The health food craze is sweeping the nation; Americans across the country are trying to stock up on healthier, nutritious food items such as whole grain oats, fresh fruit and items lower in sodium content. Of course popular grocery stores offer their customers a variety of food products ranging from high sugary induced sweets to low caloric snacks like Greek yogurt and fresh vegetables. They are just giving their primary buyers what they want.
Not everyone is jumping on the health bandwagon however there is enough that are choosing to shop at stores such as Whole Foods, even though their prices are higher than leading grocery store names. They believe in quality over quantity therefore they are willing to pay a couple of extra dollars for fresh peanut butter and fresh bakery items that were created using cage free eggs, natural butter and the best quality unbleached, unbromated flour available on the market.
Whole Foods has a list of ingredients on their website they find "unacceptable". Some of the ingredients on the list are benzyl peroxide, which is often found in skincare products, artificial colors, artificial flavors, bromated flour, and calcium peroxide. Just reading the names of these ingredients can make one cringe.
The store contains both vegetarian and animal products. They are committed to making sure their consumers know about where these products orginated from. They want to ensure them that the animals were treated well; did not experience added hormones or antibiotics. They also want buyers to know their meat products were not artifically induced in order to make them grow a faster rate.
Some consumers are happy to pay more money for meat they know came from a healthy environment while others simply do not care. Walter Robb, co-chief executive officer of the Whole Foods chain stated in an interview, "The price-value, value-quality conversation is a battle that Whole Foods is always going to fight because it's worth different things to different people. Many consumers do not even want to have a conversation about why a grass fed New York steak costs $15 at Whole Foods and a regular steak is $9 somewhere else".
Whole Foods has become a billion dollar business. There are currently 340 different locations in the U.S. which earned them yearly revenue of $12 billion. The health craze is clearly paying off.
