So are you a "devoted" or a "reluctant" when it comes to buying organic food products? That’s the question both traditional and organic grocers are asking, particularly as the economy slows down a bit, according to a story in the DMN a few days ago.
A "natural marketing" company came up with monikers for households in terms of their likelihood of buying organic products. The categories are "devoteds" (18 percent), "temperates" (22 percent), "dabblers" (41 percent) and "reluctants (19 percent). The categories are pretty self-explanatory, but according to the institute, the number of "devoteds" has nearly doubled during the past three years, while the number of "reluctants" has dropped by more than two-thirds.
Perhaps not surprisingly, even as Whole Foods and Sprouts seem to be turning up everywhere, the traditional grocers are also boosting the number and types of organic products they’re carrying. Still, for all of the publicity associated with organics, they still make up only about 2-3 percent of U.S. grocery purchases.
And, for those wondering about progress on remodeling the Minyard’s building into the new Lakewood Whole Foods, we left a message the other day with Scott Simon, WF’s marketing guy in Austin, but haven’t heard anything back yet.
