Quanshi company

At the WholeFoods chain store in Atlanta, USA, a mother is picking fruits. She put a pint of $5.99 organic blueberries in the shopping basket. On the shelf next to organic blueberries, there are ordinary blueberries grown in the traditional way, and a pint costs only $4.99. Dennis said: "I think it is definitely worth spending more money, otherwise children's young bodies will inhale a lot of pesticides." She is the mother of three children. The three children standing beside her are 2, 4 and 6 years old.

The price of organic food, natural food and other delicious food sold by WholeFoods will be 40% to 175% higher than that of ordinary food, but consumers will still flock to it. This company sells a new lifestyle, and loyal consumers regard WholeFoods as the "Apple Computer" in the food retail field.

For decades, food retailing has been synonymous with meager profit. However, John McKee's food retail company WholeFoods is growing as fast as animals injected with hormones they refuse to sell. In the past five years, the retail sales in the United States increased by 65,438+03%, while the sales growth rate of WholeFoods in the past five years was 65,438+04%, 23%, 265,438+0%, 265,438+0% and 65,438+07% respectively. The five-year sales growth rate of American retail industry is only the worst growth rate of WholeFoods. Now in America, white-collar workers who think they have a good education or a good income will not go to McDonald's. After work, they will go to WholeFoods to buy something to go home, or eat directly at the deli there. Wearing a cotton organic cotton T-shirt without fungicides and pesticides is also a healthier and more fashionable lifestyle. These lifestyles were once the trendy lifestyles favored by a few emerging classes, and they were also the lifestyles that many working-class people yearned for. The genius of WholeFoods is that it gradually turns this marginal lifestyle into a mainstream lifestyle, and it has become the biggest winner of commercial success.

The WholeFoods food chain began in a small health food store 27 years ago. 1978 john mackey and his then girlfriend Renee Hardy opened a "SaferWayNaturalFoods" in a three-story building in O'Steen. The first floor of this building is a shop, the second floor is a healthy gourmet restaurant, and the third floor is a bed. John mackey first learned about "vegetarianism" in college. He joined a vegetarian organization, but his business skills, marketing ability and competitiveness have not yet been discovered. After dropping out of college, he hoped that more vegetarians could eat safe vegetarian food, so he borrowed $45,000 from his parents and friends and opened a small shop specializing in vegetables and pasta produced by local farmers. Therefore, in 1980, john mackey and two partners opened the first WholeFoods store in Austin. This new store serves a relatively small customer base: eclectic vegetarians, dieters who want to live a long life, and people who like to add many things (such as Ginkgo biloba and Echinacea purpurea) to their food, which are very difficult to read. Like small organic food retail stores in other places, their stores attach great importance to the purity of products, and the price is also very expensive. To the delight of the three partners, the customer's expectations exceeded those of McKee and his partners, and the response was much more enthusiastic. In the first year, this 10500 square foot store sold $4 million in natural products and organic food.

Later, McKee gradually realized that consumers are willing to spend limited money on organic food. They are unwilling to give up the convenience of shopping in big stores, which are full of all kinds of things, from tofu to toothpaste. So how do McKee and his team meet the needs of consumers? They began to build bigger stores with an average business area of 26,000 square feet. Shops provide food without chemical ingredients and preservatives, organic food, meat without hormones, cosmetics without side effects and more environmentally friendly household products. Besides, unlike small shops in the past, WholeFoods is not an ascetic: you can buy not only beer and wine, but also non-organic food and refined candy.

In the 1990s, the "family food boom" rose, and WholeFoods recognized this market and won again. Bill Bishop, a retail analyst, said: "What people are really looking for is a mother who can tell them what is the healthiest to eat. WholeFoods takes care of people like a mother-everything in their store is exquisite. " WholeFoods has set up a prefabricated food area in the store, selling fast food, side dishes, soup, barbecue food, sushi and sandwiches made on the same day. Nutrition supplement, of course. In Ai Ju, after two or three dollars of chicken was roasted, the price soared to 10.29 dollars. Prefabricated food has become the fastest growing and most profitable business of WholeFoods. Five years ago, in order to get rid of the dependence on "organic" and "gourmet fans", WholeFoods changed its business target from "the best organic food store" to "the best food store". John mackey said, "At that time, we began to notice a new type of customers pouring into our store. They like the service here and think the food here tastes better. "

John mackey has always stressed: "WholeFoods does not do business for a small circle or an elite. We want to change the world. We hope that this shopping philosophy can spread in different levels of culture, attract mainstream shoppers and persuade everyone to buy things. " Lighting, classical music, environmentally-friendly shelves made of straw, and foods like heirloom diamonds placed on the shelves under eye-catching lights-what's the difference between such food retail stores?

People like to enjoy food and shopping, but many people hate going to the grocery store and think it is as annoying as washing clothes. However, john mackey, the founder of WholeFoods, who likes jeans and sneakers, turned the grocery store into a gourmet carnival, and turned shopping at the grocery store into a relaxing and enjoyable thing like watching a performance.

