Whole Foods Market, Inc. (WFMI)

gopirque (48.30) Submitted: 4/11/08 12:33 AM : Start Price: $32.89 WFMI Score: -24.62

I've seen a lot of "hype" about this stock until I was able to see Whole Foods in person. I spent several weeks in Colorado and I am thoroughly impressed with several things about WFMI.

Customer Service: There are many knowledgable people roaming the isles and strategically positioned throughout the stores. They also had many products setup for taste-testing, allowing skeptics of the health-food craze to be able to taste before taking the plunge of buying.

Store Layout: Whole Foods Markets are very neat, organized, and easy to use. Considering in Denver there are organic and health food stores everywhere, Whole Foods was definately one of the best stores to walk-in first time and find what you were looking for. Most other stores were very small, crampt, and "messy" with the amount of stuff they tried to cram into the isle. (Ironically the only other one that compared was Sunflower Farmers Markets, run by the former CEO of Wild Oats)

Customer Base: Every Whole Foods that we visited was PACKED! People of all walks of life coming and going...we even did most of our grocery shopping there, and we don't have health food stores in PA. I think you have a combo of Experience and Quality when visitng a Whole Foods. You Experience the store...almost the way Starbucks is more than coffee, Whole Foods is more than Organic Food. You also see and buy Quality: we were duly impressed with brand varieties and store brand qualities(Whole Foods Branded Items) in Quality, and prices were very good. Since we don't have any of these store out East, we bought several items to be enjoyed back home, and we will!

Potential: The potential of Whole Foods is phenominal. The financials are great, and now that the CEO has moved on from the faisco late last year, I see Whole Foods continuing to grow out west. Not only that, but the East has hardly any Health Food or Organic Food stores at all. With the above mentioned qualities, I see Whole Foods finding good favor out here; I know we would shop there. The only real future competitor out west was Sunflower...which the stores were nice, smaller, and busy...but I think they will attract more customers from the mainline grocery store than a Whole Foods shopper.

Whole Foods is a great buy in this slump in the economy, and that's why I'm putting my 5 stars on it!!!

Report this Post Replies: 1 | Reply