Cheap Organics at The World's Largest Retailer: Walmart's New Big Healthy Move
Published on: April 10, 2014
The world's largest retailer has new lofty ambitions: to be the world's most accessible source of cheap organic foods.
The company announced today that they are introducing a new line of organic foods to be sold at an average of 25 percent less than organic competitors in an effort to remove the price barrier many shoppers claim is their main beef with organic foods.
The big-box retailer is reviving the Wild Oats brand name from a natural foods retailer launched in 1987 but acquired by competitor Whole Foods in 2007. As part of its plan to make organic food cheaper, Walmart announced that it will sell Wild Oats-branded organic products "without the price premium associated with such products," according to a company blog post. Starting this month, the brand will feature 100 products, including organic salsas, canned beans, and broths, sold at roughly 30 to 40 percent less than organic competitors.
"This isn’t about telling our customers what to eat, nor is it an endorsement of certain foods. It’s about leveraging our scale to provide access to the choices that currently elude too many families in our country," Sinclair's blog post said. He added that internal research suggests that over 90 percent of Walmart shoppers have expressed interest in organic products, but that many have said that the prices are too high.
The fact that Walmart is pushing organics, and selling them far cheaper than most people can find them in other places, is good news, Heather White, executive director of the nonprofit Environmental Working Group, said in a statement. “While more Americans are seeking out organic food options in stores, most of our farmland is dedicated to conventional agriculture,” said White, adding that Walmart's sheer size will reduce the pesticides and genetically modified crops that plague American agriculture. "This decision by Walmart could be the biggest driver yet in realizing a future where organic food is not only less expensive, but more available."
Like other stores that have introduced their own organic in-house brands, Walmart's Wild Oats products won't all be organic, with some of them branded "Wild Oats Organic," others as "Wild Oats Originals" and still others as "Wild Oats Marketplace." Only the Wild Oats Organic products will be USDA-certified organic, and based on what's presented on the Wild Oats website, the other two categories are following the same path as other so-called natural brands—starting with the word "natural" on many products. The brand's eggs are not organic but are labeled "cage-free" and "produced without antibiotics", two claims of dubious credibility. So, although the move is a step in the right direction, the products have the potential to confuse well-meaning shoppers who don't notice the distinction between certified-organic and "natural" versions of the products.
Neverthless, the move towards more organics is never a bad thing. Wild Oats products will start appearing in stores this month and a wider selection will roll out through summer 2014.