Whole Foods Market, Inc. is the largest company that operates a chain of organic and natural food stores in the United States. The company had been single-handedly defined its market reaping substantial profit over the past fifteen years. The founder, John Mackey before starting his organization, had seen Safer Way grocery store grow into a multi-billion corporation in one year. He was therefore encouraged to begin from the humble beginning of being one store entrepreneur to a large company. The company over the years has grown tremendously establishing over 264 stores in the United States, six in Canada and five in the United Kingdom.
The tremendous growth of the company has been as a result of a focused management team, exemplary customer services, and excellent products. This further has enabled the organization to post stellar financial and operating performances hence becoming more positioned for future growth. This paper examines the differences between the company and its competitors as well as the internal and external analysis of its environment.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Competitors
Despite that Whole Food Market has had historical success for its quality products, in recent years the company has faced competition from big box retail stores such as Walmart and Krogers hence having margin pressures. However, the company has been able to maintain its market despite the competition because of various reasons. One, Whole Food Market business model focuses on providing high-quality natural foods to its customers as compared to the regular and retail grocery shops ( Joseph, Balaji & Kumar, 2012) . Additionally, the shoppers can enjoy a broad range of products which is sometimes difficult to get anywhere else. This, therefore, enables them to have a competitive advantage as compared to their competitors.
Whole Food has also leveraged on using better models that primarily seek to have lower costs alternatives as compared to other stores. This happened in the launch of their 365 stores hence aligning itself to the more competitive low-price environment of healthy organic foods. The expansion has further enabled the company to gain a more competitive advantage of existing and new entrants.
Environment analysis (Internal Strengths and Weaknesses )
One of the Whole Food's Market strength is their passion for selling high quality products to their customers ( Dutta, 2009) . This has guaranteed the almost 100 percent customer satisfactions in the items that are purchased in their stores. Moreover, their stores are very large and spread across the country. They, therefore, have a competitive advantage over other stores that do not have customized layouts that enable shoppers shop efficiently.
On the weaknesses, Whole Food's has higher prices as compared to the local groceries. The increased costs are as results of marketing and production which are approximately over 25percent as compared to other conventionally grown food items.
Environmental Analysis (External Opportunities and Threats)
The organic food market for many years has continued becoming attractive. According to Varner & Cooper (2007), Whole Foods as a company has a strong position in the market and can even continue positioning itself in a stronger and profitable position. The demand for organic food is becoming more population, and in future, there are no signs of the demand decreasing. The company is only required to provide reliable and quality products to its customers. Additionally, enhancing its brand through community services will also play an essential role.
The company also has key threats such as the local groceries increasing their organic food choices. The customers would, therefore, choose to buy from the local vendors as they are believed to be cheaper and more accessible. Organic foods have also become highly priced due to the cost that it associated in the production stage. The company may, therefore, be forced to keep their loyal customers or could lose them to non-organic foods that are considered cheaper.
In conclusion, Whole Food Company is bound to grow as the demand for organic health food continues to increase every day. Through the environmental analysis, the company should leverage on its strengths and opportunities while looking for solutions for their weaknesses and threats for their market share and profits to continue increasing,
References
Dutta, S. (2009). Whole Foods Market-Creating a Community of Purpose. Global CEO , 25.
Joseph, E. L., Balaji, C. D., & Kumar, S. P. (2012). Organic Products as Key Differentiators for Business Success–Case Studies in the US and European Context.
Varner, C., & Cooper, H. (2007). Product markets in merger cases: The Whole Foods decision. The Antitrust Source , 7 (1), 1-10.
