I don’t care how many headlines there are that speculate otherwise: McDonald’s will never be Starbucks, Taco Bell will never be Chipotle, and stores like Safeway and Wal-Mart will never be Whole Foods.
Those other concepts can try to copy, but they lack the focus, commitment, and authenticity to pull it off. Consumers may not be able to quite put it into words, but as a group they can spot a fake.
McDonald’s is the best-run large-scale fast food company I’ve seen. I marvel at its efficiency and relative consistency around the world. But that distinctive McDonald’s smell and the statues of Ronald McDonald just don’t evoke the same upscale, relaxing coffee shop feel a Starbucks does. McDonald’s will never be that “third place” for most of Starbucks’ targeted audience.
While Taco Bell is associated with post-midnight “fourth meal” runs by frat brothers and jokes about the quality of its meat, Chipotle has a clean, higher-end feel and is all-in on “food with integrity.” Taco Bell’s Cantina Bell menu loses a lot of allure to typical Chipotle devotees when you can get gorditas, chalupas, and Doritos Locos Tacos at the same drive-through window.
It’s the same way with Whole Foods. Traditional grocers and one-stop shops are adding organic food sections and offerings, but Whole Foods is all-in on organic. The company and its employees actually seem to care about organics — rather than simply caring about losing market share to organics. The store experience (which we’ll get more into soon) is vastly different at a Whole Foods versus a regular grocer, a Target, and certainly a Wal-Mart.
As for the clones that are popping up, even if they are adept at copying Whole Foods’ playbook (very hard to do … no one’s yet successfully stolen Starbucks’ or Chipotle’s), they’re playing well behind a first mover. If you combined the annual sales of Sprouts, The Fresh Market, and Natural Grocers, they’d equal about a third of Whole Foods’ $13.6 billion in sales.
Published by connie dello buono
Connie Dello Buono is based in Sunnyvale California. Her first ebook is about women's health, Birthing Ways Healing Ways and her recent one is about cancer prevention, Curated Healing Ways. She had helped women have holistic childbirth as childbirth educator, founded Motherhealth, to serve seniors in the bay area with holistic caregivers and blogs at www.clubalthea.com with more than 10,000 health and finance related posts.
Connie trains her own caregivers, which are the favorites of most bay area seniors who are home bound and alone.
She is active in the rehab and nursing facilities, volunteering on music and movement for seniors.
She is a member of Lion's club and offered scholarships to students in the Philippines.
She is active at churchinsunnyvale.us and has Fridays Bible home study in Sunnyvale using the recovery version of the Bible , free at biblesforamerica.us
She loves dancing and teaching and her courses can be found at
https://teachclub.com/@thriveafter60
She is California Life Insurance licensed providing life insurance for older adults with health issues and helping women retire safely with income for life.
at menloassetca.com , she helps with 401k rollover.
3 Benefit plans
- Mortgage protection using term life insurance to pay for mortgage balance in event of death
- Final Expense plan using Single Issue Whole Life Insurance, with cash back, disability benefit and guaranteed in the presence of health issues
- Fixed Index Annuity retirement plan for safe, accessibility, less fees, less taxes, avoids probate as it goes directly to beneficiaries, rate of return with no downside market participation.
She brings compassion and understanding to the needs of her clients, bringing holistic approach in health and life insurance. Her goal is to free families from worries especially during covid with caregivers and life insurance in the presence of health issues, especially for women.
She can be reached at 408-854-1883 , motherhealth@gmail.com
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