December 8, 2006
Whole Foods and Central Market Experiment
The American classical music composer Charles Ives once said, “Every great inspiration is but an experiment.”
Based on the rollout of two new experimental concept stores in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, management at Whole Foods and H.E. Butt’s Central Market must have found a little inspiration of their own.
The new Whole Foods has something no other store in the chain has – a full-service spa. And there’s more to it, Nona Evans, marketing director for Whole Foods, told the Dallas Morning News.
“No other spa has someone doing your grocery shopping for you while you’re getting a spa treatment,” she said.
The 4,500-square-foot facility goes by the name Refresh and features all-natural beauty and wellness treatments including body scrubs and wraps. The spa is on the second floor of the store and patrons can have tea or lunch while lounging on the private balcony.
The spa also features a retail shop that sells personal care items, jewelry, bedding, clothing and other items.
“We think we know the lifestyle of our customer,” Ms. Evans said.
The new Central Market store has added a number of new features while refining and improving on existing strengths.
Lee Crenshaw, director of perishable procurement at the new Southlake Central Market, said, “We’ve been learning from our other stores. And this one is the result of sitting down and saying, ‘If we could do it all over again, how would we organize the store?’”
Stephen Butt, head of the Central Market division, said the new store is focused on becoming a weekly destination shop.
“We’ve been studying how people shop us. We have the foodies who love us and others who see us as a special-occasion place to shop a few times a year,” he said. “The refinements to the Southlake store, we think, will accelerate the adoption process with shoppers who are more comfortable with a traditional supermarket, making us more of a weekly store.”
One of the first things visitors notice are the signs. Outside the store, shoppers are cautioned (tongue firmly planted in cheek) to watch out for foodies crossing. Inside signs warn that said foodies “could smell like fresh baked bread.”
The humor that shows up here and elsewhere inside the store is part of Central Market’s “mission to celebrate and discover foods,” according to Frank Hamlin, marketing director for the business.
“We want people to be comfortable with it,” he added.
Aside from the whimsy of its signage, the store features the Central Market Café that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. The café has outdoor seating for 200, a stage and a playground equipped with a castle and friendly dragon.
In the area of refinements, the expanded wine and cheese departments have been placed in close proximity to one another. Housewares, which are interspersed throughout other Central Market stores, have been consolidated in a single area across from fresh seafood and meat.
Moving over to produce, the company decided to integrate its organic and conventional vegetables and fruit.
“Organic produce is integrated so that customers can see their choices all together,” said Mr Crenshaw.
Discussion Questions: What are your thoughts on the new concept stores from Whole Foods and Central Market? Of all the new store formats you’ve seen
in the past couple of years, which ones stand out most?
We’re looking for Whole Foods spa to go nationwide, even if it isn’t in every store the company operates.
We don’t know if it is of any consequence, but we were intrigued by Stephen Butt’s mention of the interest the company has gotten from consumers outside
of Texas asking H.E. Butt to open a Central Market in their area.
“We find that very encouraging because there are a limited number of Central Market stores that we can build in Texas cities. And the Plano, and now the
Southlake, shoppers will help us grow beyond the urban parts of larger cities,” he said.
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Having visited both new concept stores in the last 48 hours, HEB’s Central Market seems to have a greater chance of succeeding on a larger scale. The core elements of Central Market – an outstanding selection of groceries and a “Nordstrom-like” staff and customer service focus – give it broader appeal. Central Market has the ability to attract the male audience much better with its concept and that will be important if the chain expands beyond Texas. Based on my visits, the new Central Market had a significantly higher number of male shoppers than the new Whole Foods.
Ultimately, both stores have to deliver what their customers demand, which is high-end food products. HEB has been doing that well for over 100 years here in Texas!
Whole Foods and H.E. Butts are managed by some of the best businesspeople in retailing. They have the creativity to test new ideas, and they have their egos controlled well enough to test before making imprudent investments.
