Pursuits

Wal-Mart Promises Organic Food for Everyone

Whole Foods and the rest of the natural foods industry, beware

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By Andrew Martin

November 6, 2014 at 5:47 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

This article is part of the November 10, 2014 issue of businessweek.

Buoyed by the improving economy and Americans’ belief that they can eat themselves healthy, sales of organic food are booming again. The growth in sales of organic products in the U.S., food and nonfood, had slowed to 4.6 percent in 2009 but has since rebounded. Sales rose 11.5 percent in 2013, to $35 billion, according to the Organic Trade Association.

Once sold primarily in musty natural foods shops, organics went wide after Whole Foods Market took over the high end of the market, earning the nickname “Whole Paycheck” in the process. In recent years the mainstream has discovered more natural foods, and big chains, including Kroger and Safeway have piled in. Sales of organic products at Costco have doubled in two years to about $3 billion a year.