Eco/365 Week 3 Whole Foods

Whole Foods Market can experience cannibalization from their 365 stores and their own Whole Foods Market stores. The 365 stores have three locations opened. The first store opened in Los Angles in May 2016, the second location was opened “two months later in Lake Oswego, Oregon in July and a third store was opened two months later in Bellevue, Washington in September of the same year.” (1) Additionally, the Whole Foods Market plans to opened sixteen locations including two on Texas and three on the south of California. (Exhibit 1) The new 365 stores offers customers a different experience from the regular Whole Foods Market. For example, the 365 stores anticipate to attract new customers by offering lower prices than Whole Foods Market stores.

(Exhibit 2) In additional, the stores plan to attract a younger generation of customers by incorporating a tech environment. The 365 stores have iPads all over the store that customers can use to order to go food items or scan product labels to read reviews. (2) Another important thing is that 365 stores will be smaller than Whole Foods stores. It is estimated that 365 stores will “be about 30,000 square feet compared with 45,000 square feet for Whole Foods Market.” (2) The advantage is that stores will have fewer employees and is estimated that “365 stores will have about 100 workers compared with 250 to 500 at Whole Foods Stores.” (2) Also, some of the 365 stores are very close to Whole Food stores. For example, in Bellvue Square, Washington the distance between a 365 store and a Whole Foods Market is within 1.5 miles. (Exhibit 3) In the other hand, Whole Foods can cannibalize from their own store expansions, many cities have a high number of Whole Foods stores. In Houston, Texas there are approximately around ten Whole Foods Markets. Some of the stores are located close to each