Wall Street Sours

“Wall Street Sours on Whole Foods Market” In tandem with the rising waistlines of America, there is a rising consciousness in citizens to shop better, which may include natural and organic foods; however, recently Whole Foods is not the flavor that's in favor. Whole Foods is a company that specialized in selling natural and organic foods which were considered specialized foods. However, the profits of Whole Foods have decreased and the company performed lower than expected despite the popularity of natural and organic foods. Thus, the puzzling behaviour is despite the increasing sales of natural and organic products, why is the popularity of Whole Foods decreasing? This behaviour can potentially be explained with the microscopic concepts in economic including the availability of close substitutes, law of demand and a shift in the demand curve, market elasticity and a free-entry-free exit market. Previously, Whole Foods had a large number of consumers purchasing natural and organic foods in their stores. However, recently other retailers such as Walmart and Costco have begun stocking organic brands and products that are similar to those found in Whole Foods. With the presence of these substitutes, consumers are less willing to buy the goods at Whole Foods due to the high price and instead buy the close substitutes at a …show more content…
The market use to not be as elastic as there were not many other options for consumers. However, with increased competition in the market has become increasingly elastic and the high prices of Whole Foods has resulted in a decrease in the quantity demanded. This can be seen in the graph depicting the share of Whole Food which drops drastically. This supports that consumers no longer want to purchase the goods at high prices and the market for organic and natural foods has become more elastic. The increasing elasticity of the market can also be attributed to the free-exit-free-entry