It can be frustrating to be on the sidelines watching people trying to defend and operate models that no longer work, like the “traditional supermarket.” We watched the mainstream, moderate department stores do this for 15 to 20 years and while doing so they allowed not only the super growth of Wal-Mart and Target but the deterioration of suburban malls which they were supposed to anchor. Wegmans, Whole Foods, Wal-Mart, Costco and many others on these two ends of the spectrum will be our mainstream food sellers 10 years from now and those now clinging to the old model will either become one of these two groups or they will be gone.
While I haven’t seen the most current versions of the Whole Foods or H-E-B concept stores, I have to say that of all the stores I’ve visited in the US, H-E-B’s Country Market is my favorite by far. Every time I visit friends in the Dallas area I always ask that we visit that store. All I can say is that I hope the industry continues to create innovative stores.
The breadth of creativity and testing is so vital for retailers in the food industry.
But, it can be said, the retail community doesn’t want to change its business model, and search out for additional ways to bring and satisfy their shopper base.
The exceptions are Whole Foods, HEB, the old Dominick’s, Publix, Marsh, Wegmans, Heinens…to name most of the top creative and marketing minds in our industry.
These retail marketers have talked to their shoppers and found what makes them more satisfied, relative to the supermarket’s environment. Such is the first step to market segmentation, micro marketing, or said another way, neighborhood marketing,
I have surveyed the Central Market and it does bring new means to traffic its specific target shoppers.
Whole Foods has brought into a specific Dallas neighborhood the Spa concept. It is complete in serving the shopper while there, and supports a positive ‘halo’ effect for Whole Foods!
Safeway has a “life style” store that supposedly, offers exercising facility, and related offerings.
Such efforts do suggest a segmentation or group of shoppers predisposed to the ‘differentiating’ if you will, of the business.
All said, is it time for other retailers to become creative and step forward in testing the business concept. Hmmmmmmmmmmm!
H-E-B and Whole Foods are some of the most progressive grocery retailers in the country and they didn’t get that way by following the pack.
This is another example of them exploring new ways of connecting with their customers sense and sensibilities. While they are bound to grow and expand, this growth may well come with a cost.
There are advantages in scale which are manifested in leveraging costs in purchasing and logistics, yet these often come with the danger of distancing oneself from the customer and understanding each market as a mirror of the community’s unique makeup and needs.
Hopefully both Whole Foods and H-E-B will be able to navigate these choppy waters as they seek to expand and perhaps pay heed to the lyrics from the Eagles song “The Last Resort.”
They call it paradise
I don’t know why
You call someplace paradise,
Kiss it goodbye.
The future of food retailing belongs to the innovators. Today it is companies such as H-E-B, Whole Foods, Wegmans, Bristol Farms, Trader Joe’s and a few others. But history tells us that the evolution of food retailing has always been produced by forward-thinking, entrepreneurial-minded retailers who were willing to experiment to stay ahead of the curve. In the case of the new innovations by Central Market kudos go to CEO Charles Butt, Steven Butt and let’s give Nona Evans and the top executives at Whole Foods a massage or at least a pat on the back for what they are experimenting with. Whoever said food retailing can’t be interesting?
The Butt Central Market takes “fresh” to the next step. Other chains are doing the same. A&P with its newly reopened gourmet food showcase and flagship, the 59th St. Bridge Food Emporium and its Fresh format A&Ps, Waldbaums, Sav-A-Centers and SuperFresh markets; Giant Eagle with its Market District stores, and Delhaize with its Bloom stores. These retailers have realized that keeping their store formats on the cutting edge with fresh, quality, enhancing and enticing foods keeps the customer repeating his/her shopping trip with more frequency.
The way food is marketed has evolved for over 147 years, since the founding of the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company. Consumers want quality food at reasonable prices. The supermarket of the 21st century will continue to evolve and the consumer will be the ultimate benefactor of such change.
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Having visited both new concept stores in the last 48 hours, HEB’s Central Market seems to have a greater chance of succeeding on a larger scale. The core elements of Central Market – an outstanding selection of groceries and a “Nordstrom-like” staff and customer service focus – give it broader appeal. Central Market has the ability to attract the male audience much better with its concept and that will be important if the chain expands beyond Texas. Based on my visits, the new Central Market had a significantly higher number of male shoppers than the new Whole Foods.
