I walked into the office of a local Henry’s Farmers Market a couple of months ago and received some shocking news – they and their parent company Wild Oats had been bought out by Whole Foods Market, Inc., another natural market chain.
For those of you who are not familiar with the stores, Wild Oats is a natural and organic grocery chain with over 100 stores in the US and Canada. Wild Oats had fallen on hard times, accumulating some debt and apparently saw the offer from Whole Foods as a way out of their existing problems. Whole Foods, a much larger natural and organic grocery chain, with almost 200 stores in the US, UK and Canada, boasting revenues of over $5 billion, must have seen the benefits of acquiring their largest competitor and decided to purchase the chain for a measly $565 million.
This buyout turned out to be a controversial issue. It seemed that it wasn’t just a concern of little ole’ me, but that the Federal Trade Commission had decided to get involved in the purchase of the Wild Oats chain by Whole Foods. The FTC believes that this merger means that consumers will have less choices and less control over the price of the items sold by the markets.
I can see their point. And I really like Wild Oats – in fact, I like Wild Oats more than Whole Foods. However, I am the type of shopper that doesn’t discriminate. I go to Wild Oats to buy my groceries, but I also venture into Whole Foods, Henry’s, Trader Joe’s and a number of other stores when I am out hunting and gathering. I’ll even admit I also don’t buy exclusively organic foods. This type of cannibalism bothers me of course, especially because of the fact that I like to shop around. I like choices. I also like to buy products based on what I think they are worth, not because of what Whole Foods or Wild Oats or Pavilions or Albertson’s thinks they are worth. Now, I can see that this would bother Whole Foods, who would like me to be a devoted organic and natural consumer in their stores. If I were them, I would wonder, “Why is she straying? I am faithful to her! I am always open, even on Sundays, when she takes the day off. I have organic foods, I have natural foods, heck! I even have Birkenstocks and Eccos and a salad bar!”
Alas, I am not married to Whole Foods. I choose to remain unfaithful to any market chain, knowing full well that they will sell me out as soon as they get the chance to make a couple of hundred million dollars to get out of the business or to hike the prices on my favorite organic gluten-free artichoke pasta as they see fit. I also know that it’s better for me to head down the street to my locally owned natural and organic market or to the out-of-doors farmers market, where I can actually meet the people who grow my food (even though they aren’t always there on Sunday and that’s the day I do my shopping…).
But I digress. Just because Whole Foods owns Wild Oats does not mean that there aren’t choices and that the gap that has been created by this venture will not be filled by yet another enterprising company insistent on providing healthy choices for people who are willing to spend two to three times as much on their produce. Perhaps I will have to change my shopping schedule, but there are a lot of things I need to change. As long as I am informed about who owns what and where and how much they are charging, I can still make choices. Ultimately, I think that the type of shopper who seeks out markets such as Whole Foods and Wild Oats is the consumer that does make choices and can (kind of) afford to. So that is why I say, lay off FTC. We would have lost Wild Oats to someone – at least it is a friend of the organic and natural foods that are out there. They could have been bought by someone far worse than Whole Foods. Even though I liked them more.
