Whole Foods and Wild Oats - deal off?

[Robin Garr]

Deal closed:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070828/bs_ ... foods_dc_1

So now the question is ... whither Louisville's Wild Oats? It seems extremely unlikely to me that Whole Foods will continue to operate separate stores so close.

Deal closed:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070828/bs_ ... foods_dc_1

So now the question is ... whither Louisville's Wild Oats? It seems extremely unlikely to me that Whole Foods will continue to operate separate stores so close.

If anyone wants to bet that Wild Oats stays open I'll take the other side ...

[Robin Garr]

If anyone wants to bet that Wild Oats stays open I'll take the other side ...

Perzackly. Also, although I don't have robust testimony on this, when Whole Foods opened here within a few blocks of Wild Oats, the conventional wisdom at the time was that WF had made similar moves in many markets, deliberately placing new stores as close to the competition if possible. I don't know if this is true, although creative Googling might dig up some details. If it is so, then it suggests that a fair percentage of older WO properties might be up for closing.

[Robin Garr]

a fair percentage of older WO properties might be up for closing.

Taking a stab at my own question, a little Web-searching reveals that the transaction involves 109 Wild Oats locations in 23 states ... "Whole Foods already announced plans to sell off 35 of those Wild Oats stores in California and Texas that operate under the Henry's and Sun Harvest names."

That would leave 74. Then, in a flurry of publicity surrounding the accidental release by FTC of Whole Foods reports that weren't properly "redacted," allowing purportedly business-confidential information to leak out, Whole Foods tentatively plans to close about 30 more former Wild Oats outlets. That would leave just 44 Wild Oats around the country to be re-branded as Whole Foods, and it really seems unlikely that Louisville's would be among them. Especially since WF has also explicitly stated that a primary purpose behind rebranding old WOs would be to extend the chain into new markets.

Excellent analysis, sir! I think you are exactly right. I would only add that for the stores that will remain open (most likely in communities without WF competition), I would imagine they will enlarge those stores substantially over time or relocate completely to larger space. The newer WF locations are consistently very large with an increasing emphasis on prepared foods.

that is what the employees of the Wild Oats here were told as to when their store would close.