Sustainably sourced fish, local and heirloom foods, single origin products and a development on from Fairtrade.
Those are some of the key food and drink trends that Whole Foods Market is helping to establish in the US market.
Julie McGough, marketing supervisor at Whole Foods’ Scottsdale store in Arizona, told Global Convenience Store Focus: “Whole Foods is the nation’s largest organic and natural food retailer but we have gone beyond organic. There are now so many more buzz words and things that are becoming important.”
McGough, who is responsible for in store signage, donation requests, pr, tours and special events at the store, said sustainably sourced fish was gaining momentum.
Whole Foods has worked with the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) to reintroduce sea bass into store. The retailer had stopped selling it seven years ago.
McGough picks up the tale: “A couple of years ago we were able, through the MSC, to find a sustainable source. We brought it back and marketed the heck out of it and were able to give it to our customers.”
It was not an easy ride, however.
“Our customers are savvy,” said McGough. “They know what’s going on and they shop at Whole Foods Market because they are confident they can shop here. When we started demonstrating sea bass again, we got some very odd looks and some people were disgusted. But we are able to show them that it was MSC sea bass and that we were very confident that it was sustainably fished.”
Local is another key trend. According to McGough, stores are now empowered to take on new local products. “Barriers are taken away so that at store level we can bring those new products in and make them available,” she said.
One recent introduction in Scottsdale is the tepary bean, a dried bean, which is sold in the store’s bulk department. The bean not only ticks the local box but the heirloom trend too – another driver.
Other key local lines include ice cream and butter from local dairies and salsa, which is “big out here in the south west”, according to McGough.
Heirloom refers to products that have not been modified in any way or bred to have certain characteristics.
McGough said Whole Foods placed great emphasis on the future of food including diversification of seed types and it was a feature of all staff training.
“It’s important to have different types of products. That’s how we remain competitive,” she said. “We favour local products, small companies and things that are not found at a conventional stores.”
Other trends Whole Foods has pinpointed include single origin coffee and chocolate and Whole Trade – a step up from Fairtrade.
McGough again: “We are making sure that where we are sourcing product from they are getting fair wages but also that it’s grown or produced in a sustainable way.”