In case you didn't already know it, it's expensive living in the Big Apple. How else can you explain a Bloomberg Intelligence report, which found Whole Foods having lower prices than D'Agostino, Fresh Direct, Food Emporium and Gristedes.
According to the report, a basket of 97 items sold at Whole Foods cost $391.39 compared to $398.44 from the online grocery service Fresh Direct and $458.84 at Gristedes.
In recent years, Whole Foods has been making an effort to keep prices low to move beyond its Whole Paycheck image and drive traffic to its stores. The company recently launched a national ad campaign to promote "both our value and our values."
In the chain's third quarter earnings call, via Seeking Alpha, co-CEO Walter Robb said this was the tenth consecutive quarter where Whole Foods' costs increases were higher than its retail price increases. Mr. Robb said the company has seen some payback as a result of its "value efforts" in categories such as produce.
"If you come into the produce department and you look at a big category like apples, we want to make sure that there are always good price points for really good value apples and then mid-tier and then some of the higher-end like Honeycrisps," said Whole Foods' president A.C. Gallo. "We definitely make sure that the categories have a nice range of prices, but we also want to make sure that we are doing some very good regular promotions, ongoing promotions in each of these categories, which usually creates a lot of real excitement and the kind of prices that people remember."
