My field trip to the Walnut Creek Whole Foods

Business Sense
Eureka Times Standard

Printed:10/22/2006

By Gregg Foster

Last August I took a trip to Walnut Creek to meet my new niece. I generally avoid the area during the summer, being more accustomed to the pleasant summer time temperatures of Ferndale. My family and I tend to melt into a semi-stupor when the temperature reaches beyond 90 degrees or so.

During our visit, I had occasion to visit the Walnut Creek Whole Foods Market. For those who might not be aware of this store, Whole Foods Markets was started in 1980 with a single location in Austin, Texas. Focusing on natural foods, the company has expanded throughout the country and the United Kingdom. Now publicly traded on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange, it boasts 187 locations and over 39,000 employees. The chain focuses on selling the “highest quality natural and organic products available” according to its website.

I had not visited one of these stores before, but was interested in seeing one because the increasing interest in natural and organic foods has had a positive impact on a number of our local businesses. The first thing I noticed as I drove into the parking lot was that it was jam packed. I carefully maneuvered and parked my dirty four-wheel drive Dodge pickup amongst a small sea of shiny foreign made SUVs and hybrids.

The store itself was half grocery store, half “market experience.” Displays were carefully arranged to give the impression of browsing through an old-time grocery or farm stand, complete with appropriately aged fruit and vegetable crates, chalkboard signs, and wooden shelves full of bread in wax paper bags and other products. The store was packed with shoppers, trying to negotiate narrow aisles of very attractively packaged and displayed items. Many of the featured produce items noted the family farms that grew them, many from the central coast and the Sacramento Valley. As I filled my basket, I noted the pricing of the items I selected. Clearly, those that shop here regularly are making a conscious decision to pay more for the benefit of natural/organic foods, to support area farmers, and/or to enjoy the experience of shopping in a relatively entertaining marketplace, a pretend farmstand in the middle of the East Bay suburbs.

So why should we care about that here on the North Coast?

First, we are witnessing the growth in consumer preference for natural and organic products here on the North Coast. Both the North Coast Cooperative and Eureka Natural Foods have made significant investments in new stores to meet this demand. Even the Safeway in Fortuna has undergone a significant internal remodel that simulates the atmosphere of a natural foods store.

Second, many local businesses are benefiting from the expansion of companies like Whole Foods Markets. Whether it's organic ice cream, craft beer, specialty cheese, or organic chocolates, our locally-made high-quality food products are in increasing demand and I saw many of our local products on the shelves in Walnut Creek. Calling his product an “affordable luxury,” Loleta Cheese owner Bob Laffranchi notes that he is as much an entertainer as a food producer. People don't buy these products because they are just hungry or thirsty. They want more than to meet their needs and they are willing to pay a premium to satisfy their desires.

Finally, as I noted above, the Whole Foods Market store seemed to me to be as much a shopping “experience” as the purchase of supplies. It appeared to me that those that shopped there were looking to connect to a more simple lifestyle, which was largely absent from the clogged freeway, long lines experience of Bay Area. Of course, this presents an opportunity for us to promote our region as a place to visit to get the real experience. Bob Laffranchi reports that tourist traffic at the Loleta Cheese Company was up this year, even with the spike in gas prices. Check out the websites of our largest regional food producers and note that they promote the area as well as their products.

I returned to my brother's house with my two modestly packed bags of groceries, which cost me about $80, glad for the fact that I would soon be returning home to the source of many of the products I had just purchased.

Gregg Foster is the executive director of the Redwood Region Economic Development Commission and a board member for the Redwood Technology Consortium.