In the WholeFoods chain store in Time Warner Center, the corridor is only 6 feet wide (which is very rare in new york), and the shelves are very low, which can better attract shoppers with delicious food. WalterRobb, who runs a chain store in the western United States, said: "More than half of the shopping decisions are made on impulse. We try our best to render the food lifelike. When you stop, it will quickly attract your attention, that is, to achieve the effect of screaming when people see it. "

A woman who came to this chain store screamed in ecstasy: "Wow!" Her friend agreed, "We may have found the place where we have been praying."

At that time, many food chain stores regarded food as a self-scanning inventory unit with bar codes on its shelves. WholeFoods chain has succeeded in the opposite strategy? Let the supermarket become a carnival of food. Is it so tempting to supply enough food under bright lights? Color, taste, texture and luster make people drool, and people will completely obey their appetite and forget the slightly expensive price.

Although Alex Avery, an opponent of organic food and the Center for Global Food Issues, warned consumers who bought organic food to be wary of the high price under the organic aura: "If you think you are saving the earth and protecting children from chemicals and diseases, it is only an illusion." However, the success of john mackey and WholeFoods is undeniable. Doug Green, the founder and former editor of Natural Food Merchant, which was founded 25 years ago and is called the bible of organic and natural food business, even said such a compliment: "Looking back at the history of 100, history will prove that WholeFoods is one of the five companies that changed the world." Like Steve Jobs of Apple Computer and richard branson of Virgin Group, john mackey is also a maverick company leader, and his unconventional management concept makes WholeFoods the hottest company in the retail industry. "Customers first, employees second and shareholders third" is perhaps john mackey's most unique idea. The Declaration of Independence of WholeFoods clearly states that the core value of the company is to satisfy and make our consumers happy? Make members feel happy and excellent. He said, "What is the strategy to maximize profits? Don't! The interests of shareholders rank behind customers and employees, and profit is not the first priority, but a by-product of being kind to others. If you don't like this view, don't invest in WholeFoods. "

The business logic is very simple. Managers love employees, and employees love consumers. Happy consumers will bring benefits to shareholders. This is a virtuous circle. Therefore, employees of WholeFoods don't have to wear uniform work clothes, and the company will pay 100% insurance to full-time employees.

Authorization is a basic concept of WholeFoods. Here, every chain store or even a single department has a great say, and regional managers can design new stores according to local styles without looking for templates from headquarters; The leadership of each store can independently determine the inventory of 10% to cater to local tastes, and can set prices according to local competition, and also allow innovation and experimentation at the store level. David Abel Salder, manager of one of the chain stores, said, "I am authorized to run this place like my own shop."

Secret-free management is another unique feature of WholeFoods. Unlike most companies, WholeFoods publishes a lot of financial data, not for the public or journalists, but for all employees, in order to let employees know what the company is doing or planning to do. The company also announced the total income of all employees in the company last year, including managers and CEO.

John mackey's decision-making philosophy is also different. He believes that decisions should be made at the level closest to the implementation of decisions, and should be directly related to the affected people, while excluding irrelevant people. WholeFoods has three kinds of decisions: command and control decisions, which are made by john mackey or other supervisors when time does not allow extensive consultation or the boss must make the final decision. McKee said that he "almost never makes such a decision"; Consulting decision, that is, the decision made by senior management after extensive consultation, is the most common form of decision-making in the company; Consistency decisions that are closely related to the interests of all employees in the department need more than two-thirds consent to pass. It is usually used to decide whether a department should hire an employee. The economic depression dragged down the third-quarter profits of Whole Foods supermarket companies in the United States and Britain-because shoppers spent less on organic agricultural products and delicious food. Falling house prices and $4 a gallon of gasoline may force consumers to give up buying natural products. Analysts believe that the long-term prospects of this industry are still worthy of recognition.

"We believe that with the passage of time, the market segments of high-quality natural and organic foods will continue to expand-although the competition has become increasingly fierce." Mark millar, an analyst with William Blair, wrote in a research report in August.

Whole Foods, the largest natural food supermarket in the United States, which started in Austin, Texas, announced that its earnings per share dropped by 30%, from $496,543,800 (35 cents per share) in the third quarter of 2007 to $33.9 million (24 cents per share) in the second quarter of 2008. The total income increased from 15 1 billion dollars a year ago to 1.8 billion dollars. Analysts predict that when the operating income is $6,543.88 billion, the earnings per share will be 365,438+0 cents. At present, the sales growth of all food stores that have been open for more than one year has plummeted from 6.7% in the previous quarter to 2.6%.

"Our business model is very successful, and we are still very optimistic about our economic growth prospects," john mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Supermarket, said in a press release. "However, the challenging economic environment seems to have a negative impact on our sales performance."

Total Foods, which already has 2,765,438+0 stores, said in May this year that it would add 25 to 30 stores by September 2009, but now, this number has been rewritten to 65,438+05. This will reduce capital expenditure. The company implemented "certain cost control measures" and suspended the quarterly dividend payment "for the foreseeable time". Total Food also lowered its expected target for 2009, and predicted that the annual sales growth rate would be reduced from the original 25% ~ 30% to 6% ~ 10%.

