Forefront Communications

Barron’s: These Whole Foods Numbers Should Worry Wal-Mart, Trader Joe’s

Forefront Communications

Forefront Communications

Amazon shook up the grocery industry when it bought Whole Foods and slashed prices in the very first week starting Aug. 28. New data shows that customers were attracted by the cheaper offerings, and flocked to Whole Foods locations across the country. In just the first week that the stores cut prices, traffic jumped by 17% on a year-over-year basis, according to Thasos Group.

Thasos, a high-tech research firm, tracks real-time location information from hundreds of millions of mobile phones to gather data on peoples’ habits. The company, whose data is used by hedge funds and other professional investors, says the location information is anonymous and submitted by apps on people’s phones.

The stats may make other grocery stores break out in a cold sweat. Wal-Mart, which controls the largest share of grocery store traffic in the U.S., accounted for 24% of the new Whole Foods customers, more than any other grocery chain.

Read the full article here.

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