Whole Foods Supermarket started in a store in University Town, Austin, Texas, and made full use of consumers' growing interest in organic and natural products. At present, the group is undergoing a transformation to get rid of its dependence on "food fans". The goal of Total Food is to double the number of stores and increase the annual sales from $3.9 billion at the end of June 2004 to $6,543.8 billion in 2065.438+00. At the same time, Total Foods also plans to expand overseas.
Five years ago, Whole Foods changed its business target from "the best organic food store" to "the best food store". John mackey, one of the company's founders and CEO, said, "At that time, we began to notice a new type of customers pouring into our store. They like the service here and think the food here tastes better. "
Whole Foods 1992 went public, thus gaining the capital for large-scale mergers and acquisitions. By the end of the fiscal year, it had 163 stores.
"Healthy Living" customers still account for 2/3 of the total customers, but the customers with faster growth include those who are willing to pay extra for fresh products. In order to meet the needs of these customers, Whole Foods Supermarket has trained a number of suppliers to supply its huge fresh food, aquatic products and meat departments.
During Thanksgiving last year, retailers were trying to carry out various promotional activities. However, Whole Foods is still profitable because it attracts customers' lifestyles. Although competitors have expanded the exclusive sales area of natural and organic products, McKee believes that the concept of "one-stop" shopping no longer exists in the United States, and there is a lot of evidence that people are willing to walk into his store just to buy a piece of salmon.
The rapid expansion of total food was achieved through decentralized culture, and now it has expanded to about 10 regions in the United States. "Each branch is conducting its own experiments, and the concept of success will be studied and promoted immediately," McKee said. One example he cited was that the San Diego branch decided to bake coffee in the store, and then 50 other branches did the same. The United States is not the only country interested in total eclipse. In 2004, Whole Foods bought a small organic food chain store in Britain and planned to open its own branch in central London. "We will get a lot of intellectual property from Europe, so that we can operate better in the United States," McKee said. "And if the store closes down, the loss will not be great."