I’m not sure this data shows any threat to Trader Joe’s from Whole Foods. A 2 percent share shift means one week of shopping has shifted — not a lot. It would be a mischaracterization to assume the two chains are providing the same type of products to shoppers — it’s a different type of assortment with a different price scale. Trader Joe’s should do what it does best — curate food that customers want at a great price.

What would be really interesting is to see where the increases lie. While Trader Joe’s does carry produce and some meats that’s not where the brand affinity is. It’s in their private label packaged and frozen foods. Whole Foods is far more about fresh and devotes a great deal of their footprint to their health and beauty sections. So if the market share Whole Foods is getting is coming in these areas, Trader Joe’s is not the target. Plus, with most of the Whole Foods products, even a 10 percent discount is not going to match the pricing at Trader Joe’s.

Since this is not a race for survival between the two competitors, I am not sure it matters. Both companies appear to be healthy. So what if one grows bigger than the other? Does that mean the end of Trader Joe’s?

There is room for both chains to grow, because their location and assortment strategies are quite different from each other. (Whole Foods has bigger stores, broader assortments and more fresh and organic food.) But the tie-in to Amazon Prime will allow Whole Foods to grow faster — whether this comes from Trader Joe’s or conventional grocers as Whole Foods gets more aggressive on pricing. The bigger threat to Trader Joe’s may come from the 365 small-format concept if Amazon decides to push its expansion faster.

There are grocery store loyalties and there are food brand loyalties. And I find that no single store can satisfy all my food loyalties and preferences. Whole Foods is definitely getting a higher share of my wallet based on Prime. But Stop & Shop and Trader Joe’s still have preferred products I will make the effort to go buy. So I’m glad this is not about race to the bottom price competition, but about real product and brand preference. Applause to the brands and products that earn that kind of loyalty.

I guess I don’t quite understand the concern. I don’t see Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s as the same animal. They are as different as Kroger and Aldi. When the study says Whole Foods is gaining foot traffic from Trader Joe’s, Walgreens and Dollar Tree, I must question what they are really measuring.

Just because the geography is similar, doesn’t mean the customer is similar.

My recommendation to Trader Joe’s is, don’t change a thing. You have a special niche — don’t ruin it by trying to become something else.

I don’t think it’s an issue at all. Sure, Prime members have given Whole Foods a try, since they get a bit of a discount. And heaven knows, Amazon got enough free press for its price drops.

Trader Joe’s is sort of a unique beast. Under-stored (in my opinion, but then, I have to put a cooler in the car if I want to drive down to the closest one to North Miami) and just about 100 percent private label, Trader Joe’s still manages to make shopping fun and a bit of a treasure hunt.

I’ve honestly never understood Trader Joe’s store expansion strategy, but they are in a good position at this point. The company is not Whole Foods and doesn’t pretend to be.

I think the company will do just fine.

Whole Foods’ loyal customers are more likely to fit in the “urban influencers” category and with Amazon’s acquisition, the company is slowly and steadily eliminating stigma of its “Whole Paycheck” reputation; and it’s doing so without reducing quality and appeal — although some supplier relationships may be tested. In effect Amazon is expanding the customer base for Whole Foods and that has to impact other supermarkets that offer more organic and healthy food choices. However, given the size of a Whole Foods and its range of assortment, I view it as less of a threat to Trader Joe’s and more of a threat to more traditional grocers increasing their share of organic and healthy product choices. Trader Joe’s is extremely efficient in the checkout process — and checkout is a real nuisance at any grocery store. Additionally, their heritage of high-quality and low-priced private label products remains unbeatable. Combined with their small footprint, Trader Joe’s is easy and fun to shop, with consistently low pricing, superb products and a stable work force. They are truly… Read more »

Not everything in this universe is determined by the dollar … for smart marketers it is no longer the “almighty.” We just simply LIKE going to Trader Joe’s. Even as Prime members, not once have we wondered if Whole Foods might save us a dollar here and there. Like many RetailWire colleagues have said, no worries here.

I need more data before I call a winner in this horse race. Since Sense360 only tracks smartphone data we only have a partial picture of the actual competitive performance of the stores and, at any rate, a 2 percent fluctuation isn’t enough to panic about. I also think that while Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods customers are similar, they aren’t identical and the brand value propositions of both retailers are different enough to keep the mix competitive. What would be interesting to see is a switch in buying patterns among consumers shopping both retailers, since I assume it is likely that they share a fairly high percentage of target customers. So if I were Trader Joe’s I wouldn’t panic quite yet, at least based on this quasi-survey. As to the last question, I don’t really understand it. For some shoppers Whole Foods is a destination and nothing is going to change that. For the balance convenience plays a greater or lesser role in store selection and so it depends who else is located in… Read more »

This is like a stare-down! I have read and agree with the comments posted. But I was taken aback by one sentence in the article: “Fifty-six percent of existing Prime members said the Whole Foods program increases the likelihood they will renew their Prime membership.” Fifty-six percent? That certainly says something about the relationship Whole Foods has in the mind of these customers. Hmmm. Marketers, take interest.

I find this research confusing and misleading.

First, Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s do not compete head-on. They serve different groups of consumers. Second, the research does not measure market share, it measures footfall or customer share; that’s a very different metric. Third, I see nothing to suggest that Whole Foods gains have come at the expense of Trader Joe’s.

The fact they’ve “expanded lockstep” doesn’t mean much. The expansion of warehouse stores like Costco and Sam’s have also correlated with Amazon’s growth (although their revenues have been larger than Amazon’s). But correlation is in no way causation.

The lockstep growth of these two is accidental — not connected. And I remain skeptical of this research, especially based on analysis of app data which is random in terms of whose phones have the apps and which phones are disabled from sharing that data.

Trader Joe’s is already clearly differentiated with a core shopper who loves their stores — Whole Foods is not going to replace them.

I’m just gonna say it. Just because they have the same market share does not make them competitors. Whole Foods is not the same animal as Trader Joe’s. And that’s my 2 cents.

I don’t think it’s limited to Trader Joe’s. Amazon is a threat to all grocers, and especially to Walmart, who does over 50 percent of its business in grocery. Whole Foods is giving Amazon tremendous insight that will be used later for the “center of the bell curve” grocery buyer, not just Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods, who are a much smaller slice of the market.

When has Amazon gone small on anything? IMO, there is a great grocery war on the horizon, just as there has been for the rest of retail for the past 20 years. Grocers should not be blind-sided the way retailers were; the track record and M.O. is right there in front of you.

I don’t see this as a problem for Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods. Neither will have to shut their doors if the other gains a point or two. Both will survive because they both have their loyal customer base. I am an Amazon Prime member yet I can’t tell you with any accuracy the last time I was in a Whole Foods location. Other than both being grocers, I never thought of them as direct competitors.

Amazon is a threat to everybody because they have cracked the code on simplicity in a complex world and then how to leverage to data exhaust. They have behavioral data for targeting that has now made them #3 in ad revenues. They have this amazing cloud business. Amazon is probably the biggest threat to Netflix.

They are most likely to transform a large portion of CPG to IoT ordering. The same people who shop Trader Joe’s are Amazon Prime customers too. Skate to where the puck is going to be.

Are we really talking about the same customer here? I have a group of Millennial family and friends who I rely on as an informal focus group. They are gainfully employed and live well, but I would not label them “high income consumers.” They do, however, have a fierce loyalty to Trader Joe’s, but rarely, if ever, visit Whole Foods despite being active Prime members. To them, Whole Foods exists in another price galaxy.

Our local Trader Joe’s is thriving and enjoys a diverse economic group of customers. There are plenty of grocery stores out there that sell some similar things but aren’t really strong competitors. I think both chains will survive.

Customers go to Trader Joe’s for unique items, a quirky vibe, and speedy checkout. I was in a Trader Joe’s earlier this week and there were loads of people in the store. If I were running Trader Joe’s I wouldn’t be worried about Amazon, at least not now.

The nuanced value propositions of competing grocers means that many families split their overall grocery basket among 3 or more grocery options. There are differences between Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods that are fundamental and therefore I would not overplay survey results to conclude that Whole Foods is winning against Trader Joe’s. The bigger win for Whole Foods will be when it begins to steal market share from customers who still do most of their shopping at regional favorites, Publix, Harris Teeter, Wegmans, etc. This probably is the higher goal for Amazon via its acquisition of the Whole Foods chain, but it is not happening yet. In my view, Whole Foods is at risk today by over-promoting the 10 percent discount for Prime members. Though the article states “Prime perks at Whole Foods include 10 percent discounts on all products” my experience is that discounts are offered only on selected and marked products. In a recent visit to test the value of this discount, I found very few items carrying the discount and was disappointed… Read more »

Amazon is a potential threat to anyone in retail. If anyone is near a Whole Foods, they should get ready to compete with Amazon. That said, there’s room for competition, especially if that competitor is offering a quality product, competitively priced and is easy to do business with. The moment Amazon moved into the grocery industry, the landscape of the grocery business changed. Retailers will adapt. Some will thrive. Some will struggle. Everyone needs to learn, adapt and move fast.

We worked with Sense360 on getting this study out and it showcased some pretty impressive numbers. Whole Foods market conversion increased from 4.8 percent of all grocery store visitors to nearly 6 percent when compared with the same period a year earlier (2.2 million visit sample size). Putting numbers like this on the board is a threat to all grocers. You can review the whole study here 🙂

With all the effort Amazon is putting behind Whole Foods, I expected them to have a greater impact on smaller grocers like Sprouts and Trader Joe’s. The study above mentions a lot of future planning rather than actual shopping trips which as we all know shoppers love to fall back into their old ways once the hype is gone.

Trader Joe’s needs to stay focused on who they are and keep building value around their services, and they should be in a good place in the months to come.

Trader Joe’s is probably not too concerned with Whole Foods, as they are focused on different customer segments. While Whole Foods is trying to appeal to Trader Joe’s customers, it is a tough sell. Trader Joe’s customer base is very loyal and fanatical about the brand. Offering a 10% discount on inflated base prices is not enough to get customers to switch brands.

It is also more than price. Trader Joe’s has cultivated a unique culture with its employees that makes their stores a fun place to shop where you feel your business is appreciated. This is something that isn’t easily replicated.