Shopping at Central Market and Whole Foods Market

We are fortunate in Texas to have two grocery stores that have transcended the commodity trap. Instead of competing on lowest possible prices, Central Market and Whole Foods Market compete on highest possible experiences. Both have strong points of view that grocery shopping shouldn’t be a chore but rather, a place to explore.

Central Market is owned and operated by the privately-held and San Antonio-based H.E.B Grocery Company. H.E.B. operates over 300 conventional grocery stores in Texas and Mexico under the H.E.B. brand. Currently, their Central Market concept has eight locations. The Central Market concept differs in that it appeals to the educated and well-paid customer who is attracted to indulgent shopping adventures. Their merchandise assortment runs from upscale gourmet to downscale ordinary. Meaning, you can expect to find familiar products/brands as well as an array of hard-to-find gourmet goodies at Central Market.

When people talk about Central Market, they’ll usually rave about its broad selection and its attractive in-store merchandising. They’ll also rant about Central Market’s forced-flow layout (think IKEA) and its somewhat elitist attitude towards gourmet food.

I’ve written a lot about Whole Foods on this blog partly because of my first-hand experience gained from being their Director of National Marketing in 2003 and 2004. Whole Foods has received lots of media attention for being a prototypical experience economy grocery store that has 180+ location in the US, Canada, and the UK. They are well-known for helping to popularize the organic/natural food movement. And they are well-known for higher prices. But Whole Foods customers believe its prices are appropriate because the food they sell is not only gourmet theater, but also healthy.

I bring all this up because both Central Market and Whole Foods recently opened new locations in the Dallas-area. While in Dallas for the Christmas holiday, I made sure to visit the new Central Market location in Southlake, TX and the new Whole Foods in North Dallas (Forest & Preston).

Being well-versed with the two grocers, I found little new or exciting with these recently opened locations. (Sure, the new Whole Foods has an upstairs Spa which to many is exciting. To this marketer, such a gambit in unfocused opulence concerns me. I’m concerned because Whole Foods is drifting far from its comfortable home of natural/organic food by operating a day Spa.)

While I found little new or exciting at these new stores … you might. So, I took along my Canon PowerShot SD500 camera and captured video of my cart strolling the aisles at the new Central Market and the new Whole Foods. If you’ve never shopped at one of these grocery stores, your eyes will quickly realize that these companies have transcended the commodity trap which entraps most grocers.

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Strolling through CENTRAL MARKET ...

RSS readers … click here to view the Central Market video

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Strolling through WHOLE FOODS MARKET ...

RSS readers … click here to view the Whole Foods video

Comments

[Headphones James]

Hi John,

I thought you might like to know that we have a store here in Sydney Australia (and there are others) who are doing great things for retailing organic whole foods. They are called MACROWHOLEFOODS. An interesting history, started by Pierce Cody and Brett Blundy...Pierce is often quoted as saying he wanted to do things differently, from the lighting to the flooring to the way the stores are set out. It works (I'm not employed by them by the way :-))
http://www.macrowholefoods.com.au/home.html
Love your blog.
Ella

[Jaya Schillinger]

Curious: did you get a chance to go into the WF spa yet? I'd love to hear some stories about what it's like to actually receive a treatment. Of course the spa business is very much an experiencial one, something we teach in spa management seminars. Still, not every spa knows how to do that well. I'd be most interested to hear what you think.

Love the shopping cart cam!

[Cam Beck]

This is a very nice overview of both stores. Thanks for recording it and pointing it out to me. I wonder how the stores relate to each other in terms of the findability of the products or categories of products. Any idea?

[johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy)]

Cam ... thanks for dropping by. I briefly touched upon the merchandise assortment differences between CM & WFM. There is very little difference in departments like produce and meat/seafood/poulty. Both stores sell organic and conventional produce. And, both stores sell organic/natural/wild meat, seafood, and poulty. Personal care product mixes are also similar at both CM & WFM.

Where you'll find the most differences are in packaged goods. CM will sell mass produced products like French's Mustard, Tree Top Apple Juice, Uncle Ben's Rice, Coca-Cola, etc. WFM is very choosey in the packaged goods it sells. Choosy in that the ingredient must pass its standard qualites of being either 100% natural or organic. Many times the mass produced staple goods contain ingredients that do not pass WFM's quality checks.

[Lisa (Homesick Texan)]

How did you make these without getting busted? Did you get permission or did you hide your camera? (I've been kicked out of Central Market in Houston twice for taking pictures!)

[Amanda the Central Market Junkie]

I'm glad someone was able to get a video, because it's easier than trying to describe the place to my family and friends back in Ohio. Loved the music!

Southlake's looks a good bit different than Houston's in some parts, but like Lisa said above, it's probably almost impossible to get a video in that one. The camera in my phone certainly doesn't do it justice.