Dive Brief:
- When Whole Foods announced two years ago that it would more than triple the number of stores it operates and open in much smaller cities and in states not known as hotbeds of foodie culture, vegan eating or wealthy consumers, Wall Street scoffed.
- That cynicism was misplaced. Whole Foods is finding success in places like Boise, Idaho, and Lincoln, Neb., as a new generation (and some urban transplants) drive sales at newer outlets.
- Longtime observers of Whole Foods would not be surprised. The company started as a suburban operation before acquisitions made it an urban powerhouse.
Dive Insight:
The divide in America's eating and shopping habits is real. But Whole Foods understands that divide better than any other company. The split isn't along strictly geographic lines — although geography is a factor. As one source in the New York Times notes, the Boise store wouldn't have worked in the eastern part of the state. Rather the divide is more along the lines of class. As we've noted before, we are becoming a red state/blue state nation of eaters — splitting into warring camps of people who will eat at a convenience store and those who eat at Whole Foods. And the dividing line is class. On one side are the highly educated and affluent. On the other are the poor and unschooled. And in the middle are millions of Americans choosing a side based on their sense of which extreme they most closely identify with.
