Fresh Market in Westport Leaves Whole Foods Empty
Take a look at the NBN archives and you’ll find more than a few stories covering the impact of Whole Foods opening up in what was then, Wild Oats territory. Louisville and West Hartford were the most obvious examples of what WFM was doing right and Wild Oats doing wrong. Examples of what WFM was […]
Hain Impresses Wall Street While Whole Foods Leaves Em Worried
Wall Street’s love affair with natural and organic got a little more interesting as two recent conference calls suggest that our analysis of Whole Foods efforts as sluggish, are on the mark, while our previous doubts about Hain Celestial Foods long term strategy for growth needs some rethinking. While Whole Foods total sales increased 28% […]
Whole Foods Expansion And Wild Oats Transformations—A Slow Road Ahead
More and more, we’re hearing bits of news that suggest the post-Wild Oats merger has presented even more obstacles than we expected. While overall market opportunity remains huge, a lot of the challenge has to do with the fact that, notwithstanding some terrific management, Whole Foods might have too many balls in the air. The […]
Department of Justice Approves Sirius Merger, Leaving Us Wondering More About Scrutiny over Whole Foods Purchase of Wild Oats
Regular readers know that we were a bit confused about why the seemingly merger-happy Federal Trade Commission deemed Whole Foods’ purchase of Wild Oats as anti-competitive. It just didn’t make sense. Even if you believe, like we do, that the government should be more involved in the regulation of mergers, this one left us scratching our […]
Whole Foods Closing in Gresham, Oregon Points Out the Magic of Its Touch on Real Estate
While we’ve been very clear on the fact that many Wild Oats stores were never that successful, and that WFM would be closing a significant number of them, a recent story in the local Gresham Outlook reminded us that store closings aren’t that different from factory closings. In other words, it hurts the locals in a lot […]
Westport Whole Foods Shoppers Remind Us How Much Wild Oats Missed the Mark
Two weeks ago, we spent a few hours in the Westport Whole Foods Market that was formerly Wild Oats. Actually, it used be a terrific independent store that was then bought by distributor United Natural Food’s NRG retail group . Wild Oats bought it from UNFI and when the Safeway right next door closed, they knocked down […]
Whole Foods Revitalizes Former Westport Wild Oats in Connecticut’s Gold Coast
Regular readers know that one of NBN’s favorite pastimes used to be reporting on Wild Oats in areas where they were competing head to head with Whole Foods. Louisville, West Hartford , and a few others showed what everybody knew, namely that Wild Oats may have had heart, but the rest of the formula for […]
Natural Products Expo West—Ah, Anaheim
NBN will have plenty more on the show of shows (with apologies to Ed Sullivan) but an early look tell us that they’re are more new products here than we’ve seen in years. Additionally we;ve noticed lots of folks crowding the floor who we’re sure don’t know the difference between barley malt and Birkenstocks. In […]
It’s March, so I Must Be in Anaheim at Expo West
Lots of New Products, Lots of People Crowd Show Floor as NBN Says, “Get Me Some Yerba Mate” NBN will have plenty more on the Show of Shows (with apologies to Ed Sullivan) but an early look tells us that there are more new products here than we’ve seen in years. Additionally, we’ve noticed lots […]
Whole Foods Buys Wild Oats — Part Two
Okay it took us a while to get back to you with our opinion on the big sale. And while we still have out doubts about the impact the purchase will have on operations in the short term, financially the move is strong. In case you’re thinking NBN was just brainwashed by the financial experts […]