米国ホールフーズの株価が急落している。先週は約5％ダウン。最高値の半値になっている。同社の顧客を対象にした調査で、「ホールフーズの商品が高い価格に釣り合わない」などの意見が多数を占めた。コストコやクローガー、トレーダージョーズのオーガニックは順調に伸びている。
もともと「劇場型のオーガニックSM」を演出してきた創業経営者、マッキー氏の評判はあまりよろしくない。そこに、昨年は商品の量目を偽って販売していたことが露見したり、従業員の待遇がブラックであることが問題にされた。裁判で訴えらえれたことで、高価格でオーガニックを消費者に売りつけてきたと非難され始めたのである。
競合が消費者からの支持を集めるようになったことも、競争力の低下につながっている。低価格業態の開発を宣言したり、逆転を図っているが、そもそも高い価格で収益性が高かったスーパー事業である。いったん値引きに走ると、あっという間に消費者離れをが加速する。
労働問題とビジネスの不正は、どこかで日本の「ワタミ」が転落していった負の軌跡をほうふつとさせる。経営者の慢心も、なんとなくよく似ている。成功に酔いしれている間に、ワタミから顧客が離れていった。創業以来、経営トップを支えてきた忠誠心が高い従業員も、ホールフーズから離脱していく可能性が考えられる。
いったん落ち始めると、ブランドが確立した企業でもあっという間である。「まさか、あのホールフーズが！」 でも、ありうる話ではある。
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”Whole Foods shoppers say its food not worth the price”
January 26
NEW YORK
Whole Foods still has a whole lotta problems.
Shares of Whole Foods (WFM) sank 5% Monday after an analyst downgraded the organic grocer to an “underperform” — a Wall Street euphemism for ‘sell.” The stock rebounded slightly Tuesday but is down nearly 15% this year and not far from its 52-week low.
Kelly Bania of BMO Capital Markets slashed her rating and price target for Whole Foods after conducting a survey of more than 1,000 Whole Foods customers. Her findings do not bode well for the company.
More than 70% of the respondents told Bania that they had not noticed any changes in prices in Whole Foods over the past three months — even though the company has touted its efforts to lower prices to be more competitive with supermarkets.
In other words, the perception of Whole Foods being a place where you spend your Whole Paycheck remains.
Related: Is Whole Foods on the shopping block?
And in an even more troubling development, only 24% of customers said organic products at Whole Foods were “definitely” higher quality than organic food at grocery stores.
Fifty-four percent of those surveyed said the quality of the food was “sometimes” better at Whole Foods while the remaining 22% said “not at all.”
That’s bad news for Whole Foods. If Whole Foods own customers don’t think the products are worth the price, then how much longer will they remain loyal shoppers?
“This poses an uphill battle for Whole Foods, as we believe mainstream consumers find it difficult to differentiate the quality of organics,” Bania wrote in her report.
Whole Foods was not immediately available for comment about the findings in Bania’s report.
Related: Kroger is eating Whole Foods’ overpriced lunch
But Wall Street is very, very worried. Whole Foods stock is now selling for Half Price. It has lost about 50% of its market value since the end of 2013.
The stock dipped in 2014 as sales growth started to slow due to tough competition from organic rival Trader Joe’s as well as supermarket chains Kroger (KR), Costco (COST) and Walmart (WMT).
And last year was even worse.
Whole Foods was accused by New York City in the summer of overcharging by wrongly pricing previously weighed goods. That hurt the company’s reputation … and financial performance. Same-store sales fell in its fiscal fourth quarter, which ended in September.
Related: Whole Foods denies its shrimp is prepared by slave labor
It doesn’t appear that shoppers have forgiven Whole Foods just yet either.
Even though Whole Foods apologized for the errors and agreed in December to pay $500,000 to New York City to settle the overcharging probe, analysts are predicting that same-store sales fell 2.2% in its first quarter, which ended in mid-January.
Whole Foods reports its first quarter results on February 10.
The company’s defiant stance may be rubbing consumers the wrong way too. Whole Foods co-CEO John Mackey told investors last July that he felt the company was being unfairly singled out by regulators and the media.
Related: Angry Whole Foods pays $500K to settle NYC pricing probe
Whole Foods was targeted in a similar pricing probe in California in 2014 and agreed to pay $800,000 to the cities of Los Angeles, Santa Monica and San Diego.
“We do feel like we’re victims,” Mackey said.
And when Whole Foods settled with New York City in December, the company said in a statement that it was mainly doing so to “put the issue behind us.”
Howard Penney, a managing director who follows consumer stocks for Hedgeye Risk Management, said Whole Foods has lost the trust of consumers. It may take a while to work through that — especially when rivals offer organic food for a lot less.
By Paul R. La Monica January 26, 2016 15:55PM EST
