I vary going to Wholefoods and King Soopers and Safeway. I only go to Wholefoods once or twice a month to get a few essentials that I can't get in a regular grocery store. And without a doubt older women will find me and ask me about the items in my cart and where certain products are located in the store. People talk to other people in health food stores. When I tell them about my roasted red peppers or point them to the sundried tomatoes we end up chatting. Today I gave a lady my recipe for split pea soup.
No one has ever just come up to me in a normal grocery store like that. So I'm thinking maybe Brian's on to something. Or maybe, I look like a health food store employee?
Well it's good marketing. The people you will find in Wholefoods are going to have a different mindset about food than say someone who shops at E.W. James, Save-a-Lot, or whatever other cheap alternative. Not saying that people who shop at those stores don't care about the food they are eating but they are not going to be as health conscience as those who would shop elsewhere. As you said the people there are different so their mindset about food is different. They are interested in food and they value it more so than a Wal-Mart shopper who is just looking for something quick and easy (and if it's healthy, it's just a perk and not a necessity)
ReplyDeleteI'm profiling people which is not necessarily a good thing, but we talk a lot about these issues in my marketing classes. I find it fun to analyze things like this. I could go on and on about other stuff such as packaging and the new trends in organic marketing (because it's currently trendy by society's standards today) but I'll spare you all that! Ha!
I always seem to have lots of grocery store encounters with friendly shoppers whom I don't know.
ReplyDeleteI don't really frequent health food stores (I do think we eat healthily, though!), but I agree that the employees especially seem to be more helpful and friendly in certain stores. Like, NOBODY working at WalMart is EVER in a good mood.
The only things I buy at the Health Food Store are steel cut oats, certain kinds of rice, quinoa, and other such grains. It's actually cheaper to buy them from the bins there at a per pound price than to get the same products at a regular grocery store. I agree with Emily that you can eat very healthy and step foot in one of those stores.
ReplyDeleteI'm currently unemployed so I have the time to go to multiple stores to get better prices on select items.
And I agree with David, the marketing is a lot of the draw. If I wanted to think of myself as more "green" or a hippie I would shop there more ;)
*never step foot, I mean.
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