It’s happened to everyone. You’re in a Whole Foods, you’re going down the list of ingredients and you realize that you forgot to get a tattoo today. All of a sudden you are re-arranging your evening, trying hard to figure out how you are going to get that tattoo in before your spin class or golf game.
What, that’s never happened to you? Well I guess you must not be a millennial then, because if Whole Foods is right, this is a concern that is coming up often enough that it makes sense to put a tattoo parlor in the high-end organic grocery store.
Whole Foods Market Inc. Co-Chief Executive Officer Walter Robb says that in their quest to appeal to younger buyers the firm is thinking out of the box. Like way out of the box apparently.
Hence, the firm is advertising for suppliers and vendors to set up shop in its 365 stores through a program called “Friends of 365.” Among the alternative vendors Whole Foods is looking at are body-care product sellers, record shops and tattoo parlors.
According to Robb, it’s all about “reaching more communities than we would be able to with our mother ship.”
The announcement that someday soon one might be able to get inked while buying their kale products followed the firm’s midweek announcement that it has boosted its full-year earnings forecast. That lift is credited to improved cost structuring and lower prices. However, same-store sales were down 1.8 percent, as millennials are flocking to the cheaper organic alternatives on offer from Trader Joe’s, Sprout Farmers Market, and even Walmart and Costco.
“There’s a number of smaller-store competitors out there that are doing a nice job,” he said. “We don’t see any reason why we can’t go participate in that part of the market as well with our 365 by Whole Foods offer — it’s going to be unique.”
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