Whole Foods' Small Shops Go 365 (At Least With The Name)

Whole Foods smaller, more affordable chain of shops will be called 365 by Whole Foods Market, the chain said Thursday, extending the numerals that define its more private-label goods to apparently convey that it’s the same, but different.

Recent trademark filings by Whole Foods “had prompted a guessing game that the stores might bear names like Clever Egg, DailyShop, Greenlife, Small Batch or Swiftgoods,” reports The Associated Press’ Candice Choi. “Those were all decoys,” co-CEO Walter Robb tells Choi in an interview, “before quickly adding that his claim could also be a decoy to divert people about other plans.”

Okay, well, Whole Foods apparently more definitively also announced that Jeff Turnas, a 20-year veteran who has led its U.K. region since 2009, would be its president, based at the company’s headquarters in Austin, Tex.

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The announcement “is a clear sign that the company is throwing down the gauntlet,” writes Beth Kowitt for Fortune.

“This is a fundamental strategic decision of the company to say at this fork in the road, as we read the tea leaves and the marketplace, we’re going to go attack,” Robb said at a conference with analysts, Kowitt reports. “For the last couple of years, we’ve been the hunted. This turns us back into the hunter.”

Presumably the goods will be fresher than the analogies.

“We are excited to introduce 365 by Whole Foods Market to bring healthy foods to even more communities with a fresh, quality-meets-value shopping experience that’s fun and convenient,” Turnas, who has an operational and product background (and sports a soul patch in his bio pix), said in a new release. “A modern, streamlined design with innovative technology and a carefully curated product mix will offer an efficient and rewarding way to grocery shop.”

Whole Foods first went public with the new format and “uniquely branded store concept” early last month, saying that it plans to begin operating in 2016. The 365 locations “will offer natural and organic grocery staples, convenient options for meat, seafood and bakery items, an assortment of local products, and prepared foods that all adhere to Whole Foods Market’s strict standards for quality,” according to the company.

Not only is it targeted at the large population of Millennials 18 to 34, as Andrew Khouri reminds us in the Los Angeles Times, but also to other demographic groups who, say, run out of Jalapeños Hot Sauce in the middle of the week.

“Speaking at the William Blair Growth Stock Conference in Chicago, Robb said 365 would provide an alternative in sites where a traditional Whole Foods store wouldn’t work, but also could serve shoppers between visits to its flagship,” reports Jon Springer in Supermarket News, a strategy he compares to Walmart’s  Neighborhood Market format.

“We could see a customer shopping on a Tuesday, Thursday at the 365, and on Saturday, think [the] richer or deeper experience [of] Whole Foods Market,” Robb said. “Think a little more convenient, curated [experience] at the 365. We think these two work really well together.”

“With the nickname ‘Whole Paycheck,’ the Austin [Tex.]-based company has carried a reputation of being a store that is not easily accessible for budget-minded customers,” Roger Yu writes in USA Today. “With demand for organic, fresh and locally sourced ingredients growing, mainstream grocery retailers have been encroaching the market established by Whole Foods by offering competitive prices.”

As have specialty grocery stores such as Trader Joe's and big-box retailers like Walmart and Target, who have opened with their own smaller stores in cities, Yu points out.

On top of the squeeze from those competitors — not to mention the growth of organic produce in local grocery stores and the steady increase in local farmers markets —  “some analysts say Costco Wholesale Corp. recently passed Whole Foods in organic-food sales, knocking the industry pioneer from its pedestal as the largest seller in the country,” Annie Gasparro reports in the Wall Street Journal. And some analysts fear that “the sister chain will simply steal customers from the company’s existing Whole Foods brand.”

While we’re on the topic of kale and things, check out Susan Philips short blog post in the New York Times this morning for a chortle to go.

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