Organic Food

[Spanky]

Is openning an organic food store (competing with Whole Foods Store) a prudent idea since the boomers are getting more concern about health?

 

[BUM]

Given the increase in sales at burger, taco and pizza joints, your idea may be a little too prudent.

BUM

 

[wabmester]

The recent research I've seen indicates that eating fruit does almost nothing to improve your health, and I'm sure the difference between organic and pesticide-laden is close to nil.

The trend is your friend. Purchase a McD franchise.

 

[Nords]

Is openning an organic food store (competing with Whole Foods  Store) a prudent idea since the boomers are getting more concern about health?

That concern doesn't appear to be translating to actual $$ spent, unlike Starbucks.

OTOH, more organic food is sold than is grown...

 

[John Galt]

I'm with wabmester. Unless you are located in artsy-fartsy
yuppieville, stick with the fast food franchises if you want
to make money.

JG

 

[johnblake]

I only eat Organic Food, and 99.99% of it _is_ genetically modified

Whether or not this is a good business idea depends on where you live, and what competition is already out there. My understanding is that Whole Paycheck has done very well.

We have an outstanding Natural Food grocery store here called Mana Foods. Most of the prices are better than the supermarket! I don't know how they do it.

 

[doodyhead]

I just came back from a local grocery store that offers vegetables of both the organic and conventional treatment variety. The organic vegetables typically cost almost double. I would be interested in the relative sales volume at the store.

 

[KB]

I live near Sacramento, and we have 3 main stores there. For years, there was only the Sacramento Food Coop. Maybe 5 years ago, Wild Oats opened and just last year Whole Foods. Not to mention the smaller stores. So at least in my area, the need seems to be growing.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Thats the increase in yuppieness in the Sac area. When I moved there 8 years ago it was hickville...jack in the box was fine eats. I said I'd move away after seeing my first persion in spandex on a recumbent bike. Ironically, there he was as I drove by in the moving truck...not a moment too soon.

Amazed how the area just blew up in a few years. Looks like the SF bay area down there without the good weather or earthquakes.

Did enjoy the real estate pop, and am still enjoying the steady rise up here at the edge of the sprawl.

As far as organic food vs non organic, I'm pretty sure that at any given time, in some place or other, every single food, product, substance and medication, be it animal vegetable or mineral, has been proven by at least one study to be a sure killer and by another to be lifes panacea.

Ten years from now, broccolli will be known as "the silent killer".

I guess if you can afford it, buy the good stuff if it makes you feel good. Otherwise, I highly recommend cheese doodles. Other than a strange orange discoloration around the fingers, I do not know of anyone who has ever developed any complications from eating them.

I buy all my stuff from the local farm stands, or the local market that judging from the dirt clods still attached to the food, steals it from the local farms via some scheme involving nets or hooks, I'm unsure which.

As far as making money competing with "the big boys" on organics, I wouldnt do it unless I was bleeding money and wanted to do it for the sake of doing it.

By the way, anyone see any of those farm co-op deals where you kick in a bunch of money at the beginning of the growing season and that entitles you to a weekly basket of whatevers growing that week? They have a website somewhere, I looked at it about a year ago but the guys near me were too far of a drive. Seemed like a pretty good idea/deal.

 

[Martha]

By the way, anyone see any of those farm co-op deals where you kick in a bunch of money at the beginning of the growing season and that entitles you to a weekly basket of whatevers growing that week? They have a website somewhere, I looked at it about a year ago but the guys near me were too far of a drive. Seemed like a pretty good idea/deal.

We did this one year. The problem was you didn't always get a nice variety of stuff. For example, when lettuce and peas were ripe, you got way too much, but very little else because not much of anything else was ripe. The quality was excellent and the price was right though.

We get our meat from "organic" farms. We have a freezer and buy a half a cow or pig at a time. I also have an employee that raises free range turkeys and sellls them to us at work for Thanksgiving. Great birds.

 

[Hyperborea]

By the way, anyone see any of those farm co-op deals where you kick in a bunch of money at the beginning of the growing season and that entitles you to a weekly basket of whatevers growing that week?  They have a website somewhere, I looked at it about a year ago but the guys near me were too far of a drive.  Seemed like a pretty good idea/deal.

You can find these places from this website - http://www.localharvest.org/ You don't always have to go to the farm. In my area (Silicon Valley) they have some in-suburb (almost the whole of Silicon Valley is a giant suburb) pickup locations.

I looked at some of these a while ago and I think that you either need a family of four or somebody to share the basket with. Even then picking the "right" farm to get the basket from will depend on what you want to eat - some of them are heavily slanted towards certain types of crops. What might be best is to get two baskets from two different farms (having different stuff in their baskets) and then splitting them up with another family so as to get better variety. Even then you are going to have to be creative and find a lot more recipes for kale than I can imagine.

 

[P.S.]

As far as making money competing with "the big boys" on organics, I wouldnt do it unless I was bleeding money and wanted to do it for the sake of doing it.

Apparently that's what Paul Allen, Bill Gate's Microsoft partner, did in the rolling hills of VA.

 

[unclemick]

Heh,heh - my 'organic' food comes from the open air "Vietnamese market" 16 miles down the road. Good stuff, good prices - won't last forever though - judging from weight and height - the next generation knows MickeyD. And RAP music - yuck.

 

[Roger_R]

I think it depends on where you are planning to locate. I shope routinely at Wild Oats, as much for the healthly food aspects as from the fact that their produce, meats and routine shelf items taste better and are what I consider higher quality. In my larger sized home town, these types of markets do very well, but are not booming. However the smaller non chain health stores have been driven out of business. On a totally differnt scale, but the same principal behind Walmarts and the small hardware store. Near-by liberal college towns have a boom for this type of store. The smaller guys are still doing ok, but in stiff competition with the chains. The most promising of upstart health food type stores has been a "discount" health food store that offer the same brands as the chains, but in a Sam's type warehouse building. This appeals to me because shopping at the Wild Oats type stores is a little too pricely for a frugal type like me.

 

[Spanky]

The store that I have in mind is similar to a typical grocery store such as Safeway in size and offerings except the meat will come from animals raised without hormones, vegetables are grown without the use of toxic chemicals, seafoods are caught from non-polluted water, and so on. It may even have a delicatessen.

Spanky

 

[BigMoneyJim]

The store that I have in mind is similar to a typical grocery store such as Safeway in size and offerings except [. . .]

Yikes! Not my area of expertise, but I understand the grocery store business is VERY competitive and low margin. Your draw would be the organics, but would your shoppers stick around and buy the rest of your stuff or go coupon-cutting at the big stores? Would your turnover on non-organics be enough to keep your stock fresh? (Yes, packaged foods aren't as good when they're not "fresh".)

Hey, here's an idea of unkown merit: could you partner with another store and sell kiosk-style inside a Sam's club, mall or even a local grocery store? Seems like it might limit your liabilities and startup cost while still letting you sell premium items; an existing store may appreciate the draw of the organics section while avoiding the hassles of dealing with smaller distributors.

 

[Nords]

... seafoods are caught from non-polluted water...

That's pretty funny! Where is this hypothetical body of water-- on a tank farm? No, considering the water supply, that probably wouldn't work either...