Things you’ll want to know, and some you may not. Is now a good time to sell your store? Yes, if you’ve got good profits. What are good profits? Net profits—cash that remains available to you at the end of each year after you’ve paid all your...
Those of you who entered the natural products industry in the 2000s may not know the story of the late U.S. Senator Orrin G. Hatch (R-UT). He served six terms, and passed away on April 23, 2022. Sen. Hatch, whose home state of Utah was and is headquarters to many...
When the pandemic struck two years ago, consumers went online and away from risky in-store shopping as lockdowns, social distancing, and work-from-home trends took effect. Easy, but above all safe, online commerce looked set to displace brick-and-mortar shopping forever. But it turns out, maybe not. The U.S. Census Bureau reports...
What’s your elevator speech? You know, the simple sound bite that describes your business in a way a 10-year-old can understand? Fortunately, a few successful retailers have given us some useful examples to ponder. Dunkin’ CEO Dave Hoffmann recently remarked that his company has been working to make Dunkin’ even...
The U.S. natural organic brick-and-mortar and online retail sectors added $3.1 billion and grew 3.34% in 2021. Results were dragged down by 1,293 corporate vitamin chain-store closures, the majority of which were GNC stores. Including these losses, natural organic retail and online sales grew $2.6 billion and 2.79%, to reach...
The consumer drives all—including panic buying We must view 2021 through the eyes of the 2020 pandemic lockdowns. Many retailers—of food, clothing, electronics, and more—saw decreases in 2021 without the panic-driven hoarding that boosted 2020 sales. Because of this sales anomaly, many retailers preferred to compare their 2021 results to...
There has been a vast increase in online ordering in the past year, so we wanted to know: How are customers obtaining products from natural products stores? To find out, we expanded this year’s survey questionnaire to capture the full variety of delivery solutions stores have devised to accommodate customers’...
We'll probably never fully replace trade shows, nor should we. But the days when you send a contingent of employees on multiple overnights to hunt for new products are likely over. We won’t spend a lot of time rehearsing why, but briefly: pandemic uncertainty, increasing cost, and reduced access to...
Why do some independents succeed while others struggle? There’s no single success formula, but clues emerge as we scan the retail landscape. An Outmoded Business Model When thinking about business models, it’s useful to take a generational view. GNC and The Vitamin Shoppe, the two largest U.S. pure-play vitamin chain...
The editors at WholeFoods are putting the finishing touches on our Annual Retailer Survey, which will go out to our independent retailer readers in early August. This year’s survey will begin where last year’s left off. We expect to hear more brilliant solutions to dealing with COVID-19 restrictions, keeping employees...