Ultimately, both stores have to deliver what their customers demand, which is high-end food products. HEB has been doing that well for over 100 years here in Texas!
Whole Foods and H.E. Butts are managed by some of the best businesspeople in retailing. They have the creativity to test new ideas, and they have their egos controlled well enough to test before making imprudent investments.
It can be frustrating to be on the sidelines watching people trying to defend and operate models that no longer work, like the “traditional supermarket.” We watched the mainstream, moderate department stores do this for 15 to 20 years and while doing so they allowed not only the super growth of Wal-Mart and Target but the deterioration of suburban malls which they were supposed to anchor. Wegmans, Whole Foods, Wal-Mart, Costco and many others on these two ends of the spectrum will be our mainstream food sellers 10 years from now and those now clinging to the old model will either become one of these two groups or they will be gone.
While I haven’t seen the most current versions of the Whole Foods or H-E-B concept stores, I have to say that of all the stores I’ve visited in the US, H-E-B’s Country Market is my favorite by far. Every time I visit friends in the Dallas area I always ask that we visit that store. All I can say is that I hope the industry continues to create innovative stores.
The breadth of creativity and testing is so vital for retailers in the food industry.
But, it can be said, the retail community doesn’t want to change its business model, and search out for additional ways to bring and satisfy their shopper base.
The exceptions are Whole Foods, HEB, the old Dominick’s, Publix, Marsh, Wegmans, Heinens…to name most of the top creative and marketing minds in our industry.
These retail marketers have talked to their shoppers and found what makes them more satisfied, relative to the supermarket’s environment. Such is the first step to market segmentation, micro marketing, or said another way, neighborhood marketing,
I have surveyed the Central Market and it does bring new means to traffic its specific target shoppers.
Whole Foods has brought into a specific Dallas neighborhood the Spa concept. It is complete in serving the shopper while there, and supports a positive ‘halo’ effect for Whole Foods!
Safeway has a “life style” store that supposedly, offers exercising facility, and related offerings.
Such efforts do suggest a segmentation or group of shoppers predisposed to the ‘differentiating’ if you will, of the business.
All said, is it time for other retailers to become creative and step forward in testing the business concept. Hmmmmmmmmmmm!
H-E-B and Whole Foods are some of the most progressive grocery retailers in the country and they didn’t get that way by following the pack.
This is another example of them exploring new ways of connecting with their customers sense and sensibilities. While they are bound to grow and expand, this growth may well come with a cost.
There are advantages in scale which are manifested in leveraging costs in purchasing and logistics, yet these often come with the danger of distancing oneself from the customer and understanding each market as a mirror of the community’s unique makeup and needs.
Hopefully both Whole Foods and H-E-B will be able to navigate these choppy waters as they seek to expand and perhaps pay heed to the lyrics from the Eagles song “The Last Resort.”
They call it paradise
I don’t know why
You call someplace paradise,
Kiss it goodbye.
The future of food retailing belongs to the innovators. Today it is companies such as H-E-B, Whole Foods, Wegmans, Bristol Farms, Trader Joe’s and a few others. But history tells us that the evolution of food retailing has always been produced by forward-thinking, entrepreneurial-minded retailers who were willing to experiment to stay ahead of the curve. In the case of the new innovations by Central Market kudos go to CEO Charles Butt, Steven Butt and let’s give Nona Evans and the top executives at Whole Foods a massage or at least a pat on the back for what they are experimenting with. Whoever said food retailing can’t be interesting?
The Butt Central Market takes “fresh” to the next step. Other chains are doing the same. A&P with its newly reopened gourmet food showcase and flagship, the 59th St. Bridge Food Emporium and its Fresh format A&Ps, Waldbaums, Sav-A-Centers and SuperFresh markets; Giant Eagle with its Market District stores, and Delhaize with its Bloom stores. These retailers have realized that keeping their store formats on the cutting edge with fresh, quality, enhancing and enticing foods keeps the customer repeating his/her shopping trip with more frequency.
The way food is marketed has evolved for over 147 years, since the founding of the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company. Consumers want quality food at reasonable prices. The supermarket of the 21st century will continue to evolve and the consumer will be the ultimate benefactor of such change.