selling healthy, gourmet products such as organic vegetables, free range poultry, foods without artificial ingredients or hydrogenated fats, and many environment friendly products such as non-polluting detergents sand chlorine free diapers. The company began in the 1970s as a natural food store. Through the purchase of small health food stores in major cities the company gained more exposure and access to distribution channels to natural foods. During the late 1980s and 1990s, the company’s growth was fuelled by the upsurge American’s desire for healthy living and their interest in gourmet cooking. Whole foods use advertising but receive constant free media exposure because it is often mentioned in popular TV series as a business success storey. The company educates consumers about foods, provides recipes, and even arrange trips where customers meet with local fishermen. Its supermarket cashiers and stock personnel receive education about foods and earn above average wages. Whole Foods prices are significantly higher than products in traditional supermarkets because keys to it profitability are higher profit marines for products that traditionally yield slim margins and much larger per-square-foot sales than those of conventional supermarkets. But as the company’s CEO pointed out, Americans spend far less of their income on food that other nations and that’s why most of it doesn’t taste very good; if they want to eat higher quality foods, they have to pay for them. In 2005, Whole Foods stated it plans to double the number of stores by 2015.

FreshDirect.Com is an online grocer operating in New York City since 2002 that delivers both fresh and processes foods and other perishable and non-perishable groceries, ordered by customers online via user friendly shopping list software. The fresh foods are prepared and the orders...