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’...

WholeFoods Editor-in-Chief Maggie Jaqua, Todd Pauli of 24 Stories Marketing, and Jay Jacobowitz, President of Retail Insights ®, sit down with natural products retailers to discuss WholeFoods 2021 43rd Annual Retailer Survey and Retail Insights® 2021 Retail Universe for Premium Natural Organic Food, Supplement & Personal Care Sales. Hear what retailers have...

Todd Pauli of 24 Stories Marketing and WholeFoods Editor-in-Chief Maggie Jaqua discuss key focuses for the natural products industry, including the results of WholeFoods 43rd Annual Retailer Survey, the science explaining why allergies are getting worse (and what you can do about it!), and more. For expanded coverage of these topics and more, check...

The last week of January was filled with unpleasant news in the industry—most notably: Lucky’s Confirms Store Closures; Outlines Timeline Earth Fare Announces Inventory Liquidation at All Stores Both headlines were met with shock and sadness, followed by stress as people contemplated how the closings would impact their personal business,...

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]By Jay Jacobowitz and Maggie Jaqua[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]The last several months have brought change—both positive and, well, perhaps not so positive—to independent natural products retailers. During our latest survey period of July 2017 to June 2018, Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods Market was causing angst and competition from mass marketers was intensifying.

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]A look at the bottom-line numbers of the 41st Annual WholeFoods Magazine Retailer Survey, conducted by the team at WholeFoods in conjunction with Readex Research, suggests that the future looks bright. On average, the independent retailers who responded to our survey reported an increase in sales over the prior year.

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]While total U.S. retail food stores grew 2% in 2018, natural organic products grew 5.26%—more than 2.5 times the rate. New natural organic food sales totaled $4.15 billion, or nearly one third (31.7%) of the $13.1 billion total new retail food dollars sold in the U.S. in 2018. Put another...

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]WholeFoods Magazine editor-in-chief Laurie Petersen along with Jay Jacobowitz, WholeFoods merchandising editor and president/founder of Retail Insights discuss the annual retailer survey and the outlook for natural product retailers with the continued growth of ecommerce and other disruptions in the industry.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_video link="https://youtu.be/jN4mEpsL45A"][/vc_column][/vc_row]...

By now you've seen the results of the 40th Annual Retailer Survey. Join us for a webinar on Tuesday, April 24, 2018 at 2:00pm EST to learn what makes the difference for successful stores — and much more. Click here to sign up! WholeFoods Magazine Editor-in Chief Laurie Petersen and...