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In search of the organic foods consumer

by Sarah Rose · February 23rd, 2007

I was struck by this quote in the NYTimes write up of the Whole Foods/Wild Oats merger

One reason that Whole Foods sees Trader Joe’s as a formidable rival is because the two grocers already serve many of the same higher-income consumers — the same customers who Wal-Mart has hoped to attract by adding organic foods.

Trader Joes is primarily a prepared foods store, not an organic or natural foods store. The Street sees the organic foods customer as the desirable “higher-income consumer” – people willing to pay more for things that are beautiful and easy. In other words, to the analysts, organic buyers are only contingently healthy/environmental shoppers, not necessarily so. Organic is just a symbol, another way of saying “luxury foods” shopper.

Maybe Wall Street is just cynical about these things. Unlike Another Boy, who wrote: “This is the moment when changing public opinion reaches a tipping point, and changing consumer behavior encourages retailers to change their own practices.”

I’m not sure if I’m convinced we’re at a tipping point - or that I would recognize one when I saw it. What would further democratize and necessitate a move towards organic and local foods?

The negative scenario is easy to imagine: I’m reasonably sure the recent E. coli scares have catalyzed demand for natural produce. Give us a few more mad American cows and everyone is going to want to know more about where their beef is sourced.

What will drive the positive scenario?

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2 Responses to “In search of the organic foods consumer”

Another Boy Says:
February 23rd, 2007 at 10:32 am
One clear measure of a tipping point is when minority tastes and interests acquire sufficient scale that mainstream retailers start to pay attention.

The move towards health and sustainability is spreading in general in the world at the moment. One can see that the US is moving fast but is still, for instance, some way behind the UK - but what’s happening in the UK represents what’s in the earlier stages of happening here and in other parts of the West.

Key recent indicators include:

- the successes of SuperSize Me & Omnivore’s Dilemma
- the dictionary that named “Carbon Neutral” it’s word of the year in 2006 (runner up: CSA)
- WalMart’s announcements about green power
- Marks & Spencer’s announcement that they were making all their stores carbon neutral
- Tesco’s announcement on carbon-labelling its food
- the growth of the green lifestyle magazines
- the further growth of greenmarkets etc.

We’re all on a learning curve right now.
If people buy “organic” because they think it’s better for the world - or their families - they’re mostly right.
If they start to buy local they’re probably doing even more good.
And ever act of consumption is a money-weighted vote; it encourages producers and distributors of that which you buy, and votes against that which you don’t buy.

Shabbat shalom.. in sunny HI.