"Just as the company's double-digit sales growth rate between 2004 and 2006 prompted it to accelerate the development of new stores and expand into the UK, the current recession trend led the management to reduce capital expenditure and wait for the economy to improve and the rate of return to pick up." Miller wrote.

Total Foods reported that it has six stores in the UK and lost $654.38 million+$08.4 million (or 9 cents per share) in the past four quarters. However, McKee said that he expected the accumulated loss in fiscal year 2009 to be reduced to $654.38 million. The cumulative loss of 20 10 is 7 million dollars, and the profit and loss of 20 1 1 year is balanced.

"When we entered Canada, we also lost money at first. However, the number and performance of our stores are constantly growing, and now it is very profitable-in the past four quarters, the pre-tax income reached14.6 million US dollars. " McKee said in a press release, "We believe that the long-term growth potential of our business in the UK is far greater than that in Canada. We are interested in evaluating all aspects of our business in the UK, improving our short-term earnings and providing strong long-term returns. "

At the same time, Whole Foods is trying to change its image as a typical high-end supermarket. In July, it launched a "complete set" plan throughout the store to guide customers to enjoy discounts and transactions.

Edward Allen of RBC Capital Markets in Denver believes that Whole Foods is obviously different from other companies in the same industry. "The annual growth rate of total food has slowed down faster than other companies in this industry." Allen said, "Whole Foods Supermarket is more like an ambitious store that is ahead of demand. Therefore, in this economic environment, the demand for high-end goods is more fragile. " Of course, it is not easy to know whether small chain stores or independent stores have also been hit as hard as the total solar eclipse. "Because at any time, industry leaders are more worthy of attention." Allen said.

In the research report on August 6th, GregoryBadishkanian of Citigroup wrote, "Although the trend of' degraded consumption' is obvious during the economic downturn, we see that some natural food retail channels also have low-grade goods. This seems to have a negative impact on Whole Foods, because Whole Foods is a relatively high-priced retailer. Natural food/organic food sales in independent and conventional supermarkets seem to be becoming more competitive gradually ... "But for the whole natural food industry, GregoryBadishkanian thinks there will still be good growth. "This economic environment is the worst in my 30 years of entrepreneurship." Mcgee, CEO of WholeFoods, said.

Due to the once-in-a-century financial crisis in the United States, low-priced goods are popular and consumers are flocking. People are retrenching and dieting, and spending on secondary consumer goods such as snack food and household goods is greatly reduced. According to a survey conducted by TNSRetailForward, a well-known market research institution in Ohio, in July this year, 20% of Americans have turned to low-priced discount supermarkets for shopping. They would rather sacrifice product quality and diversity of choices and hope for lower prices. Affected by this, boutique supermarkets represented by "Whole Foods" have lowered their growth expectations this year.

The situation is really not optimistic. According to the report of Whole Foods in the third quarter of this year, the company experienced the least turnover in history, with a profit of $33.9 million in the third quarter and a share price of 24 cents, down 30% from the third quarter of last year. The share price of Whole Foods Supermarket has always been the vane of American retail market. Walter Bob, co-president of the company, said, "The decline was unexpected, and such a decadent economy also made us break our glasses." From the peak in early 2006 to now, the share price of Whole Foods Supermarket has dropped by nearly 70%, and 80% of the "quality-oriented" consumers that Whole Foods Supermarket has tried to cultivate in the past few years have returned to the "price-oriented" consumption mode. "

The route must be changed. In order to maintain the company's cash flow and cope with the negative impact of the financial crisis, "Total Food" began to implement a number of cost-cutting measures: First, it delayed the payment of quarterly dividends to shareholders; Secondly, the company's expansion plan for next year will be temporarily stranded. McKee said: "All we can do is to control costs, but this does not mean sacrificing high quality and high standards. The value and reputation of our company are now exchanged with the efforts of countless people. "

Mackey's so-called cost control measures are not to close stores or lay off employees, but to step up the production of own-brand products. The mode of self-production and self-marketing can effectively reduce the cost of intermediate links, and building a more perfect product supply chain is an important guarantee to tide over the crisis safely. In addition, "Whole Foods" also launched a large-scale discount coupon activity, focusing on promoting self-produced goods; And once again instill mature consumption concepts into consumers in advertisements, emphasizing the importance of quality and quantity should not be based on sacrificing the health of themselves and their families.

Mckee, who is still a maverick, said: "We are trying to correct consumers' misunderstanding of' whole food'. Our things are not synonymous with expensive. The high quality of products is the core competitiveness. You can compare similar products in any cheap supermarket. We also engage in low-price promotion, but we don't have a big price war with fair-price supermarkets. The mission of' Total Food' now is to restore people's confidence in the pursuit of quality of life in the embarrassing financial crisis, because you can clearly see the value of 50 cents you paid for' Total Food'. "john mackey, CEO of supermarket financial crisis and quality of life retail industry.