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Whole Food Markets, Inc.

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Whole Food Markets, Inc.
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Whole Foods is a grocery store chain that offers an extensive selection of organic and natural foods and products such as meats, seafood, cheese, poultry, beer, wine, coffee, nutritional supplements, as well as books, pet products, household products, and floral products. The strengths of Whole Foods involve considerable product selections such as catering services, fresh food, and also some made-to-order goods that permits them to satisfy different types of customers (Pearce & Robinson, 2013). Over the years, Whole Foods has also had a very aggressive strategy for growth which has included the opening of some international locations in places such as London and the UK. . The growth strategy of the company was to grow via identical store sales growth, opening new stores and through acquisitions and this enabled them to grow at a growth rate of about 26% during the period of 1991–2011. Other strengths for the organization would be their high brand value, their core values that help to promote a healthy lifestyle as well as their high quality of products and their positive work environment. Whole Foods has really been able to use social media effectively as a means of marketing their business. They have also worked on making sure that they have good product differentiation, such as offering the natural foods instead of just offering foods that are packaged. Whole Foods Market also offers their catering services, and an extensive range of nonfood products which helps them to differentiate themselves from competitors (Pearce & Robinson, 2013).

Some of the weaknesses of Whole Foods are their high volume of recalled products that are due to contamination. From the period of 2009 through 2011, the rental expenses were high dollar and increased by about $40 million. The lack of international expansion was a weakness for Whole Foods as well as their



References: Deru, M., Doebber, I., & Hirsch, A. (2013). Whole Building Efficiency for Whole Foods. ASHRAE Transactions, 119(1), 1-8. Harbin, J. L., & Humphrey, P. (2009). Whole Foods Market, Inc. Journal Of Case Research In Business & Economics, 21-19. Pearce, J. I., & Robinson, R. (2013). Strategic Management: Planning for Domestic & Global Competition (13 ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

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