Is Whole Foods Up To Its Competition?
Is Whole Foods up to its competition?
One of Whole Foods' biggest challenges is that it straddles several niches including organics, non-GMO, gourmet, personal care and household and it dabbles in specific dietary preferences such as vegetarian/vegan and gluten-free. Competitors old and new are now attacking these segments individually. More than anything, Whole Foods is dealing with the reality that many of the niches it boldly pursued are now mainstream. With commoditization, comes the inevitable race to the bottom on price.
Whole Foods also suffers from a bad case of store-centricity (a condition that has also hobbled Target, Best Buy and others). I'm concerned that it doesn't appear to have a robust e-commerce and home delivery plan at this point. Why did this pioneer sit back and let others go first?