Whole Foods buys Wild Oats

by Nicole Weston, Posted Feb 22nd 2007 @ 1:35PM

Whole Foods had been expanding breath-takingly fast over the past several years, with new locations - many of which are huge or feature unusual amenities - popping up all over the place. Being everywhere is one way to beat out the competition (think Starbucks), but another way is to buy them up. Whole Foods has just announced that they will be buying Wild Oats Markets, one of their top competitors, for $565 million, with the deal expected to to close over the next few weeks.

Colorado-based Wild Oats has 110 stores in 24 states and British Columbia and has not been doing as well as its rival. Whole Foods has twice the sales per square foot of retail space, though Wild Oats has smaller stores, and recently lost both their chief executive and chief financial officers.

Some stores will be closed and others will be relocated to fit in with existing Whole Foods stores, but Whole Foods feels that they can improve the Wild Oats stores on the whole and "put jet propulsion under [them]" to bring their sales up to Whole Foods levels. Whole Foods CEO John Mackey estimates that it could take two ears to fully integrate the Wild Oats stores

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Filed Under: Business, Stores & Shopping
Tags: america, business, buys, expansion, store, stores-and-shopping, supermarket, us, Whole Foods, Whole Foods buys Wild Oats, WholeFoods, WholeFoodsBuysWildOats, Wild Oats

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

2-22-2007 @5:56PM Sarah said... Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! What will happen to my beloved Wild Oats now? :(
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2-22-2007 @7:01PM Derek said... I know of a Wild Oats that was just built inside of a new outdoor lifestyle center in Portland, and a few months after the center opened, Whole Foods started construction on a store right across the street from the center, practically a stones throw from the Wild Oats. I wonder what will happen to the Wild Oats store now. It would be pointless to have two Whole Foods across the street from one another.
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2-23-2007 @12:05AM mikepernecky said... I need a Trader Joe's down here in Tampa, FL. Need some 2-buck-chuck and tuna steaks.
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2-24-2007 @1:50AM doctor said... I forsee a bunch of the NW Wild Oats closing shop.

@Derek: I heard that Whole Foods had wanted in to that space you mentioned but couldn't get it in time, thus opening the one across the street. I'm sure that Oats will close - it was suffering anyway.
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3-01-2007 @3:52PM Kristy said... Why did Wild Oats fail? Wild Oats stores are inferior to Whole Foods and they are not invested in the communities where they are located. Wild Oats has been plagued with poor management and the inability to understand their customer's needs. Hopefully Whole Foods will improve store service and product selection. Plus Wild Oats was not a good corporate employer. Whole Foods has been named one of the best company's to work for, a title which Wild Oats tried to get but never achieved due to poor scores from employees. I predict closure of at least 2 or 3 of the Portland area stores. Good buy Wild Oats I'm happy to see you go!
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3-14-2007 @2:09PM Camelia Mazard said... Does anyone know whether Wild Oats/Whole Foods received early termination or did the waiting period expire?
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